Comfort food

 

Today is wet and miserable, so we had real comfort food for lunch.

10m 200mW WSPR (Thursday)

My beacon was turned on at about 1055z.

UPDATE 1117z: Spotted by 7 stations.

6m 5W FT8 (Thursday)

 My gear was turned on just after 1100z. It would appear that 6m is again open to the USA.

UPDATE 1305z:   So far, 130 stations have spotted me and I have spotted plenty of Europeans and 3 stations in the USA. My best report is from D4L (4517km) in the Cape Verde Islands.

Amazon

Like Marmite in the UK, people either love or hate Amazon. 

Some say that it will lead to the death of high street shops. I have mixed views. 

On Tuesday I ordered some 9V batteries. They arrived from Amazon on my doorstep just 14 hours later! No doubt as they had no shop to maintain, they were also far less expensive.  The alternative would have been a 2 hour bus ride into Cambridge and back.

Yes, home shopping results in fewer jobs, especially for young people, which is a bad thing. However, this is how we shop these days. In my view the high street shops that will survive are those that adapt to the new reality. Those that fail to adapt will close.

Human interaction is important: no doubt places where people can meet, like coffee shops, will become ever more popular in future. 

With AI, robot bots, cash machines and self-service check-outs, there is less human interaction. In my view these will be replaced by some other form of human interaction in future.

The world is changing.

Donut batteries

Earlier this year, to massive interest, a European company, with great fanfare, announced a new rechargeable battery with some remarkable properties. If true, this promised a real breakthrough which would have a massive impact on electric vehicles, mass storage batteries etc.. 

Although I have only secondhand information, allegedly, it looks like a scam to draw in investors. 

Meanwhile, major battery companies like CATL in China are making huge strides and investing greatly. 

If true, that this was a scam, many will be saddened.

Thursday plans

 Today I have three objectives. As rain is forecast, and no thunder is expected, today is a good day to do these.

1. Test the Heathkit HW8 transceiver. This requires 6.35mm mono jacks for the headphones and CW key. I have no idea where my CW key is! Probably I shall have to tap the wire ends together and look on the RBN.

2. Go on 10m with my 200mW beacon.

3. Go on 6m 3W FT8.

Quick - before the rain!

Today we have rain forecast most of the day. 

Yesterday we bought the remaining pot plants from the garden centre, which we hope to plant before the rain!

UPDATE 0937z:  Drizzle.

Sunspots - Thursday June 11th

 Solar flux is 124 and the SSN 114.   A=7 and K=2.

Thunder stops play

Stations spotting me today on 5W 6m FT8

We had (may still be having) the biggest transatlantic opening on 6m this Es season.  Already, I have been spotted by VA2WA (5221km) in Canada and I have spotted a wide number of stations on 6m FT8 in the USA and Canada.

Nearby storms

Then the thunder came and I had to disconnect everything! The map shows where my 5W to the V2000 vertical omni was spotted today .... before the storm stopped play,

Sodium batteries

Clearly, an issue with rechargeable batteries based on lithium is availability as lithium is a rare earth, so resources are limited. CATL has said sodium batteries are dropping in price dramatically. This could help EV sales and that of mass storage batteries.