Colourful border - NOT amateur radio

We pass this colourful border on one of our walks around the village. 

8m experiment (Tuesday)

Yesterday was dire with no stations spotted on RX and nobody spotting me on FT8 TX on 8m. Even 10m had no Es here. Hopefully today will be better. Well it can't be worse!!

Currently on 40.680 MHz USB dial FT8 TX. 

UPDATE 0951z:   No spots yet on 8m TX or RX.

UPDATE 1025z:  Still no spots on 8m FT8 TX or RX today. Apart from the remote chance of contacting some of the USA experimenters by chordal hop Es this summer, I think I have exchanged reports (won't say QSO!!) with all the stations I am likely to. The ZS stations are unlikely to spot me with my low ERP, even though I have spotted ZS6WAB on 8m FT8. I suspect the latter was TEP and Es together, as we are a bit too far north for pure TEP.

UPDATE 1855z:   No Es today, in fact no spots again on TX  or RX.

Sunspots - Tuesday May 10th 2022

Solar flux is 117 and the SSN 71.  A=8 and K=0.

Swifts - NOT amateur radio

For me, the return of the swifts from Africa is important. Today I saw several overhead. All is well. Swifts have been doing this long before I was born and hopefully long after I have gone. 

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/swift/ .

OFCOM consultations

OFCOM is consulting on Short-Range Devices and 26 GHz and 40 GHz uses. See the OFCOM website for details.

How times change!

When I was first licenced in the late 1960s, I wanted a Codar AT5 transmitter.  At the time it was the state of the art.  This was a valved 12W AM/CW transmitter. I never had one. 

I had the companion T28 RX, which was rubbish. I think the pair were really meant for mobile use, as most mobile in those days was on 160m AM. My T28 was a university prize for a VLF project on whistlers. It ended up as a 4-6 MHz IF for a VHF converter. I recall hearing USA stations on 2m via Oscar 6 and Oscar 7.

I also had an Eddystone EC10 receiver. Apart from the mechanical construction, this too was rubbish.

We have come a long way since those days. Today, you can buy a multi-mode transceiver with internal batteries covering 160m -70cm in a smaller size than the AT5!   In fact, this has been available for more than 20 years!

Farm shop - NOT amateur radio

This is the view from a local farm shop. We eat at the café there occasionally. 

8m experiment (Monday)

All quiet today so far, with no spots given or received. 

UPDATE 2010:  A quiet day. No spots given or received.  Now QRT.

10m WSPR TX beacon (Monday)

All seems pretty quiet so far with just multiple spots of me by TA4/G8SCU (3010km). I think this is single hop F2 rather than Es. 

UPDATE 2014z:  3 unique stations spotting me (2 in the Canaries and 1 in Turkey). 

UPDATE 2030z:   The Canary Is stations are still spotting me! I wonder what time this will end?

Feeding by hand NOT amateur radio

This was me feeding pheasants by hand some years ago.