Tired, giddy and exhausted - NOT amateur radio

It is almost 10 years ago I suffered my brain bleed/stroke and was in hospital for 3.5 months. Thankfully, I made an almost complete physical recovery and was able to get back to an almost normal life. I was given a second chance, unlike many.

My main issues are my poor voice, being giddy nearly all the waking hours, and getting exhausted very quickly after physical or mental exertion.  Whereas before I enjoyed going out in the car doing experiments, I no longer feel able. I still drive, but do not enjoy it. Driving seems to require so much more concentration for me nowadays. All the time I am reading the situation, looking for stupid drivers. It is almost as if my brain takes longer to process things. Driving at 50mph feels like 70mph.

The net result is trying to find ways to enjoy things differently. These days, my experiments are at home rather than "in the field".

Although I long to be as I once was, I know this can never be, so we have to make the best of life.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/non-amateur-radio/stroke .

6m QRP FT8 tomorrow?

As an experiment, I may try 50.313 MHz QRP FT8 tomorrow. The main Es season is over, but Es still occurs, but less often. FT8, which is better than CW, uses a 15 second TX period. If propagation lasts this long, one has a great chance of being detected. Often Es signals can be quite strong, if short-lived.

I like to experiment on 8m FT8, but there are too few monitors sadly.

Optical Experiments

One of the fallacies going around is that optical communication is just "line-of-site" and that both the TX and RX have to be able to see each other. This is just not true! 

With very low power and simple, homemade, gear I could detect my beacon on a PC way over the horizon. In Australia, the "over-the-horizon" (NLOS) distance record is way over 100km. With my own very modest gear, I can well believe this. 

My tests were done on cloudless nights, suggesting the propagation was scattering off atmospheric dust. There was no sign of the light from the TX in the sky at all.  This is definitely where everyone, licenced or not, may experiment. It would be good to find out how far we could achieve non line of site (NLOS) in the UK. Incidentally LEDs are generally considered better than lasers due to scintillation (look it up!).

My own beacon and optical gear were made in the back of the garage. If I was fit, I would be experimenting now.

My optical gear used LEDs bought off eBay. Far more powerful ones are available. I used 100mm lenses used in magnifying glasses bought at Poundland. Better equipped stations used Fresnel lenses. My tripod was hopeless. With better LEDs, lenses and tripods, ranges could be increased a great deal. Even with my system ranges could be considerably greater than the nearly 9km I managed.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/optical-nanowaves/over-the-horizon.

Isleham priory - NOT amateur radio

Until the Reformation this was a priory. Afterwards, it was used as a barn. 

In my view the Reformation did a great deal of harm in England. Looking back, it seems pure vandalism. 

In my view, we have to look at history, reflect on it, but not destroy it.

Rowan tree - NOT amateur radio

We have 3 rowan trees in our front garden. The one nearest the drive is filled with berries that fall everywhere. It is also leaning heavily. 

8m 2.5W FT8 (Monday)

 My 2.5W FT8 to the dipole on 40.680 MHz was turned on about 0830z. So far, no spots.

UPDATE 1206z:   2 Polish stations have spotted my QRP 8m FT8.

UPDATE 1544z: No further stations spotting me.

10m 500mW WSPR (Monday)

 

My 500mW W5OLF WSPR beacon was turned on at about 0830z. 

UPDATE 1546z: 31 stations have spotted me. No further stations spotting me recently.

Sunspots - Monday August 28th 2023

Solar flux is 142 and the SSN 69. A=11 and K=2.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - NOT amateur radio

Until this year, most had not heard of AI. Now it is widespread.  

There is no doubt that with big computers that learn we can all benefit from the huge processing power. What a human brain can do in days could be done by an AI computer in seconds. This could really help in such things as fast cancer diagnosis.

At the same time it could be a great cause of harm in the wrong hands. 

Some time ago, I did an experiment with AI. I put my name and callsign in and within seconds it produced line after line about me, most which was accurate. I then put my son's name in (he is an internationally famous jazz musician) and it came back with rubbish. The danger is that people may accept what AI tells them as absolute truth. Imagine a hostile power using AI. We can be sure the military services both east and west are "on the case".

I can see both good and bad. We have interacted with AI for years e.g. with chat bots and phone chats that, for example, ask you to "press 2 if you need to discuss future cruises".  In the future they will be far better.

At the moment, I am reserving judgement.

Crabapple jelly (continued) - NOT amateur radio

A few days ago I mentioned that I had made some crabapple jelly from the crabapples on our one tree. Despite a good crop, the amount of jelly produced was very small.

Yesterday I tried some and it was very good. It is just a pity there is so little!