Sodium batteries

Sodium rechargeable batteries are coming on stream. They will rival lithium-ion batteries and need no rare earth materials.

New reserve currency?

Since after WW2 and the Breton Woods meeting, the US dollar has been the reserve currency in the world. Oil is priced in US dollars.

However, the world is changing. The US dollar is no longer considered such a safe haven. Arguably, the USA is on the way down and China is on the way up.

Maybe the Chinese Yuan will become the currency everyone will trust and trade in?

CB FT8

 A few days ago I read that 27.265MHz was a popular spot for CB FT8, so I am monitoring it.

UPDATE 1436z:  329CZ045 (1020km) has appeared on PSKreporter screen from the Czech Republic. I guess I must mug up on CB callsigns!

UPDATE 1556z:  Spotting several CBers in southern Europe. Many of the callsigns mean nothing to me! I need to search these on Google.

UPDATE 1559z:   A useful resource appears to be https://www.radio-workshop.co.uk/pdf/cb-callsigns-table.pdf.

UPDATE 1803z:  6 stations have been spotted. See map.

10m 200mW WSPR (Tuesday)

My beacon was turned on at about 0715z.

UPDATE 1326z : 22 stations spotting me.  Best is K3FEF (5590km). See map  from WSPR Rocks.

Sunspots - Tuesday July 28th

 Solar flux is 147 and the SSN 89. A=7 and K=1.

Swifts (birds)

Swifts are birds that fly to the UK to breed, arriving here about mid May. They stay a few months, then go. Apart from nesting they eat, breed and sleep on the wing. As of Sunday, they were still around. 

Often, they just go and it takes a few days to realise they are no longer around. Their return each May always gladdens my heart.

UPDATE July 28th: Still swifts here.

Russia in trouble?

In the last few months Ukraine has changed its method of fighting the war with Russia.  

Increasingly Ukraine is hitting oil refineries in Russia leading to a fuel shortage.  Russia continues to hit Ukraine, but the strikes in Russia are leading to real problems.

Chariots of the Gods?

When I was younger a popular non-fiction book was "Chariots of the Gods" by Erich von Daniken. I see it is still available from Amazon. 

The premise of the book, as I recall, was that we might have been visited by aliens from other worlds that people interpreted as supernatural. Remember we still believed in witches not too long ago!

The premise might be wrong, but remember people would not have known how to interpret such events back then. 

It is possible that many past things and religious events could have had a non-supernatural origin. This is true in the Jewish and Christian traditions and in other great religions around the world.

I am not saying these great events were not supernatural, but they could have been something totally outside of the experiences of people at the time.

It is true to say, I am agnostic.

Who are the real experimenters?

Sadly there are fewer experimenters around these days. 

In the early days of amateur radio everyone had to build their own gear as commercial products simply did not exist. In more recent times people, in the main, have bought transceivers mainly from Japan.  

One person stands out as a real experimenter, VK3YE, who has always been prepared to "roll up his sleeves" and try things. He has made lots of videos, written books and runs a website.  To my mind he is a real radio amateur. Thank you.

Future amateur allocations

The nature of LF, MF and shortwave is changing. 

As mentioned before, it would not surprise me if the military in many countries "reserves" access rights "just in case" satellites are not available for any reason. 

Hopefully, experimenters could be granted access except in times of conflict.

In my view, this is NOT just radio amateurs. I would like to think that anyone could be granted access to wide chunks of spectrum, for experimental work, with strict rules about ID and closing down in cases of emergency or interference. You would expect PTTs to want emails, addresses and phone numbers in case anyone had to be notified to close down.