Today was very quiet here on 10m WSPR and 6m FT8 with very few Europeans spotting me.
The impression is we are coming to the end of the Es "season". There may still be good days but these will become less often and less widespread. Es is always fun whilst it lasts.
Both my wife and I are well within our space allocations of 100G for Google.
These last few days my wife has had issues with sub-mailboxes of Gmail either appearing very briefly or having nothing in them.
Some years ago I have a similar issue. In my case these sub-folders came back quite quickly. It is the same on 3 PCs so is definitely NOT a local problem at our end.
I am wondering if others have ever experienced this?
It is a bit worrying when these mail folders contain some vital information that cannot be seen.
My beacon was turned on late this morning. So far just spotted by one station in Switzerland.
UPDATE 1353z: As we get later in the summer any Es gets more patchy and less extensive. Yesterday was good, whereas today I have had only one spot that might have been Es. V51RS (8481km) often spots me. I guess this is F2/TEP.
In all, 69 stations spotted me yesterday. Most look like Es. This was one of my best days on 10m Es.
My 5W 6m FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna was heard all over Europe and in North and South America. In all, 566 stations spotted me.
It seems we are facing a new industrial revolution around the world. Many of the tasks done by humans can be done faster and better by machines running AI. Jobs we traditionally thought only humans could do are being replaced.
This is a two-edged sword. Boring repetitive work will go. Also, many skilled jobs will go.
The good side is many people can be employed more usefully. The bad side is many traditional jobs will go and bad actors could use AI for malicious means.
In my view, these things are here to stay and we have to adapt.
The safest jobs will be those that cannot be done by machines i.e. those that need real human interaction.
Many of the jobs that seemed "good" when I was young may not be the jobs to look for in the future.
My 5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni was turned on at about 0830z.
They work on RX and TX from VLF to 6GHz, making them ideal for experiments, especially with an external RF amp.
Output power is in the low milliwatt range and I expect a low pass filter would need to be added for "on air" use e.g. as a beacon.
I see MLS in the UK supplies them.
One of my friends on 365project lives in the Faroe Is. He posts some amazing photos.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands
UPDATE 1925z: 153 stations have spotted me. See map to see where I was spotted today. QRT soon.
My beacon has been on since about 0856z.
UPDATE 1929z: 13 stations have spotted me. One looks like F2 and the others probably Es. QRT soon.
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| Stations spotting me on 5W 6m FT8 this evening |
UPDATE 2107z: 116 stations have spotted me. Plenty of Es.. Most of my activity is now on FT8 or WSPR. I blame it on my poor voice, but generally there is a move away from other modes on HF and VHF/UHF. In the end I suspect we are moving into a future in which amateur radio may not exist or be very different. QRT soon.
Wimo has a video on YouTube about the FTX-1 Field. They did this before the radio arrived in Europe. It is quite a decent overview of the product.
It is quite a respectable radio but far too expensive in the UK and, I presume, mainland Europe. It comes without GPS and Bluetooth. If it was £999 or less I might have considered it, but at this utterly stupid price I am afraid, like many, I shall give it a miss.
For a long time I have said Yaesu has lost its way. They make some good products, many of which I have owned, but for some time they have appeared to have been drifting. I have serious concerns about their future in this market. I hope I am very wrong and the FTX-1 drops in price a long way!
These two leaders met in Alaska yesterday. They failed to reach an agreement on peace in Ukraine.
I gather the Ukrainian leader is travelling to Washington for talks with President Trump on Monday. I hope the president treats him better than the last time he went to Washington which won President Trump no friends around the world. It was utterly disgraceful.
We all want peace in Ukraine. I hope a settlement can be reached that is fair to everyone so all think they have won.
In my mind I think something like Germany after WW2 might work: clearly Russia has influence in the east of Ukraine and in Crimea. Maybe (for now) there is Western Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine. In 30 years time things could be very different as in Germany.
Whatever the final outcome Ukraine MUST be involved.
My 1W FT8 has been on since just after breakfast.
UPDATE 1747z: 73 stations have spotted me on 6 continents. 1W FT8 seems quite enough.
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| Stations spotted here on 10m FT8 |
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.
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.
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.
Most years we spend a few days with our best man (1971!!) who lives near Liverpool. The photo is Liverpool Lime Street station . I
The second Tuesday in the month is usually the UKAC activity contest run by the RSGB starting at 1900z. Activity on SSB is good.
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.
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.
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We go for walks in nearby Anglesey Abbey most months. This is a photo of the main house. The property is owned by the National Trust.
