Hot work! - NOT amateur radio

Our local museum (across the road) has a blacksmith's forge run by Will, the blacksmith. The photo was taken on Saturday when temperatures were 33 degrees Celsius in the shade and very humid. Not the sort of weather to be in a hot forge!

Sunspots - Monday June 23rd

 Solar flux is 125 and the SSN 80. A=9 and K=3.

Banana warehouse - NOT amateur radio

My wife’s great grandfather was a banana merchant in Sheffield who lived from 1857-1927.

10m QRP WSPR (Sunday)

My 500mW beacon was turned on at breakfast.

UPDATE 0917z:  Spotted by 4 stations so far. Usually, I check for spots on WSPRnet, but accidentally left PSKreporter on 10m. Interestingly, just one of the 4 WSPR stations appeared.

6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

 

My 5W to the V2000 vertical omni antenna has been on since breakfast.

UPDATE 0932z:   40 stations have spotted me. It looks like most are by Es.

UPDATE 1508z: 350 stations have spotted my 5W 6m FT8 with the furthest UN3M (3553km) in Kazakhstan.

UPDATE 2130z: Now QRT but 355 stations have spotted me today - nearly  all European. See map .

Sunspots - Sunday June 22nd

 Solar flux is 125 and the SSN 87. A=10 and K=2.

Lightning maps

Although storms are more likely to occur further north, I like to assess the risks by looking at the lightning maps. At the moment the risk looks very low.

See https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=0;y=27.9497;x=10.4637;z=4;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;

The fog of war - NOT amateur radio

Recently Israel and Iran have been fighting a war in the air. The Ukraine war has been raging since early 2022. Israel has been at war in Gaza since it was attacked in late 2023.

One common factor is "the fog of war". That is each side tries to outdo the other by spreading often false data. Recently, AI has been used.

All I am saying is this: it is very very easy to believe everything you see whereas it is quite common for this data to be wrong, especially during wars. Caveat emptor.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k78715enxo .

10m 5W FT8

My gear was turned on at breakfast time.

UPDATE 1049z: So far,  93 stations have spotted me and I have spotted 52 stations here.

UPDATE 1525z: 170 stations have spotted me today. See map.

UPDATE 1840z: 196 stations have spotted my 10m 5W FT8 today. Although several stations in South America have spotted me, no spots of me from the Caribbean or USA.

Gilbert and Sullivan light opera - NOT amateur radio

In the UK, G&S light operas performed by local groups have become a tradition. These were written back in the late nineteenth century.

Last night we went to a local group performing in the village. They did “The Gondoliers” which is a favourite. My brother was in this in Devon in the late 1950s. 

When we got home it was 10.20pm and it was still just light. The photo shows the windmill next door at 10.20pm.

It was the longest day. Although night get about 1 minute later for a little while, the mornings start to get darker. It seems no time since the winter solstice!