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This weekend saw my final edit of my masters. It has been a long time coming, over 6 years of study to get from a lowly BTec HND through to an MEng and only one smaller hurdle to chartership.

So what does this mean? for one thing time to spend learning other new skills, for one I’ve had a hankering to learn some kind of computer language, nothing complicated like HRD but something that will be able to give me a new skill, the other thing is CW, I have never had theability or time to learn CW. The final thing was to get better at homebrew.

Code – I have amassed a lot of data from my beacon monitoring exploits and will continue to generate data, currently it presented as the gif you get from Faros. I’d like to present the data better. Perhaps a small programme could be written that converts and presents the data better.

The other code – Koch or other method, I’m not sure it really matters but the ability to send and recieve CW is a missing attribute that I feel I ought to have as a ham. Even if it is for listening rather than sending, it’s a good skill to have.

Homebrew – I bumped into Kevin, MOKHZ at the other day and he gave me the inside scoop on the new HPSDR that is in this months Radcom. I’m not expecting to get to that level of skill but something that will help me understand SDR a bit better and get me to the goal of the SDR beacon monitoring station.

Just as I am finishing off my masters for this year the ionosphere seems to be picking up a bit. My station is still a little flaky and falls over readily the results that are making it through to the website seem to be pretty good.

Generally the paths between my qth and the US are in the early afternoon and are fairly consistent. Unfortunately at this time of year the normally breezy conditions become windy and it’s when the antenna usually comes down. This year as I’ve spent the last 3 months with my head in the books the antenna hasn’t even made it outside. I’ll be reclaiming my Friday afternoons as well so this afternoon I’ll be setting myself and the station back to work.

After 6 years of study with the OU I finally got my BEng. A 2.1 was a nice surprise and I’m very glad I managed it. Only a few more months and the MEng will also be mine.

My head is still stuck in my books at the moment so anything to do with enjoyment just isn’t really happening . Its a shame but that’s the way it has to be for the next couple of months. My MEng exams are due to be late October which is nice as it gives me a few extra weeks of revision but still means I’ll be stuck in the study for a while yet.