Click here to view the latest (March) issue of the 6 and 10 report compiled by Martin Harrison G3USF
Archive for April, 2009
Smoothed Sun Spot Numbers
Posted 22 Apr 2009 — by Alex
Category Radio
Category Radio
W1AW reports through the regular bulletins that the sun spot numbers have changed a bit over the last few months to give an extended low. Something that is all too familiar if you try and listen out for DX at the moment.
Below is a graph of the smoothed numbers that are taken from the recent published numbers. I’ve added a polynomial trend line to show what the smoothed smoothed sun spot numbers look like.
Antenna maintenance
Posted 14 Apr 2009 — by Alex
Category Radio
Category Radio
With the poor propagation currently making QSO’s hard work now is a good time to do some maintenance on your trusty outdoor parts. My Hustler 6-BTV is located near the house and the base is quite well sheltered but the salt water that comes in with the westerly winds corrodes things quite quickly.
In order to mitigate the worst of the salt water effects I take down the base and keep it in the garage over winter whilst the remaining sections are always kept out of harms way until I need them.
I noticed this year that the fed point was starting to get corroded in the treads so needed wire wool treatment to remove as much of the oxide as possible. The mast sections suffer as well and so they got similar treatment taking care not to to score the surface which could lead to harsher forms of corrosion that the general thinning that is happening.
A worthwhile exercise has brought the antenna back into service with the minimum amount of effort and almost no expenditure.
I am expecting to replace this section in due course but I’ll see how long I can make it last before having to throw it in the bin
Portable Applications
Posted 08 Apr 2009 — by Alex
Category Technology
Category Technology
I’m a big fan of portable applications. By this I mean normal applications that can be run from a pen drive (Usb stick or whatever you like to call it). For a year or so I’ve used the portable apps suite that provides a nice little launcher for the applications.
In addition to this I’ve got a copy of Microsoft live writer for composing blog posts onto this site that also runs off a pen drive.
The number of options is quite large although not all applications are suitable so it’s worth thinking about what you need to do but don’t want to install or can’t install on various machines you use. The Key ones for me are
- Keepass – Password manager
- Microsoft Live Writer – Blog post writer
- Thunderbird – email client
- Open office suite – Complete open source alternative to MS office
- Money Manager – Personal finance software
There are loads more applications to suite all sorts of tastes but I would struggle to live without these now.
