The Chief Executive of the Scottish National Party (SNP) who was at one time married to the Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has pleaded guilty to embezzling £400k of party funds.
If it was my partner "splashing the cash" I am certain I would know. £400k is a huge amount.
Why did he do it?
My gear was turned on just before breakfast.
UPDATE 0840z: So far just spotted in England by several stations.
UPDATE 1328z: My station has been spotted by 249 stations despite running just 2W. 191 stations spotted here. Es produces some very strong signals! At first the novelty is having all of Europe on VHF. Then people start looking further afield.
UPDATE 1908z: Now QRT. 359 stations spotted my 2W FT8 and 343 stations spotted here.
My beacon was turned on before breakfast.
UPDATE 0837z: Spotted in Finland and Sweden.
UPDATE 1310z 58 stations have spotted me. When Es is good it gets all over Europe. Indeed some reports suggest low mW would have been enough.
UPDATE 1913z: Now QRT. 62 stations spotted me today. Mostly Es.
My IC-705 still produces no audio on USB-D TX but does on USB! For now I am using USB for FT8 rather than USB-D which seems to work fine. I assume the RX filtering is different?
It would appear that lithium-ion batteries look optimal for range and weight. The disadvantage is that lithium is a rare earth material with limited supplies.
It looks like sodium-ion batteries might be answer. Sodium is widely available. CATL, the worlds's largest battery manufacturer, has a huge order for sodium-ion batteries.
Often you hear that renewable energy is OK, but what happens when there is no sun for solar panels or no wind for wind farms?
These are fair comments. Of course, this energy could be stored in chemical batteries, but people are looking for other solutions. One of these might be using old mines for gravitational energy storage. Around the world there are millions of abandoned mines.
As technology improves, I am sure solutions will be found.
When I was younger and fitter, I enjoyed experimenting "at the boundaries". These days I cannot do that much.
In the past I have enjoyed amateur radio below 10kHz, over the horizon with 481THz red light, experimenting with earth-electrode antennas, earth-mode VLF TXing with 5W, 8m, extreme QRP, etc.. Most of my fun has been pushing the boundaries.
Sadly, few in our hobby are interested these days, which is sad. At the moment I try to do things I can experiment with at home. I just wish I was younger and fitter!
