Funny how 500mW seems high power after recent 50mW and 10mW tests!! On 10m WSPR TX with 500mW again today. No spots yet.
UPDATE 1818z: 13 stations have spotted me today.
Simple QRP projects, 10m, 8m, 6m, 4m, FT8, 160m, WSPR, LF/MF, sub-9kHz, nanowaves and other random stuff, some not related to amateur radio.
Funny how 500mW seems high power after recent 50mW and 10mW tests!! On 10m WSPR TX with 500mW again today. No spots yet.
UPDATE 1818z: 13 stations have spotted me today.
There is little doubt that the UK is in a mess. Inflation is much higher than target, jobs remain unfilled and energy costs are high. The gap between rich and poor is now greater.
In my view, we are heading for a general strike. This would be the first since 1926. I have no idea what the outcome would be.
There is little doubt that most will be poorer. Compared with some countries, we are a wealthy nation even now.
The answers remain unknown. Clearly, we do not want to stoke inflation, yet people need to be able to buy food and heat their homes. The gap between rich and poor needs to be narrowed.
My own view?
At the moment, I am on 10m WSPR TX with 50mW. Indications from the Canary Isles are that I could be at least 10dB weaker (5mW) and still be copied.
Sadly WSPRnet still shows my power at 500mW as I have no way of changing this with my W5OLF beacon. I am actually using this with a 10dB pad right on the output.
UPDATE 1727z: 50mW? No problem! 3 unique stations have spotted me including VE3EBR (5368km).
My local tests to see if 10mW ERP 8m beacons could be useful have concluded. The results are on my 8m web page.
The conclusion is that 10mW ERP really is useful.
My own reading indicates that anyone in the UK may without a licence operate 40.66-40.70 at 10mW ERP as long as they meet the technical requirements and IR 2030.
Now, I am no legal expert, so you have to make sure of your legality.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/8m-band.
On Mondays, I have been attending lectures in Cambridge on cosmology. This is part of my University of the Third Age course. It is very hard, quite the hardest course I have ever attended
Now, one thing is clear. We really know so very little. Yes, the theories hang together pretty well, but there is so much we do not understand. Take, for example, dark matter. Apparently this has to exist for the universe we know to exist. Sadly, we haven't a clue what dark matter is!
Also, time. We experience this as linear flowing from the past into the future. Some think time itself is an illusion created by man. Some think there are an infinite number of universes.
All we can be sure about is that whatever we believe today will be wrong or, at best, incomplete.
Despite all that I have learnt, I am left with a feeling that some time in the next 100 years a new theory will emerge that we will find hard to fathom at first, yet will soon help to comprehend some of what we do not understand.
It is hard to think about what we don't know about. Early in the last century, the Internet was impossible to conceive. What will the next 100 years bring?
Again, I am on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW QRP from the W5OLF beacon. So far, just the usual spots from the Canary Is.
UPDATE 1223z: Still just spots of my QRP from the Canary Isles. 66 spots of me so far today.
16 stations have spotted me at1116z.