Swifts (birds)

Swifts are birds that fly to the UK to breed, arriving here about mid May. They stay a few months, then go. Apart from nesting they eat, breed and sleep on the wing. As of Sunday, they were still around. 

Often, they just go and  it takes a few days to realise they are no longer around. Their return each May always gladdens my heart.

Russia in trouble?

In the last few months Ukraine has changed its method of fighting the war with Russia.  

Increasingly Ukraine is hitting oil refineries in Russia leading to a fuel shortage.  Russia continues to hit Ukraine, but the strikes in Russia are leading to real problems.

Chariots of the Gods?

When I was younger a popular non-fiction book was "Chariots of the Gods" by Erich von Daniken. I see it is still available from Amazon. 

The premise of the book, as I recall, was that we might have been visited by aliens from other worlds that people interpreted as supernatural. Remember we still believed in witches not too long ago!

The premise might be wrong, but remember people would not have known how to interpret such events back then. 

It is possible that many past things and religious events could have had a non-supernatural origin. This is true in the Jewish and Christian traditions and in other great religions around the world.

I am not saying these great events were not supernatural, but they could have been something totally outside of the experiences of people at the time.

It is true to say, I am agnostic.

Who are the real experimenters?

Sadly there are fewer experimenters around these days. 

In the early days of amateur radio everyone had to build their own gear as commercial products simply did not exist. In more recent times people, in the main, have bought transceivers mainly from Japan.  

One person stands out as a real experimenter, VK3YE, who has always been prepared to "roll up his sleeves" and try things. He has made lots of videos, written books and runs a website.  To my mind he is a real radio amateur. Thank you.

Future amateur allocations

The nature of LF, MF and shortwave is changing. 

As mentioned before, it would not surprise me if the military in many countries "reserves" access rights "just in case" satellites are not available for any reason. 

Hopefully, experimenters could be granted access except in times of conflict.

In my view, this is NOT just radio amateurs. I would like to think that anyone could be granted access to wide chunks of spectrum, for experimental work, with strict rules about ID and closing down in cases of emergency or interference. You would expect PTTs to want emails, addresses and phone numbers in case anyone had to be notified to close down.

10m 200mW WSPR TX (Monday)

 Shortly I expect to go on 10m WSPR TX with my little beacon.

UPDATE 1525z:  90 stations spotting me with the best Israel.

The peak of amateur radio?

When I was first interested in amateur radio in the early 1960s radio really was magic.  Arguably the golden years were just after WW2 . 

These magazines were on this blog some years ago. They were bought at a bookshop in Hay-On-Wye which is famous for its bookshops. 

Reading them you get a sense of just how exciting radio really was back then.

Getting older

This weekend I heard about the death of a school friend. 

I guess as we get older this will be more common. At one time it was another generation. Now it is my generation!  He died suddenly and as far as I know without pain.  

I guess this is a wake-up call: we all have a finite time. Milk life.

Sunspots - Monday July 27th

 Solar flux is 148 and the SSN 99. A=6 and K=1.

China's car market falls

In China, the sale of cars, especially petrol cars, has fallen dramatically. Cars in China are far lower in price than in the West.