Sunspots - Saturday August 16th

 Solar flux is 123 and the SSN 168. A=7 and K=2.

Sunspots - Friday August 15th

 Solar flux is 123 and the SSN 170 . A=8 and K=2 . 

Old QSL cards

Looking through some old photos I chanced on 79 old USA QSL cards. I must have downloaded these years ago. I can’t remember where they were from. This one dates from 1934 .

Unless I missed it, I can’t see the band? 🤔

Football mad?

Last year Liverpool FC were crowned champions in the UK. This is Anfield where they play their home matches.

Radio changing

 Already some countries have switched off Band II FM radio totally and there are far fewer shortwave stations with English language broadcasts. 

Many people do not receive realtime broadcasts preferring to select what they want to receive when they want from services such as iPlayer, Amazon Prime or Netflix. Much of what they want is via the internet rather than “over the air“. 

What is clear is that things are changing. 

Sunrise over Iraq

My  grandson took this shot out of an airplane window of the sunrise somewhere over Turkey or Iraq.

Sunspots- Thursday August 14th

 Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 157. A=15 and K=2.

Echolink

 I am not a great fan of EchoLink but chanced upon GB3HN-R which seems to link many repeaters (?) connected by Hublink. Every time I have connected it has been busy.

Sunspots - Wednesday August 13th

Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 152. A-=15 and K=3.

Paddy’s wigwam

 

This is the name given to the Roman Catholic cathedral in Liverpool. From the outside it is a fairly boring round concrete building (hence the name) but inside the light and colour are amazing.

Perseid meteor shower

This peaks tonight I think. Often meteor showers are linked to good VHF propagation due to their ionised trails . Often signals are brief but strong.

Liverpool Lime Street railway station

 Most years we spend a few days with our best man (1971!!) who lives near  Liverpool. The photo is Liverpool Lime Street station . I 

Anglesey Abbey near Cambridge

 We go here for a walk every few weeks.

70cm activity contest this evening

 The second Tuesday in the month is usually the UKAC activity contest run by the RSGB starting at 1900z. Activity on SSB is good. 

Sunspots - Tuesday August 12th

 Solar flux is 146 and the SSN 157. A=17 and K=3.

10m 1W FT8 (Monday)

 My gear was turned on late morning.

UPDATE 1436z:  70 stations have spotted me.

More Google Adsense rubbish

 Last month alone I was supposed to have had about a third of my all time blog visits. 

Also yesterday I was supposed to have had far more visits than normal.  

Personally, I think this is total garbage.

OXFAM petition

Many of my best friends are Jewish and I hope I treat every human being the same whatever their faith or none.  What happened on October 7th 2023 was despicable.

However, I cannot understand how the UK government still sells arms to Israel and is allegedly training IDF soldiers on UK soil.

I am appalled by the death and destruction in Gaza and, like many in Israel, see no point in carrying on. Hamas is no longer a threat to Israel and the longer the fighting continues the more hated the state of Israel will be around the world. 

Also, surely continued fighting will persuade many to hate Israel even more. So, continuation is self-defeating.

Also, why are no journalists allowed into Gaza? Is Israel ashamed?

Although I have doubts it will do much good, OXFAM is organising a petition aimed at stopping the UK supplying arms to Israel. I urge you to sign it.

See https://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-oxfam/end-uk-arms-sales-to-israel/

UPDATE  0749z:  It appears over 500 people protesting against genocide in Gaza were arrested at the weekend. Their mistake was to have "I support Palestine Action" on their placards. Palestine Action is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.  A better wording would have been "I oppose genocide in Palestine".  I hope all protesters are freed without charge.

VLF earth-mode tests in 2011

 

As part of my experiments with VLF earth-mode was a test in 2011 at just over 17kHz using my 20m separated earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

Sunspots - Monday August 11th

 Solar flux is 153 and the SSN 155. A=22 and K=4.

/P 10m QRP

 This was me operating /P at 1W SSB on 10m in my mother’s garden in Devon. I recall hearing a 6m beacon in Northern Canada on a whip antenna.

Judging by the hair, it must’ve been years ago!!

The murky world

There was a lot of panic when the Chinese launched their AI model DeepSeek earlier this year. 

The West would like to eavesdrop on countries they think could be a threat. I am sure there is a lot that goes on that most have no knowledge of. Perhaps it's best we don't know. 

One thing we can be sure about: every major power is spying!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gez754mn6o

Hope Cove

This is a sleepy seaside village in South Devon, UK.  

I can trace my family history continuously in this village back to the mid 1550s. 

The photo is of the village 120 years ago.

10m 500mW WSPR (Sunday)

My beacon was turned on before breakfast.

UPDATE 2024z: 21 stations have spotted me. The furthest is again V51RS (8481km). QRT now.

6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

My gear was turned on just before breakfast.

UPDATE 2021z:  268 stations have spotted me. I assume this is Es still. Is the Es season longer this year? See map.  QRT.

Sunspots - Sunday August 10th

 Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 137. A=47 and K=3.

