Toad in the compost (again)

Yesterday. I was planting some bedding plants in the front garden. 

I mixed my own compost with some commercial compost. 

Imagine my surprise when a toad was spotted in the commercial  compost. 

It may be the one I spotted a few weeks ago.

10m 200mW WSPR (Tuesday)

 I was a bit concerned about thunder, but at the moment it is clear here, so my beacon was turned on at 1000z.

UPDATE 1302z: Spotted by 17 stations already!!  Good Es, especially this morning.

Sunspots - Tuesday June 2nd

 Solar flux is 132 and the SSN 146. A=9 and K=1.

6m 3W FT8 (Monday)

My gear has been on much of the morning.

UPDATE 1645z: Spotted by 147 stations with the best D4L (4517 km) and 159 stations spotted here including my first from the USA this summer on 6m.

10m 200mW WSPR (Monday)

My beacon was turned on just after breakfast.

UPDATE  1405z:   6 European stations spotting me.

New AI chip for home PCs

Nvidia has announced a new chip for PCs that brings AI to home PCs in a big way rivalling big chip manufacturers like Intel.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmp9mppvzro

Solar conditions

 We are now on the downward part of the solar cycle with the peak a few years ago. Conditions are still quite good, but will decline later.  Often the higher bands are better than activity suggests.

The magic band

Many people think of 6m as the "magic band". Openings occur when least expected. Other times all that can be heard is white noise.

Around this time, as regular as clockwork, 6m opens to the Far East from Western Europe, probably linked to the formation of noctilucent clouds. 

At this time of year Es often links with F2 propagation further south bringing really long distance communication within range such as yesterday when stations well south in Brazil were copied on 6m. Stations in the Caribbean were also being worked, so perhaps the first hop was some sort of chordal hop E layer propagation. 

I’m only using a V2000 vertical so those with high gain beams could have done much better. 

I can see why many call it the "magic band" !!

Consciousness

What happens when we die is a mystery. On a purely biological level our brain cells die so there are no neural connections left. With this analysis we just cease to exist.

In many cultures there is a belief that something of us lives on somehow.  We like to think we, and our loved ones, are "still there" in some form. The truth is our brains are too small to comprehend.

Sunspots - Monday June 1st

 Solar flux is 136 and the SSN 110. A=10 and K=2.