Village cottage

Our village is a mixture of some old houses and new ones. This one is old, but I do not know when it was built. 

I guess it is 200m from our home?

8m operation

As I was not prepared to pay to do research I did not renew my 8m TX permit when it expired this summer. 

I was very disappointed by the very negative attitude of several PTTs even to very limited access to the band around solar maximum. I am told that it is still being used by some.  I really wish them well.

Instead, I have concentrated on 5W 6m FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna.  This autumn my QRP has been spotted by 2 stations in Brazil on 6m.

10m 500mW WSPR (Wednesday)

 My beacon was turned on at about 0820z.

UPDATE 1835z:  8 stations have spotted me today with the furthest KY4UI (6834km) in Georgia USA.

UPDATE 1925z:  When I went QRT the furthest spot was again by DP0GVN (13685km) in Antarctica. In the last few weeks my 500mW has reached the German research base down there several times.

Flatlights

Before my 2013 stroke got in the way, I was hoping to get much further over the horizon with 481THz red light. 

To that end I purchased some very bright LEDs called Flatlights. These take (I am told) 8A from the power supply! The photo show the Flatlight that, sadly, did not get used.

In my earlier tests at just under 9km over the horizon there was no sign at all of a red light in the sky, yet the signal from my beacon was very clear on the PC.  

Even with that, far further would have been possible. As the sky was cloudless, I assume this was clear air scattering off dust particles. I did not try cloud-bounce where signals are reflected off the base of clouds. 

6m 5W FT8 (Wednesday)

My gear was turned on at about  0820z.

UPDATE 1939z: Spotted by 40 stations. See map.

10m QRP WSPR yesterday

As I was on 6m FT8 yesterday, my 10m antenna was free so I went on 10m 500mW WSPR.  See table of the stations that spotted me. Furthest was Brazil.

Sunspots - Wednesday October 8th

 Solar flux is 131 and the SSN 109. A=15 and K=3.

More gobbledygook

 I have just received this from Google Absence. As is usually the case, I cannot understand a word!

"Overview of changes: To ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of our systems, all publishers will soon be required to provide the referrerAdCreative parameter (RAC) when traffic arrives to a Related Search for content page from a source that is under your control. This includes any third-party network, service or affiliate that you partner with.

In such instances, you're required to set the parameter to the precise and complete creative text of the advertisement or link source. To elaborate, 'precise and complete creative text' signifies a literal transcription.

For example, within an upstream video source featuring an influencer walking down a street, speaking to the camera, with background music also present, the full transcript of the speech, the song lyrics, and any visible text on street signs, among other elements that might appear anywhere on the user’s screen, must be provided verbatim and in their entirety."

Plain English? I don't think anyone told them about that!

10m 500mW WSPR (Tuesday)

My QRP beacon was turned an at about 0600z. 

UPDATE 0915z:  So far spotted (again) in the Canary Is..  It seems this single hop F2 distance is often spanned.

The nature of time

We experience time as flowing from the past to the future. 

According to Einstein, time depends on the observer. What is "now" to us is not "now" to others.  If correct, this means in an infinite universe all time exists "now". This is also the case with quantum mechanics where things may be described as wave functions that exist in all time and space.

Concepts of time and infinity are extremely hard to grasp. It means that to some observers the past has not yet happened and the future already exists.  Really, we know so very little.

Already some really counter-intuitive ideas have been proven. For example, tunnel diodes only work as a result of quantum mechanical tunnelling.

What appears "real" to us may not be.

6m 5W FT8 (Tuesday)

My gear was turned on at about 0600z.

UPDATE 2052z:  48 spots so far .

Sunspots - Tuesday October 7th

 Solar flux is 133 and the SSN 136.  A=6 and K=3.

Central Cambridge

 This was Bridge Street, Cambridge yesterday.

10m 500mW WSPR (Monday)

My beacon was turned on before breakfast.

UPDATE  2050z:   24 stations have spotted me. See table.

6m 5W FT8 (Monday)

My gear was turned on before breakfast.

UPDATE 2058z:  37 stations have spotted me including 2 in South America. See map.

Monday plans

 Again today I  expect to go on 6m QRP FT8 and 10m QRP WSPR.

Homemade cheese scones

For a first attempt, these turned out well. They looked good and tasted good. 

See https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/classic-cheese-scones .

Harvest Festival time

In many places, this is the traditional time for Harvest Festival. Our church had a display on Sunday.

Sunspots - Monday October 6th

 Solar flux is 148 and the SSN 127. A=9 and K=0. 

Spitting Image

Years ago I used to enjoy watching Spitting Image on TV. I think it is a sign of a mature society if we can poke fun at our leaders without fear.  In some places making fun of your leader would have you imprisoned or even killed.

It is sometimes "near the bone" so I see it is now on YouTube. I think it reflects how society is these days.