19 Aug 2025

6m 5W FT8 (Tuesday)

My 5W was turned on late morning. 20 stations have spotted me.

Neighbour's roses

 

These are just outside our neighbour’s front door.

10m 500mW WSPR yesterday

 In all, 69 stations spotted me yesterday. Most look like Es. This was one of my best days on 10m Es.

6m QRP FT8 yesterday

My 5W 6m FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna was heard all over Europe and in North and South America. In all, 566 stations spotted me.

Sunspots - Tuesday August 19th

 Solar flux is 114 and the SSN 73. A=7 and K=3.

18 Aug 2025

AI and jobs

It seems we are facing a new industrial revolution around the world. Many of the tasks done by humans can be done faster and better by machines running AI.  Jobs we traditionally thought only humans could do are being replaced.

This is a two-edged sword. Boring repetitive work will go. Also, many skilled jobs will go. 

The good side is many people can be employed more usefully. The bad side is many traditional jobs will go and bad actors could use AI for malicious means.

In my view, these things are here to stay and we have to adapt.

The safest jobs will be those that cannot be done by machines i.e. those that need real human interaction.

Many of the jobs that seemed "good" when I was young may not be the jobs to look for in the future.

Longwave broadcasting ending?



It would appear than in the UK Radio 4 longwave on 198kHz is closing September 2026. Many broadcasters have already stopped on LW and fewer radios now include LW broadcasting.

10m 500mW WSPR (Monday)

My beacon was turned on at about 0830z.


UPDATE 1702z:
Spotted by 49 stations.

6m QRP FT8 (Monday)


My 5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni was turned on at about 0830z.

UPDATE 1143z: So far, spotted by 284 stations, probably a mix of modes. Furthest is EA8/DF4UE (2876km) quite strongly. 

UPDATE 1307z:  304 stations have spotted me including 2 in Newfoundland. Es? See map.

UPDATE 1700z:  Spotted by 5 stations in Newfoundland. Spotted by 526 stations in all. Most, I think, are Es.

North Devon cottage


This was where we stayed in 2012. It was delightful. We spent a week there.