21 Feb 2026

Near Islands

No, I'd never heard of these either!  

Apparently, they are part of the Aleutian Islands off Alaska and they belong to the USA. 

They are in the Baring Strait dividing Russia and the USA by just a few miles.

They came up when I was wondering why the International Date Line was not straight!

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Islands

What is gravity?

For years, scientists have been trying to understand gravity. Both Newtonian and quantum theory appear to give different answers. There's a New Scientist video that tries to explain this puzzle.

I think it's true to say we really understand very little about things.

Sunspots - Saturday February 21st

 Solar flux is 111 and the SSN 34. A=12 and K=3.

20 Feb 2026

US Supreme Court overrules Trump on tariffs

 The US Supreme Court has overruled President Trump 6-3 on tariffs. 

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0l9r67drg7t

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

In the last few days, we have faced a constitutional crisis in the UK like never seen in 350 years. Times Radio has a video about it. It brings to the fore wealth and privilege.   Our monarchy has some benefits for the country, but it lacks transparency.

10m 200mW WSPR TX (Friday)

My beacon was turned on at about 1515z.


UPDATE 1612z: 
Spotted by 18 stations so far.

UPDATE 1953z:  Spotted by 31 stations with 2 in Brazil. Now QRT.

The evolution of computers


In my lifetime computers have come a very long way.  No doubt the next evolution will be quantum computers. 

Also far higher memory capacities are likely. I can imagine people in 30 years' time being amazed we managed with just 10TB hard drives. It would not surprise me if someone, somewhere, makes a tiny memory that has the capacity of the human brain.

Sunspots - Friday February 20th

Solar flux is 116 and the SSN 39. A=10 and K=2.

Radioless All Star node

If you want to connect into All Star, you can connect without a radio transceiver using this device which is about £150. There is a Tech Minds video about this. I think All Star allows you to connect to repeaters across the world, although I have never used this.





10m 2.5W FT8 (Friday)

Later, I hope to go on 10m 2.5W FT8. Although I shall mostly be on RX, I shall go on TX from time to time.


UPDATE 1615z:
  On 1100 stations spotted on RX (see map), and 58 stations have spotted me. The map shows the stations received here.  Now on WSPR TX on 10m at 200mW.