Durham Cathedral - NOT amateur radio

 

Durham has a fine cathedral on a bend in the river. It is one of the finest in England. This picture featured on 365project recently. 

1st ever webpage?

 We have come a very long way in 30 years. Back then few had heard of the internet. As far I can tell this is the very first webpage:

See https://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

When I am pushing up daisies in 30 years' time I wonder what my grandchildren will be amazed at?

My first website is still there on the Wayback Machine. It dates from the mid 1990s. In a way, I was a trail blazer!

See https://web.archive.org/web/19970328203144/http://www.lapr.demon.co.uk/ .

Q65 8m tests

Trevor G0KTN is trying some tests with this mode this week on 8m.  Although I have not been successful receiving him so far, I shall try again this week.

UPDATE 1236z: Monitoring 8m Q65. Switched to RX on the V2000 vertical (was on the Par endfed for 10m). No spots. 

UPDATE 1603z:  No spots of G0KTN.

Sunspots - Tuesday July 30th

 Solar flux is 223 and the SSN 211.  A=6 and K=4.

Mallow - NOT amateur radio

We have mallow growing in our garden. 

It looks great at the moment.

Scandinavian Es puzzle

In the past I have mentioned a phenomenon that could be pure coincidence or some Es mechanism not understood. 

Later in the Es season I seem to get more northerly Es openings, particularly towards Scandinavia. There are still plenty of stations from other directions, but stations in Norway, Sweden, Scotland and Finland seem far more noticeable than earlier in the Es season. I have noticed this over several summers.

As I have said, this could be nothing, but I don't think so. 

"Theories on a postcard" please as they say!

Optical DXing over the horizon

Some years ago, when I was fitter, I really used to enjoy going out in the car to experiment with non line-of-sight optical beaconing. I would set up my beacon at 481THz on my windowsill indoors and see if I could copy it over the horizon. Sadly my stroke ended these tests.  

The photo shows my beacon, that was connected to 100mm drain pipe and a Poundland lens.  The LED was bought off eBay. Latterly I bought some much brighter Phlatlights, but I never got around to using them before fate intervened.

I was always amazed how well my tiny signal was copied over the horizon. I presume this was clear air scattering as there were no clouds.

Solar cycle 25 peak?

My favourite site for solar data pushed into this year the peak of solar cycle 25. It was November 2023 for some time. I am wondering if this has to be adjusted yet again, based on the high solar activity this month? They take an average so the peak is always some months ahead of the month with the highest numbers.

See https://www.solen.info/solar/ .

European Es - promising?

After very good Es yesterday, things look quite promising today. Even though it is still early, there are quite a few spots even on the VHF bands like 4m.

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

UPDATE 1305z:  At the moment, Es in Europe looks at least as good as yesterday. See map.

Salcombe: last century - NOT amateur radio

This was where I lived as a young child. This photo was sometime in the last century.