National Hamfest (UK)

The National Hamfest is this weekend September 27/28th at the Newark and Nottinghamshire Showground, NG24 2NY. See nationalhamfest.org.uk .

Sunspots - Wednesday September 25th

 Solar flux is 172 and the SSN 123. A=17 and K=4.

AA1TJ - fit and well

This afternoon I got an email from Michael Rainey AA1TJ.  It sounds like they have just emerged from a long crisis with his partner's health and things are getting back to normal after a long, hard, time. I am so pleased.

Buddleia - NOT amateur radio

Buddleia is supposed to attract butterflies, so we have planted one in our front garden. 

The one in the picture was not in our garden.

Cherry picker - NOT amateur radio

Our local windmill volunteers have hired a cherry picker (aerial hydraulic platform) to inspect the windmill sails. 

A cherry picker is so named as such devices were used originally to harvest fruits.

Hacking - NOT amateur radio

 At the moment I am watching a drama series on BBC TV in which (I think) state actors take complete control of the UK train network.

The scary thing is that many things could be hacked. Take for example power networks, oil and gas distribution, banking, air traffic control, sewage systems etc.. The threat to undersea cables is real, although thankfully there is a lot of redundancy meaning things are likely to be slower rather than totally non-functional.

I guess all cyber security services have to be mindful of threats and keep "ahead of the game".  Also, any states contemplating such action knows they could suffer the same fate. A bit like the policy of "mutually assured destruction" with nuclear weapons, we hope these threats never come to pass.

In this day and age war could well be in the form of cyber warfare rather than conventional weapons.

6m 2.5W FT8 (Tuesday)

 My gear was turned on at breakfast. So far, 6 spots (all English apart from EI3KD (583km)).

UPDATE 0930z: Now spotted by F5PSR (1020km) and 2 Iberian stations. Is this F2 backscatter?

UPDATE 1210z:   17 spots of my QRP FT8 including several in mainland Europe.

UPDATE 1725z:   19 spots of my QRP 6m FT8 today. See map.

10m 500mW WSPR TX (Tuesday)

 My beacon was turned on at breakfast time. In the first hour, spots by EA8BFK (2880km) and local G4KPX (14km) only.

Yesterday was very successful with lots of stateside spots of my QRP WSPR.

UPDATE 1730z:  14 spots of me so far today. See table.

Sunspots - Tuesday September 24th

 Solar flux is 167 and the SSN 224. A=13 and K=2.

SPAM? - NOT amateur radio

Just now, I got an email that was not automatically put in my SPAM fold telling me I had won an emergency pack from the AA.  

I got suspicious when the sender was in the USA and it was set in EDT time. To me, it looks like a SPAM.

The links to claim "the prize" will go unclicked. 

If a SPAM, I expect others will have had one too.