10m 200mW WSPR (Monday)

 My beacon is back to full power: 200mW!! It was turned on at breakfast.

UPDATE 0853z:  28 stations have spotted me.

Morris dancing

 

This was outside Ely Cathedral, UK, on Saturday. 

Morris dancing is very old dating back at least to the 1400s.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance .

Sunspots - Monday August 10th

 Solar flux is 94 and the SSN 41. A=7 and K=1.

Sunflowers

  

 Earlier today we went to a farm specialising in sunflowers. As we are now in our 5th heatwave they were probably at their best a few weeks ago. They close to the public next weekend. 

You can pick your own with the money going to charity. 

They are such a sunny flower. 

 The photo shows me with my son.

Is Pete Hegseth about to be "thrown under a bus"?

The Times Trump Report (I think this is genuine) is talking about a row between President Trump and  Pete Hegseth. I have no idea if this true.

YouTube and AI

These days it is very hard to tell what is really said and what is AI created.   Even with sources you know and trust it is hard to tell if this is just an AI creation aiming to get money from clicks. 

My advice has always been to use multiple sources.

Maybe it is safer to get videos from the original site so you can check the URL?

10m 6.3mW WSPR TX (Sunday)

At about 0814z, my 10m WSPR beacon was turned on with my 15dB attenuator directly on the beacon output so I had about 6.3mW output. At the antenna the power (allowing for cable loss) was less than 6mW.

UPDATE 0910z:  Spotted by 10 stations in Europe, probably Es.  I would expect to be spotted by several stations, but less often, as some spots will be too weak.  By the way, it will still report me using 200mW as this is pre-programmed in the beacon, even though I have now got an extra 15dB attenuator in line.

UPDATE 1723z: Spotted by 19 stations.

Boy's Toys

For some reason, amateur radio is a hobby appealing mainly to men. 

There are other hobbies too that appeal mainly to men, like train spotting and model railways.

Yesterday, whilst we were at Ely, there was a gathering of the MG MX-5 owners club. 

At a guess there were about 100 cars there, maybe more. I can imagine the conversations!

SPAM comments

 A gentle reminder that all comments are vetted by me first. Any that are basically adverts will NOT appear on this site. Comments that are relevant will usually appear within hours.

2m activity contest

Last Tuesday was the 2m activity contest (UKAC). As usual, I did not stop on long because of my poor voice and low ERP. 

2 stations were worked on SSB in the first 13 minutes then I QSYed to 6m FT8. Many  more would have been worked if I stayed longer. Maybe another time I should really try for longer?