MLS and the Yaesu FTX-1

Unsurprisingly, MLS is singing the praises of the new Yaesu FTX-1. They clearly want to sell it, especially to the customers that put down a deposit. 

In my view it was seriously over priced in the UK and lacks many features as standard. I decided not to bother.

10m 500mW WSPR (Saturday)

My beacon has been on since about 1006z.

UPDATE 1435z: 20 stations spotting me by what seems like Es.

6m 5W FT8 (Saturday)

 My gear has been on since about 1005z.

UPDATE 1600z:  220 spots of me so far. 

The biggest question of all

One thing is certain: we all die, whether born poor or rich and whatever country we inhabit. 

Some with a strong faith will say they know, but most have no idea. Some believe we just die. Others believe we go to heaven or hell. Some believe we are reincarnated. The truth is we have no idea. 

As a younger person, our death seems far away. As we get older we are more aware that our time is limited.

Rye UK

 

One of my Facebook memories today was of a visit some years ago to Rye in Sussex, UK. This is lovely place. 

Saturday plans

 Today I shall probably go on 10m 500mW WSPR and 6m 5W FT8. 

Sunspots - Saturday August 9th

 Solar flux is 148 and the SSN 177. A=22 and K=5.

Near Lancaster

Our son and grandson are on their way back from Glasgow and passed Lancaster about an hour ago. My son has sent me this photo.

Swifts (birds) gone?

It is over a week since I have seen a swift. They breed here, but migrate to warmer climes until the spring. 

I guess it will be next May before I see any more here.

10m 1W FT8 (Friday)

 My gear was turned  on at about  0930z. 

UPDATE 1017z:  53 stations have spotted me.

1kHz earth-mode 2011

 

The photo shows my 2011 experiments with 5W at just over 1kHz. A range from home of 6km was made.

Sunspots - Friday August 8th

 Solar flux is 151 and the SSN 150. A=4 and K=1.

Es in August

 Although I cannot be sure, recent spots on 10m QRP WSPR and 6m QRP FT8 look like Es. 

In many ways, this has been as good as at any time this season. The usual pattern is Es diminishes about now with a small peak for some reason in December/January.

I just wonder if Es is somehow related to global warming? 

Certainly the very long 6m paths to the Far East from Europe linked to  mesospheric clouds are more common. 

10m 500mW WSPR (Thursday)

My beacon was turned on just before 0800z.

UPDATE 1330z: 34 spots of me. V51RS (8481km) is the furthest.

UPDATE 2047z: QRT.

6m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

In a short while I intend to go on 6m FT8 with my 5W FT8 to the vertical omni V2000 antenna.

UPDATE 1712z:  My 6m FT8 was turned on at about 0808z.  323 stations spotting me. Mainly Es? Nothing transatlantic. See map.

UPDATE 2047z: QRT.

2m FT8 yesterday evening

Stations spotted on
2m FT8 with
the big-wheel yesterday

Yesterday evening was the 2m FT8 activity contest. 

I worked a couple of stations with my 5W and big-wheel omni antenna. 

In all 123 stations were spotted. I was mostly on RX. 

I am sure some sort of scatter is involved. 

Sunspots - Thursday August 7th

 Solar flux is 158 and the SSN 154 . A=6 and K=0.

What a difference

We had a very dry spell in July and the grass turned brown. 

Since then we have had about 60mm of rain. The grass is long and green. 

The flowers have done well too.

Acceptance

Maybe this is something that happens in old age?  

In our youth and adult life we (hopefully) have had some happy memories. We seem to chase these forever, trying to recreate them.

As we get older we have to accept them for what they were: good memories, that cannot be recreated.  We must waste valuable energy trying to chase these, when in reality we have to accept that we had these and be thankful.

See https://poets.org/poem/shropshire-lad-xl

Someone wrote that we grow old too soon and wise too late!

10m 500mW WSPR (Wednesday)

My beacon was turned on at 0840z.

UPDATE 0951z:  2 stations in Austria spotting me.

UPDATE 1310z: V51RS (8481km) has spotted me several times in addition to a few Europeans.

2m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

 In the end I went on 2m QRP FT8.  

Stations spotting my 5W FT8
today to the big-wheel omni

UPDATE 1301z:  23 stations have spotted me. People wonder why 2m is quiet these days. They obviously don't check FT8 as this is where people seemed to have moved to! 12 stations spotted on RX.

UPDATE 1346z: On 2m FT8 RX only for a period. 18 stations have been spotted   here. 

Stations spotted
here at 1745z
on 2m FT8

UPDATE 1745z:  49 stations have been spotted here.

Wednesday plans

 This evening is the 2m FT8 activity contest which I shall take part in. During the day I shall probably go on 6m QRP FT8 and 10m QRP WSPR.

Sunspots - Wednesday August 6th

 Solar flux is 157 and the SSN 120. A=10 and K=2.

Badger sett?

 This afternoon we went for a walk. This hole in the ground was about 40cm across, far too big to be a rabbit hole.Badger sett?