Sunspots Wednesday November 19th

 Solar flux is 120 and the SSN 66. A=5 and K=0.

More from Times Radio

This video was on YouTube earlier.  It includes a piece about the disappearance of Sergei Lavrov who is the Russia Foreign Minister who seems to have "dropped off the radar" in recent weeks. Apparently he is very bright and has been a real supporter of President Putin of Russia.

Search engine gripe

Have you noticed that when you search for something often the site at the top of the search (which many people click first) is NOT the main site you are looking for?  

Unless you are very careful, you are linked to some other site. I noticed this recently when I tried to donate to a charity. The first site was nothing at all to do with the site I was after.

Today, I was looking for another site and the first link (presumably paid for) was nothing at all to do with the site I was after.   Personally I find this morally wrong and sneaky.

AI and data centres

There is no doubt that AI consumes hugs amounts of power. We have some way to go to match the memory and processing power of the human brain. I am sure this will get better with time although we are a long way away at present. 

So far I have been very impressed with Gemini AI that renders old black and white photos in colour in just seconds.

This creates a moral dilemma: we all want the benefits of AI without its power-hungry nature.

10m 2W FT8 (Tuesday)

My gear was turned on at about 1020z.

UPDATE 1832z:  So far, spotted by 354 stations. See map.

FT710 and IC7300mk2

ICOM has announced the mark 2 version of the IC7300, which has sold well across the world. 100,000 units have been sold. 

The FT-710 scores very highly on the Sherwood tests. I do not think the latest ICOM rig has been tested, although the mark 1 was somewhat lower down. For most people most of the time these numbers are academic.

Both rigs cover up to 70MHz. I know the FT710 can be widebanded without uncasing. I am not sure about the IC7300mk2.

The Yaesu radio is considerably less expensive in the UK and comes with a Yaesu cashback. I think Yaesu offers a 3 year warranty.

I am sure both are good radios.

Sunspots - Tuesday November 18th

 Solar flux is 122 and the SSN 45. A=11 and K=2.

Another day off the radio

 As I was in Cambridge most of the day, I decided not to go on the radio today.

Sunspots - Monday November 17th

Solar flux is 122 and the SSN 66. A=12 and K= 2.

VHF magnetic loop antenna

VK3YE is a real experimenter. This is a recent video describing the use of a tin can as a VHF loop antenna.