Promise - NOT amateur radio

 This is a trough of snowdrops that are just coming out. 

10m 500mW WSPR (Tuesday)

 My stand-alone 10m WSPR TX beacon has been on since just after breakfast. No spots at1109z.

UPDATE 1325z:  8 spots of me.

US Dollar to Russian Ruble - NOT amateur radio

At one point earlier in the month it looked like the Ruble was collapsing against the US Dollar. I am not sure if it is the Trump effect, but it has recovered a lot since then. Maybe the stories of the collapse were premature?

See Dollar to Ruble .

6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

 

My IC-705 was turned on after breakfast. 15 spots of my 10W FT8 so far at 1023z.

UPDATE 1103z:  Now spotted by 19 stations. Es or single hop F2? Furthermost is a spot by SM2GHI (2013km).

UPDATE 1328z:  24 EU spots of me.

630m WSPR RX overnight

Using the coax up to my 2m big-wheel antenna via an ATU I was on 630m WSPR RX. 5 stations were spotted with the furthest SM2DJK (1720km) in the north of Sweden. It was good to see 630m WSPR well used.

Map from WSPRrocks by Phil  VK7JJ

Sausage pasta - NOT amateur radio

This is a quick and easy (and low cost) meal we sometimes have. 

Sausages browned first then cut up, added with pasta, mushrooms, cheese, sweetcorn and a few herbs, all in Creme Fraiche. 

Ready in about 10 minutes. Served with a few peas.

DeepSeek AI - NOT amateur radio

There is a new AI program from China that is "upsetting the apple cart".  It is called DeepSeek and is supposed to be better than ChatGPT. When I went to try it yesterday, it was unavailable due to a malicious attack.

There is little doubt that AI will get even better over time and will have a great impact on our lives. In many ways it will be a force for good, but it will cost us jobs and could be dangerous in the wrong hands.

See https://chat.deepseek.com/ .

Remote control of an ICOM rig

It would be good to operate my IC-705 over wi-fi from my iPhone. This would mean I could control the radio whilst in the lounge or even in bed! 

I am sure there are several programs, but I saw this one yesterday. It is not cheap at $36.99. There are versions for the Mac and iPad. 

One could even control the radio over the internet.

See https://ham-radio-apps.com/sdr-control-for-icom/ .

Sunspots - Tuesday January 28th

 Solar flux is 162 and the SSN 146.  A=8 and K=1.

630m WSPR receive (Monday)

As my earth-electrode "antenna" is not connected and  my Tigertronics SignaLink USB interface is faulty, I am RX only using the IC-705 and the coax up to my 2m big-wheel via a ferrite rod ATU. 

So far this evening, 2 stations spotted on WSPR with the furthermost DC0DX (467km).

UPDATE 2230z:  Just 2 stations spotted this evening. I shall leave the RX on overnight.