New Zealand blog - NOT amateur radio

My wife was cleaning a shelf and came across a photo album of our 2009 trip to New Zealand. In those days I was fit! Now, I seem to be tired a lot of the time.

It is amazing what you forget. Luckily, I did a blog and we can look back and recall the visit.  It is a magical place, although I doubt we'll ever get back there.

If you get a chance, do go. At every turn it is beautiful and the people are warm and welcoming. It is NOT like the UK. Yes, the people speak English and lots of the birds in towns are English ones, but the wild places are different with wild tree ferns and many trees quite different. 4 million people instead of more than 60 million helps!

See http://roglap.blogspot.co.uk/

Blog issue?

At the moment I am experiencing an issue with my blog. I have tried to correct a post error using both Edge and Chrome but neither will allow me to make the correction!

In the 10m JT65 post it should say "using the format "B callsign locator"" and the bit in bold should not be. My apologies.

UPDATE 1500z: It appears the blog does not like me using the sort of brackets used in URLs. Changing these to colons works OK.  I have now corrected the 10m JT65 post.

Blog posts unlikely for a week - NOT amateur radio

Although the house is occupied, it is probable that I will not have internet for about 7 days. So, if no posts appear, don't panic! If things go to plan I should be blogging again around Sept 23rd or 24th.

Amateur Radio Blog

See http://www.amateurradio.com/.

There is usually something of interest on this blog, so I take a look most days.

Going away

When I've been away it seems to take a few days before readers return. Perhaps they assume I've died and am never returning!

Anyway, don't panic I am still here and intend to be around for a good few years to come. If the blog disappears for a week or so, I am probably unable to access my blog as I am away or the internet is down.

The longest "outage" was when I was in hospital for 3.5 months 3 years ago.

Back Home - NOT amateur radio

We were away for a few nights in Liverpool staying with our best man of 45 years ago. This is where I was at university a long time ago. This has meant no blog updates for a few days.

Away - NOT amateur radio

As you may have guessed, we have been away for a couple of nights so there were no blog updates yesterday. Normal service should soon be resumed.

New record - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday there were more visitors to this blog than ever before and today, already, the numbers are even higher. Thank you.

Posts are about things that interest me and I hope you find some posts of interest too. Most, but not all, are about amateur radio. 

In the hobby I take a low key approach. My spending is only modest - it is only a hobby - but getting results with low power and home made kit is fun. Since my stroke nearly 3 years ago I have not been able to do as much, but hopefully things will still improve.

My website and blogs

Every now and again I like to remind people of my main website and blogs. My main website (not updated too often) has details of my projects. The blogs get updated most days and are where I put news or things that are of interest to me.

www.g3xbm.co.uk  - Main website
g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.co.uk/ - Amateur radio (mainly) blog - updated most days
qss2.blogspot.co.uk/ - Miscellaneous Musings blog - updated most weeks
eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/  - East Anglian churches blog - updated when we visit a church in the area

Secure blog connection if you want

Set your link to https://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com if you want a secure blog connection. This is a recent Google change. The old links should still work. Note the https not http:// in the URL.

Google changes to blog address - NOT amateur radio

To get to my blogs you may have to change the URL. See the following from Google:

Coming in late April!
All visitors will be able to view your Blogspot domain blogs over an encrypted connection by visiting https://.blogspot.com. Existing links and bookmarks to your blogs will continue to work. As part of this change, the HTTPS Availability setting will disappear, and your blogs will always have an HTTPS version.

7-day high - NOT amateur radio

Last weekend I was away staying with one of our sons with limited internet access. Yesterday, the number of visitors to this blog was at a weekly high again.

In the past I have been able to update the blogs using my Apple iPod Touch 4g and Safari, but this no longer works for some reason. So, unless I take a PC with me I have to wait until I get back home.

Amateur Radio Blog

This blog often has interesting posts, including the occasional ones from me and Steve G1KQH! Although an American blog, there is often content of interest to those in Europe.

See http://www.amateurradio.com .

New record number of visits to blog

Yesterday saw a new high in daily visits to this blog. I have no idea why!

As you know, I try to reflect what interests me, what I am doing in our hobby and a few things which are unrelated to amateur radio. I intend to continue in much the same way, hoping you all find something of interest here. Please let me know if you think the blog is missing anything important.

Clearly there is a QRP bias, but my stroke has made me concentrate on what I can do. This year, I want more 2-way QSOs but as I find speech hard (for too long) I will be looking for JT65 and JT9-1 QSOs in the main.  Of course, these will be with just a few watts.  When not in the shack I shall be on WSPR monitoring elsewhere in the house.

As I am slower at spotting errors than I was, please let me know if you see any. I try to correct any I notice but I must miss some.

High post reads? - NOT amateur radio

Probably because many readers are on Christmas/New Year holiday, but I have already had as many blog visits as in a normal whole day and it is not yet teatime.

Merry Christmas to all readers

May I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2016?  I try to write about what I have done and what interests me and hope you are able to find something of interest here or on my webpages at www.g3xbm.co.uk .

Most days the blog gets updated, unless I am away or too unwell.

Blog visits - NOT amateur radio.

It puzzles me who visits my various blogs. Already today, the number of people visiting this blog is more than for the whole day a few days ago. I try to include items that appeal to others, although I confess it is as much a diary for me: it records what I have done and the things that matter to me.

Anyway, thank you for visiting and reading this and my other blogs. If you find any postings not to your liking you have some choices. One is to not read similar posts in future or you can tell me! I cannot please everyone but I hope, on the whole, you approve of the things posted.

For the record, my other blogs are:

East Anglian Churches - usually updated every few weeks. East Anglian churches we have visited.
Miscellaneous Musings - updated several times a week. Miscellaneous thoughts.

Blog post numbers

I never fail to be amazed by what is popular on my blogs. Today, nothing special (I thought) was posted yet we seem to be heading for a new record number of visits. I have no idea why.

The finest church in England? - NOT amateur radio

Alec Clifton-Taylor once called Walpole St Peter the finest church in England. Today, for the 4th time, we visited it and I have updated our East Anglia Churches blog accordingly. It is a real gem.

See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ .

East Anglia Churches blog

Sorry, this is not amateur radio.

Today my wife and I visited her old ancestral home at Wymondham in Norfolk. Some of her family lived here in the 1800s.

We visited the fine abbey there which was founded in 1107AD. We record our visits on a blog, which we updated.

The photo is of the market square in the middle of the town.

See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ .