70cm activity contest this evening

 The second Tuesday in the month is usually the UKAC activity contest run by the RSGB starting at 1900z. Activity on SSB is good. 

Sunspots - Tuesday August 12th

 Solar flux is 146 and the SSN 157. A=17 and K=3.

10m 1W FT8 (Monday)

 My gear was turned on late morning.

UPDATE 1436z:  70 stations have spotted me.

More Google Adsense rubbish

 Last month alone I was supposed to have had about a third of my all time blog visits. 

Also yesterday I was supposed to have had far more visits than normal.  

Personally, I think this is total garbage.

OXFAM petition

Many of my best friends are Jewish and I hope I treat every human being the same whatever their faith or none.  What happened on October 7th 2023 was despicable.

However, I cannot understand how the UK government still sells arms to Israel and is allegedly training IDF soldiers on UK soil.

I am appalled by the death and destruction in Gaza and, like many in Israel, see no point in carrying on. Hamas is no longer a threat to Israel and the longer the fighting continues the more hated the state of Israel will be around the world. 

Also, surely continued fighting will persuade many to hate Israel even more. So, continuation is self-defeating.

Also, why are no journalists allowed into Gaza? Is Israel ashamed?

Although I have doubts it will do much good, OXFAM is organising a petition aimed at stopping the UK supplying arms to Israel. I urge you to sign it.

See https://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-oxfam/end-uk-arms-sales-to-israel/

UPDATE  0749z:  It appears over 500 people protesting against genocide in Gaza were arrested at the weekend. Their mistake was to have "I support Palestine Action" on their placards. Palestine Action is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.  A better wording would have been "I oppose genocide in Palestine".  I hope all protesters are freed without charge.

VLF earth-mode tests in 2011

 

As part of my experiments with VLF earth-mode was a test in 2011 at just over 17kHz using my 20m separated earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

Sunspots - Monday August 11th

 Solar flux is 153 and the SSN 155. A=22 and K=4.

/P 10m QRP

 This was me operating /P at 1W SSB on 10m in my mother’s garden in Devon. I recall hearing a 6m beacon in Northern Canada on a whip antenna.

Judging by the hair, it must’ve been years ago!!

The murky world

There was a lot of panic when the Chinese launched their AI model DeepSeek earlier this year. 

The West would like to eavesdrop on countries they think could be a threat. I am sure there is a lot that goes on that most have no knowledge of. Perhaps it's best we don't know. 

One thing we can be sure about: every major power is spying!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gez754mn6o

Hope Cove

This is a sleepy seaside village in South Devon, UK.  

I can trace my family history continuously in this village back to the mid 1550s. 

The photo is of the village 120 years ago.