Norwich Market - NOT amateur radio

This was Norwich Market on Monday. They had interesting mushrooms and tomatoes on sale. 

Wednesday plans

My current plan is to go on 10m WSPR QRP TX and 8m QRP FT8. I am hoping the Es improves!! 

Devon lunch 2016 - NOT amateur radio

This was our lunch in 2016. Ivor Dewdney made the best pasties. I think they survived the pandemic. I can taste them now! 

What is reality? - NOT amateur radio

Several times in the last few months I have had very vivid dreams. These dreams were so vivid that I managed to confuse dreams and reality. The latest was of a hedge trimmer. In the dream, I could not remember getting it. Yesterday afternoon I looked in the garage to try to find it! Of course, it was not there.

Sporadic-E (Es)

So far, this has been a disappointing Es season. Things hopefully will change, but 8m has been very disappointing so far. By now, I was hoping for openings most days. 

UPDATE 1732z:  At the moment there seems to be a good Es opening in Eastern Europe. See https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/europe-sporadic-e/ for G7IZU's excellent website.

Sunspots - Wednesday May 17th 2023

Solar flux is 134 and the SSN 106. A=8 and K=1.

Distant Konik ponies - NOT amateur radio

We saw these in the distance on our a walk to Wicken Fen at the weekend. They are used to keep the grass short, naturally.

Cow parsley - NOT amateur radio

This field in Burwell is full of cow parsley at those time of year. 

Eddystone EC10 receivers

From time to time these still appear on auction sits like eBay, commanding ridiculous prices. As a young person these were highly coveted. In reality they were unbelievably poor. These days a low cost SDR dongle offers far superior performance for far less than the 1968 new price!

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/eddystone-ec10 .

Keeping an eye on Es in Europe

Following Hugh's (HC02) suggestion, I am now looking at this map of 8m Es in Europe.

See https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/8m-40mhz-spot-band/

On the same site is this map showing live Es data for other bands. I get the feeling 8m Es could be promising later.

See https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/europe-sporadic-e/ .