Sunspots - Tuesday August 19th

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

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.

Pipit QRP CW transceiver

 

Way back I designed and built this QRP transceiver for 15m CW. For many months it was the only rig I used. It was really fun and worked remarkably well. It appeared in GQRP SPRAT and is on my website. It produced about 800mW.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/15m-qrp-cw-pipit .

Sunspots - Monday August 18th

 Solar flux is 117 and the SSN 53. A=5 and K=0.

Classic car day

Yesterday was the Classic Car Day at our local museum. It is always hugely popular. As usual, there were plenty of people, cars and motorcycles.

Another old QSL card

Old QSL cards are becoming quite collectable. Some people collect old QSL cards as a hobby. This one dates from 1949.  

I suppose with LOTW, eQSL and similar they are becoming rarer. Certainly it is many years since I sent one.