My 2.5W to the dipole has been on since 0700z. No spots.
UPDATE 0848z: Already spotted by WESSEXSDR (266km) and SR4BBX (1217km).
Solar flux is 139 and the SSN 75. A=7 and K=3. Have we passed the peak already?
Today must be a bad day.
In an earlier post I moan about the future of our hobby. Before my stroke in 2013, I had the honour of giving talks at radio clubs throughout East Anglia. Sadly, I can no longer do this as my voice is poor.
One of the things I noticed time and time again was that old men outnumbered young people overwhelmingly. As for females, maybe one or two. By far the most interested were old men. Some had been in the hobby for years, whereas some had recently become interested with family cares and work behind them.
Thinking to the future, the writing is on the wall. In 20 years' time most radio amateurs will be dead or past caring. A few might be in care homes. Amateur radio will be a distant memory, assuming we can remember at all!
Time and again I hear calls to really understand young people of today. If we really understand younger people we have chance to attract them and keep them in the hobby. Sadly, most old men are not trying, so the downward spiral has started.
Rant over!
Just now, I looked at my profile, but had forgotten some of the blogs I created years ago!
Usually, one is created when we go on holiday, as it is easy to forget things later. One was created shortly before we moved here 10 years ago. It is interesting to look at these again.
We have just had a clap of thunder and looking at the lightning map, there are storms all around. As a precaution I have disconnected antennas, PSUs and the PC in the shack. when the danger has passed I may reconnect things. I have seen no flashes of lightning, so assume the storms are some way away.
See https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=0;
Although the 2.5W to the dipole has been on all morning, no spots on TX or RX at 1150z.
UPDATE 1434z: No spots.
UPDATE 1517z: It seems odd that real experimenters have to pay to do experiments in the UK because OFCOM and the RSGB seem so stupid and short-sighted, for example, about 8m. I despair for the future of our hobby that is meant to be all about self-training. Tell that to OFCOM, the RSGB and the FCC!! I have said this many, many times: when most radio amateurs are very old, forgetful, men (most amateurs are old men), I can see our hobby just dying out. 20 years? Fewer (or no) profits, fewer adverts, fewer magazines, fewer new transceivers..... Am I bothered? Not really. I have enjoyed experimenting, but many prefer to talk about gardening on 80m with commercial gear or chasing DXCC. Neither appeal to me. If this is amateur radio, sorry it is not for me.
UPDATE 1916z: S50B (1220km) has spotted me.
UPDATE 1953z: QRT shortly.
Actually it was very poor. By modern standards I expect a very low cost SDR is better. They still pop up on auction sites from time to time. They use germanium OC171 transistors which often get leaky and need replacing.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/eddystone-ec10 .
As I get older, I am more aware than ever that life is time limited. Most (if not all) religions point to some sort of life after death. I think most people hope for this.
At the same time, I cannot square this with the fact that when I die, I can have no memory. If I just ceased to exist how would I know? At the same time the whole concept of "I" has no meaning. Also, I am puzzled by the vast number of planets in the universe and the smallness of our brains.
Death remains a mystery. Most religions fail to answer my questions.
Yesterday, when my old work colleague visited he brought out a copy of this ARRL book that had my name with the date December 1971 inside. I...
