Wild flowers near "our" windmill

As mentioned many times, we live next to a windmill. The photo shows the wild flowers between our hedge on the left and the windmill on the right.

Sunspots - Wednesday May 27th

 Solar flux is 141 and the SSN 148. A=8 and K=2.

Desperate men?

It would appear both President Trump and President Putin are likely to get even more desperate and reckless. The next 12 months could be very consequential for the world.

SNP Scandal

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?

6m 2W FT8 (Tuesday)

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.

10m 200mW WSPR (Tuesday)

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.

Puzzled

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?

Tuesday plans

 Currently my plans are to go on 10m 200mW WSPR and 6m FT8 at 2W.

Sunspots - Tuesday May 26th

 Solar flux is 139 and the SSN 132. A=8 and K=2.

EV battery technology

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.