Death - NOT amateur radio

We have just heard of the death of the husband of my wife's old work colleague. They live in Australia. Although expected, it must be such a shock when it actually happens. 

I guess it is also a wake-up call to our own mortality. I am reminded of this poem.

See https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44400/spring-and-fall .

23cm SSB sked

Assuming G4BAO confirms, my intention is to have a 23cm sked on 1296.2 MHz SSB at 1430z today. As yet, he has not confirmed!!

UPDATE 1650z: We are trying at 1430z on Friday March 31st on 1296.2 MHz SSB. 3.30pm BST.

Lesser Chirpy

Originally, this was called the XBM10-2. It is probably one of the simplest transceivers you can make. It really works! These days there is less CW activity as people move to modes like FT8, but it is fun to make contacts with ultra simple homemade gear.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/10m-lesser-chirpy .

Plans for this afternoon (Thursday)

 Assuming the thunder storms keep away, my plan is to go on 10m FT8 later. 

Wicken Fen walk - NOT amateur radio

This morning we walked to Wicken Fen a distance of about 3.75 miles. 

What was this? - NOT amateur radio

This odd building, now very derelict, is on sale in a nearby village (Lode) for £250000. It looks like it was once a shop, but its odd design suggests it was once something else. Sadly, I do not know its history. In decent condition it would probably sell for over £1M. Nice restoration project for someone!

Rally on Sunday

This is a reminder of this rally this coming Sunday. As I always say, please be sure it is on before travelling far.

Sunday April 2nd - Hack Green Surplus Sale and Militaria, Nantwich, Cheshire , CW5 8AL. Contact coldwar@hackgreen.co.uk.

Walk with grandchildren - NOT amateur radio

This was last weekend on a walk with 2 of our grandchildren. We were playing a game of "Pooh Sticks" when a stick is dropped on one side of the bridge and one waits on the other side of bridge for it to emerge.

Sunspots - Thursday March 30th 2023

Solar flux is 148 and the SSN 135. A=6 and K=2. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - NOT amateur radio

This worries me. 

Just now I tried Google's version called Bard again. It tries to make sense of the data it knows about and writes about this. Some answers were remarkably good, whereas some were useless and factually incorrect.

Now, used properly I can see lot of uses. However, many will (wrongly) take everything it says as factually correct when it is not. I can see a future when many people accept everything produced by AI as factually correct. "Brave New World", as Aldous Huxley Huxley said?