The dates for this are expected to be March 19-31 2026. I imagine the pile-ups will be massive! I hope to hear them, but my days of chasing DX are gone! I am not sure what modes or bands they plan.
9 Dec 2025
OFCOM and satellites
Today OFCOM announced its final decisions about direct to smartphone communication via satellites. This could allow ordinary smartphones to use satellites to communicate giving coverage at sea and in very remote areas. Currently this needs special satellite phones. I am not sure what antennas will be needed as special satellite phones currently have bulky antennas.
How this develops remains to be seen.
AD and BC
Has the world gone stupid?
The "politically correct" phrases are now BCE and CE (common era). Whether we believe in Jesus Christ or are of some other faith or none, why the heck change it?
In my view this political correctness gone mad.
8 Dec 2025
Sable Island 2026 DXpedition
Sable Island is a small island of shifting sands in the North Atlantic belonging to Canada. There is a DXpediton there in 2026. I think there are no people permanently living there.
There are wild horses there. It is continually changing shape.
Change of plan
In the end I decided to go on 10m 500mW WSPR TX. 10 stations have spotted me 6 of which were in the USA.
UPDATE 2010z: Spotted by 12 stations. Now QRT.
zBITX
You may like this transceiver from India. For the price it is remarkable. It is built around a Raspberry Pi.
Monday plans - no radio?
As we have to go into Cambridge for some Christmas shopping, I may not go on the radio today.
Museum at Christmas
In the main museum, there was face painting, mulled wine, minced pies and much more. We helped with the raffle.
In all, it was a great. happy, occasion for all, especially the children.
7 Dec 2025
10m 500mW WSPR (Sunday)
My beacon has been on since about 1115z.
UPDATE 1607z: 12 stations have spotted me. See table.
UPDATE 2138z: QRT
6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)
UPDATE 1132z: Spotted by 2 English stations.
UPDATE 1603z: 13 stations have spotted me. See map.
UPDATE 2140z: 18 stations spotted QRT.
That time of year!
We’re helping today.
WSPR?
The impression I am getting is that WSPR is going down in popularity whereas FT8 is going up. I was considering buying a dedicated multi-band WSPR TX and WSPR RX. I am having second thoughts.
WSPR needs less bandwidth (about 6Hz) than FT8 (about 50Hz) but WSPR is more sensitive by about 10dB. Maybe many cannot make use of this because of local noise. Also FT8 allows 2-way QSOs.
Last evening I tried 40m WSPR and FT8. On WSPR I spotted nobody, whereas on FT8 I spotted 12 stations in a similar period.
6 Dec 2025
AI crappery
At one time I enjoyed YouTube, but sadly you no longer can be sure that anything is real.
I watched a very long video supposed to be by Brian Cox. It was clearly not by Brian Cox. Last week I watched a video that was meant to be the thoughts of Einstein.
The message is clear: you cannot know what is real and what is AI. The only thing you can do is assume everything is generated by AI unless you can be absolutely certain of the source.
Is there a universe?
This is a philosophical question.
Is there any way of proving anything exists outside of ourselves?
We observe everything through our senses and neurons. What happens when these are no more? Does the world and universe still exist or is it only there because we observe it?
Ralph Waldo Emerson quote
" Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
This was a quote I cam across earlier from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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