Solid state batteries - almost there

In my view these are almost there. 

By next year probably several companies will be launching EVs with huge ranges and fast charging times. Many will charge their car overnight at home when needed.

Electric cars, if low cost and with >700 miles on a single charge, will transform motoring. Fast charging times are a bonus. 

At the moment China is ahead. In my view, the USA is in great danger of missing out on the coming revolution.   In my opinion, we are on the cusp of a revolution as big as the death of CRTs and film cameras.

Sold state batteries could be transformative.

See https://www.autonocion.com/us/solid-state-battery-race-continues/.

Meshcore and Meshstastic

These feel like the future. 

More and more people are looking for a means of communication that does not depend on the internet. These are mesh based messaging systems, so the more nodes the better.  In urban areas there are more and more nodes springing up. In rural areas, nodes may be far apart.

They use 868MHz in Europe (I think), licence-free LoRa. Units - including solar powered external repeaters suitable for mounting on houses - are available on-line at low cost.

I have the feeling things will mature in the coming years. At the moment it feels like the early days of the internet.

In about 10 years' time I can see this getting there. It's not there yet.

It would appear there is far more experimentation (and licence free!) than with traditional amateur radio. In the future I can see ISM and other licence free systems replacing amateur radio.

10m 5W FT8 (Monday)

Today conditions seem a little down. 

On 10m FT8 RX South Africa spotted, but the band feels less lively than normal. 

Although on TX very briefly, spotted by a couple of European stations.

UPDATE 1138z: 8 stations spotted. Again I had problems with ChromeOS not displaying PSKreporter maps correctly. On Firefox all was normal. See map.

UPDATE 1604z: 76 stations spotted here. See logbook extract.

UPDATE 2130z:  QRT.

10m 200mW WSPR (Monday)

 My beacon was turned on at about 0915z.

Sunspots - Monday March 23rd

 Solar flux is 120 and the SSN 96. A=75 and K=4.

10m 200mW WSPR (Sunday)

 My beacon was turned on at about 1516z.

UPDATE 2142z: Spots lots of times by EA8BFK (2880km). Now QRT.

QRP drawbacks

Because of my poor voice, I mainly use WSPR and FT8 these days. Especially with FT8 there are couple of things making QRP operation harder these days.

Firstly, it is quite possible to be "clobbered" by a stronger station. Often this station is inaudible and a person does not know he or she is co-channel with a much stronger signal.

Secondly, in some places, the noise floor can be high due to all the noisy electronics many people use like switched mode power supplies in TVs, PCs and the like. Over time the noise floor, especially in towns and cities, is well above what it was even 30 years ago.

You are far less likely to be "sat on" by a stronger station with WSPR than FT8, but cycle times are nearly 2 minutes rather than  just 15 seconds.

Iran war

 "Poking the hornets nest" comes to mind. Let's hope those who started it know how to end it.

PSKreporter.info issues?

On 2 devices are different browsers pskreporter.info maps has been acting strangely this weekend. 

If it was just one PC and one browser I might suspect a local issue. Sometimes it is fine. 

Have others seen similar issues?

UPDATE 1104z: On the IC-705 no issues. I suspect the RX in the QDX-M is not always working properly. Now RX only using the IC-705. There is no issue with PSKreporter.

Chionoxa

 

These little blue flowers, carpeted under the trees last week at nearby Anglesey Abbey, are chionoxa, which look wonderful at this time of year.