14 Apr 2022
13 Apr 2022
70cm activity contest (UKAC)
Last evening I took part in the 70cm activity contest with 10W and my 2m big-wheel omni. I did not stop on long as my voice was poor.
In all, I made 3 contacts with the best G4CLA (105km). These UKAC sessions are good fun.
See https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/contest_rules.pl?contest=70cmsukac .
Philosophy - NOT amateur radio
Every now and again, I get thinking about the deeper things in life. Human consciousness really confuses me.
We think of time flowing ever forwards. We are a mere dot in history. We are a on a small planet in the universe. Some estimates are that there are 1 trillion planets! At the moment there are almost 8 billion people alive on our planet. I do not know how many humans have ever existed.
And yet we are self aware.
Religiously, I am agnostic not knowing what I believe. We may have our whole view of the universe turned on its head in the next 100 years.
And, of course, this is just what I experience. For you, it might be completely different!
Life, consciousness, the universe and us are real puzzles!
See https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/planets-universe/.
Bellringing - NOT amateur radio
One of our grandsons is mad on bellringing. The very short video shows him ringing at Fulbourn, near Cambridge, recently.
10m WSPR QRP TX (Wednesday)
Again, I am on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW from the W5OLF TX WSPR beacon. Yesterday I was spotted by 7 stations including 2 in the USA.
UPDATE 1342z: 5 stations have spotted me today on 10m WSPR.
The table shows the stations spotting me on 10m WSPR on Tuesday.
8m tests (Wednesday)
After a period on TX (2 local spots) , I am now on 8m FT8 RX only on 40.680 MHz USB dial.
UPDATE 1345z: A brief FT8 TX period just now resulted in 2 local spots. Now RX only on 40,680 MHz USB dial FT8. No spots.
Decision made!
After thinking hard, I have decided to make a G3XBM PDF projects scrapbook that will be free to download from my website.
As I make changes to the book these can simply be made. As I make no money I cannot imagine any copyright issues, which could be a problem with a printed version that is charged for. Some of my designs have appeared in magazines across the world in many languages.
My aim has always been to collect my ideas for other people and never for commercial gain.
The scrapbook will be linked from my main website.
I hope to complete the book by the end of May.