This used to be a very important day in the UK. It is Lady Day, which marked the day of the annunciation of Mary in the Christian calendar.
In secular affairs it was a Quarter Day on which long contracts were often settled.
I remember it as the day in 1959 when we moved house!
UPDATE 1611z: Spotted by 4 stations with the best PP5ZX{10058km). See table.
For weeks I have been following the 2 bit Da Vinci videos on the Donut batteries recently announced. It really looks as if this is real.
I truly think we are on the edge of a real breakthough at last.
At about 1505z, I changed to 10m WSPR with my beacon.
UPDATE 1544z: 4 spots by EA8BFK (2880km).
Later I hope to go on 10m FT8, mainly RX.
All being well it should be available in July. Most of the parts are already placed on the PCB.
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/.
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.
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.
My beacon was turned on at about 1516z.
UPDATE 2142z: Spots lots of times by EA8BFK (2880km). Now QRT.
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.
"Poking the hornets nest" comes to mind. Let's hope those who started it know how to end it.
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.
My QDX-M was turned on at about 0852z. Apart from a very brief TX period, I am RX only.
It is owned by the University of Cambridge, UK.
.jpeg)
The photo shows the Droitwich transmitter near Birmingham.
This is licence free and does not need the internet.
Instead I think it sends messages using a mesh network, so the more users the better.
Recently there has been a great deal of excitement over Donut batteries and their claim to have produced a solid state battery with some remarkable properties.
The only way to be sure about what it is would be a tear-down of one of these batteries.
Some independent testing casts some doubts on these claims.
What is certain is that whichever company brings a solid state battery to market first will start a real revolution and make a lot of money!
If it ever came to market I would expect the price to be very keen as there could potentially be a huge market if it was programmable for different bands like all the flavours of CB bands, 10m and 12m amateur bands.
The Iranian war is what they call asymmetric in that you have the power and might of the USA and Israel against Iran that has many low cost drones and can choke off the Straight of Hormuz .
Israel probably wants regime change whereas the USA is probably looking for an off ramp to avoid misery in the rest of this presidency.
My beacon was turned on at about 0630z.
Many of the videos on YouTube are now AI generated sadly.
When these allow you to imagine what life was like like maybe 1000 years ago they can be very useful. Some of these are very good.
Sadly, it is all too easy to create a famous person saying something that they would never ever say. The sad thing is people believe this is true.
The only thing is to assume the video is an AI creation unless you can be absolutely sure of the source.
We have had good weather yesterday and today.
My beacon was turned on at about 0900z.
UPDATE 2232z: Spotted by 12 stations.
Sorry but I can’t follow the logic of US President Trump. At one moment he declares he has won the war with Iran, then he is calling on NATO allies to clear the Strait of Hormuz, now he doesn’t need help. He seems to alter his position every day?
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
