Hollyhocks - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows Church Lane in our village. The hollyhocks look good but they do self seed and spread! 

10m WSPR TX

I keep forgetting that when on 6m FT8, the 10m antenna is free. As this is the case, I am on 10m WSPR TX (500mW) at the moment. Already (at 1015z) 11 unique stations spotting me and I have not been on that long! It seems every slot I get several 10m WSPR spots.

Stations spotting
me to 1315z today

UPDATE 1318z: 36 stations have spotted me so far today on 10m WSPR. My impression is there are more stations on 10m WSPR than last year.

UPDATE 2142z:  Spotted by 66 stations today on 10m WSPR.

Sunspots - Sunday July 11th 2021

 Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 24. A=6 and K=1.

AM operation

It is some while since I was on 2m or 6m AM. 

There has been something of a revival in AM, although AM should not be used on busy bands. There are AM nets on 160m, 80m and 40m. I am looking forward to again hearing 10m AM from the USA just above 29MHz.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/vhf-am .

Devon rain - NOT amateur radio

When I was growing up I lived in Devon. We had a saying, "come to sunny Devon where it rains 6 days out of 7".  This photo was 4 years ago .... in the rain! 

Dad's seats - NOT amateur radio

 We visited Devon in 2017 when this photo was taken.

6m FT8 today (Sunday)

After breakfast I hope to go on 6m FT8 with 2.5W and the V2000 vertical omni antenna. Yesterday I was on 10m FT8 and spotted and worked plenty. 

UPDATE 0939z:  I have been on 6m FT8 RX since 0848z. 98 stations spotted with the furthermost HZ1SK (4759km).

UPDATE 1011z: 126 stations spotted so far o 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1825z: 781 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX including 14 in the USA and 2 in the Caribbean.

UPDATE 2146z: 801 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX.

Time - NOT amateur radio

Over 50 years ago I did a very mathematical course at university on quantum mechanics. It was fascinating. 

One thing I remember was that everything can be thought of as a wave function existing in all space and all time. What we experience here and now is just most probable. Tunnel diodes only work because there is a finite probability of electrons existing the other sides of a wall by a process known as quantum mechanical tunnelling.

Now, I may have some things wrong, but what this taught me is that a very radical view is equally possible. We experience time as going from the past into the future, whereas this may be totally wrong. What if memories are new every day? What if time is just an illusion? One thing is sure: in the next 150 years some of our views and assumptions may prove to be quite wrong. Think how are views have changed in the last 150 years. In the future I am sure we will look back in amazement.

What we know today is fuzzy. As time goes by we may change our world view radically.

Yesterday - NOT amateur radio

One of our grandchildren is mad on churches and has been since he was 2. He is now 13. Yesterday we visited 2 locally by car. Odd, as he and his family are not in the least religious. 

10m FT8 Grabber

 If you want to see what I am spotting here on 10m FT8, look at the grabber on my website. This uses embedding, so may not work on some browsers. If so, you may have to go straight to PSKreporter.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/10m-ft8-grabber .