Some amazing numbers - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday was the last lecture on cosmology as part of my U3A sessions in Cambridge. We heard some truly staggering numbers which I shall share here.

• There are at least 100000000000 (100 billion) galaxies in the observable universe.
• Each galaxy contains at least 100s of billions of stars.
• The universe is mostly empty space.
• 5% of the universe is atomic matter. The rest is mostly dark matter or dark energy. We do not know what these are.
• Many stars have planetary systems.
• The universe is at least 41 billion light years across.

It was an interesting series of lectures, but my "take away" thought is just how little we really know.  Many of the theories fit, but many are incomplete.  Some theories involve multiple universes.  We really know nothing. Humans are a speck.

Back in the 1960s there was a series of books by Eric von Daniken. His basic theory (I seem to recall) was religious events were the result of visits from other worlds of beings different from us. Events at those times long ago were interpreted as supernatural. Remember, we still believed in witches just a few centuries ago!   Now, I am not saying he was right, but it an interesting thought.

What I do know, is that whatever we think now is most probably wrong. It is our interpretation of things by our (small) human brains. The truth is we do not know. All we can do is live kindly. Most religions have kindness to others at their hearts.

Plans for Tuesday

At lunch I intend to go on 8m QRP FT8 on 40.680 MHz in the second TX period. As many in the USA seem to be TX in the first period, this may help my chances of being spotted over there with my 2.5W and low dipole. Yesterday I was first period and spotted by 2 in England and 1 in Eire.

I also intend to go on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon.

Sunspots - Tuesday December 6th 2022

 Solar flux is 150 and the SSN 89. A=8 and K=1

2016

This photo was taken in 2016 and shows my wife and my brother outside a local cottage. 

Plans for Monday

My current plan is to go on 8m QRP (2.5W) FT8 on 40.680 MHz and 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. I shall probably turn things on about 1120z. Usually, my regular 10m WSPR spots are from the Canary Isles.

Dutch breakfast - NOT amateur radio

This was my breakfast in Amsterdam back in September. It was about half the price of breakfast in the hotel. 

We thought it was worth walking 300m.

Devon walk - NOT amateur radio

Back in the summer I walked from my brother's house to Salcombe, about 3 miles. It was along what is known as "the old coach road". Perhaps it was the road taken by coaches a long time ago.

G3XBM on the DLARC

It is pleasing that my PDF book is accessible from the digital library of amateur radio and communication documents available via the Wayback Machine. My video channel is also available there although I don't know about my main website.

See https://archive.org/details/dlarc .

How simple can a rig be?

This was a challenge I wanted to have a go at. This is probably one of the simplest transceivers one can make. My inspiration came from a 40m rig by W2UW who is now sadly a silent key. My wish was to make it even simpler. My main issue was netting. The RX worked well. This appeared in GQRP SPRAT, although I cannot remember when.

There is a video on the website.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/80m-feter-transceiver .

DMR and network radios

Many people have no DMR radios, but have Android phones. This was the case with me. I had a network radio that was hardly used.  I found an app called Droidstar that enabled me to access the DMR network and thus worldwide contacts with a handheld. It has not been used often, but at least I can use DMR if I want to. I have found it more interesting just to listen.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/network-radio .