Fish and chips

 

Earlier, we ate at a shop in Cambridge on our visit to the Cambridge Botanic Gardens.

This was a generous helping.

I usually go there for brunch on Wednesdays.

Cambridge Botanic Garden

 

As the sun was shining we decided to go the Cambridge Botanic Garden. This bird of paradise plant look like it is taking a peek.

10m 200mW FT8 ( Saturday)

My TX beacon was turned on at about 0943z.

UPDATE 1553z:    Spotted by 4 stations with the best PP5ZX (10058km) in Brazil.

Sunspots- Saturday March 14th

 Solar flux is 120 and K=105. A=24 and K=6. 

10m 200mW WSPR (Friday)

 Late in the afternoon I switched to 10m 200mW WSPR  TX. In the end I went QRT at about 2030z.

UPDATE 2118z:   9 stations spotted today. See table.

2013 optical tests over the horizon

Before my 2013 stroke I enjoyed 481THz optical tests over the horizon. What surprised me at first was that, even when absolutely nothing was visible in the sky, clear signals could be decoded on a PC as long as the aim was correct. My tripod and aiming left a lot to be desired!  If I was fit enough to repeat these tests I think a much better tripod would be called for allowing better repeatability.

PC operating systems

The world of home computing is dominated by MS Windows and Apple Mac (to a lesser extent), whereas I understand Linux is used by the most powerful computers in the world.  

I mostly use a Chromebook that runs Chrome OS (using it now) and am so pleased with this OS.  It is fast and does almost everything I do. They also tend to be less expensive. The Chromebook has been used for years now.

A friend of mine did an external drive with a version of Linux, but I have resisted changing my Windows PC to Linux, for now at least.

I am  definitely not a PC expert, so tend to remain with what I know!

10m 2.5W FT8 (Friday)

 Today I am on 10m 2.5W FT8. Apart from a very brief period on TX (1 local spot) I am RX only.

UPDATE  1106z:  Just 4 spots so far with the best A71MM (5184km) in Qatar. Disappointing so far. I must check that nothing is wrong.

UPDATE 1143z:  Plugging the antenna into the IC-705  revealed lots of stations, I plugged the antenna back into the QDX-M and immediately spotted 67 stations!  I wonder if the coax plug is intermittent?

UPDATE 1337z:  Re-soldered the plug and again lots of stations copied on the IC-705 but remarkably few on the QDX-M, which is very odd. Looks like there is something amiss with the QDX-M. It also seems to be running somewhat warm, which I would not have expected RX only on the QDX-M. Has anyone seen anything similar?

Sunspots - Friday March 13th

 Solar flux is 121 and the SSN 116. A=8 and K=4.

RX mostly

Maybe it is as a result of having got 10m QRP SSB way back, that I seem to get as much pleasure from RX nowadays as TX.  I know everyone is different and this is a good thing.