Time to stop - NOT amateur radio

What happened in Israel on October 7th was appalling. It was understandable that the people of Israel and its government were angry. It is clear they want to stop such attacks in future.

However, I am unsure of the real motives of Israel in Gaza.  

There were lots of people killed or taken hostage on October 7th, but the destruction and deaths in Gaza are surely out of proportion. Many there are starving, and you can understand why many are calling the actions of Israel genocide. 

If, as was the declared intention of Israel, they want to decimate Hamas, then surely there are more clinical ways of going about it? I am not impressed from a population that was so badly impacted in WW2.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68004449 .

QRP 8m FT8 (Wednesday)

My 2.5W FT8 on 40.680 MHz has been on for about 30 minutes. 

Better equipped stations are regularly getting across the Atlantic again. It is much harder with just 2.5W and a low dipole! As the F2 season is good in February and March, we can expect even better times ahead.

UPDATE 1515z:   No spots yet today.

10m 500uW WSPR TX (Wednesday)

My 500uW (0.5mW) signal has already been spotted by EA8BFK (2880km) . 

The beacon is pre-programmed to report 500mW even though the actual output is just 0.5mW!! The QRPP power is confirmed by spectrum analyser.

UPDATE 1152z:  Now spotted 5 times today by EA8BFK. USA afternoon?

UPDATE 1519z:   No further spots of me. Not surprisingly, single hop F2 is the most successful. I guess the USA is at least 2 hops, so there is far greater path loss, so the USA would require conditions to be exceptional with 0.5mW.

Punting on the Cam - NOT amateur radio

The last few days have been crisp and cold in Cambridge. If you wrap up warm, ideal weather for punting. The photo was yesterday outside King's College. 

630m 10mW ERP WSPR overnight

My 10mW ERP (measured) from the invisible earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground was spotted by 20 stations with the furthermost OH1LSQ (1733km).

Sunspots - Wednesday January 19th

 Solar flux is 180 and the SSN 179.  A=6 and K=1.

630m QRP WSPR (Tuesday)

My 10mW ERP 630m WSPR has been on for a couple of hours.  13 stations have spotted me so far, but no great DX.

10m 500uW (0.5mW) WSPR TX (Tuesday)

My QRPP 10m WSPR beacon is on again. Already spotted 5 times in the Canary Islands. This is the best yet on 10m WSPR QRPP.

UPDATE 2015z:   3 different stations spotted me today despite the tiny power - EA8BFK, DL0LU, PD0OHW.

2200m beacon

My test a year ago with this was (surprisingly) a failure. At some point I would like to try again. There is a short video of this beacon on my video channel. It sends CW at 10wpm and QRSS3.

Norwich Cathedral last week - NOT amateur radio

A week ago we went to Norwich by train. It has a very fine Norman cathedral.