Shack at 02/05/14

Shack at 02/05/14

Monday 27 October 2014

Not much radio lately as I'm trying to get back into thee art scene. About 20/25 years ago I used to sketch portraits, then the mood left me for some reason.  last couple of weeks I've suddenly felt like having another bash, if only to see if it's like riding a bike lol.  Then again I get bored with radio occasionally so looking for an alternative past time.  Did a couple of pencil sketches (posted on my face book page) but looking around YouTube and chatting to my local art shop owner I thought why not get have a go at colour. I had tried acrylics all those years ago, but fancied something different. I dug out some pastel pencils I had put away at time, never having tried them But they didn't turn me on.  I just happened to notice a cheapo set of water colour pencils ie 2 quid in a craft shop in town, so thought why not give them a whirl, see if I like that idea.

Anyway, after brushing up (no pun intended) on techniques on on You Tube I had a play and decided this was my bag. Today (Monday) I re-visited said art shop in Southampton, and after a long rabbit with the owner, I came away with a nice set of mixed pencils and paints in a box.  Set of brushes and suitable watercolour paper.

I'll be sticking to landscape.  I don't think I could master photo realistic portraits in watercolour, which I would prefer, so not even going to try.  A nice cottage surrounded by stone walling and an assortment of trees and shrubbery thrown in should be manageable....I hope!..(Not photo realistic of course)  Probably start sketching the outline tomorrow as too tired to bother now. As they say 'Watch this space'....

Oh, nearly forgot, I did manage to catch Elysium (HAB) flight yesterday on 434.250 usb rtty 50 bd 560 shift 7n2.  Here's the associated screenshot.
PS. While I'm waving paint brushes about I'll just leave the radio beaconing WSPR  Don't need to get involved then hi....

Monday 6 October 2014

Thought I'd try a bit of wspr over the last couple of hours. Well can't grumble at that map. Can't reach much further than that, in either direction hi.. (G0PEB's icon on the Isle of Wight is covering my own by the way). Calling it a day now..73
Back from shopping yesterday and found HABAXE1 (434.400 mhz usb) airborrne from Cardif Wales. 13:02 grabbed this screenshot, but as you see from decoded data on main page it was quite difficult to follow as the frequency drift was quite bad most of the time I was monitoring. Trouble was, I basically had to initially guess where to put my cursor to grab the start tone so the auto tune would then follow the signal as it drifted low. Leaving it to auto tune would not work as the start
tone was too high for it to detect. Earlier I detected on waterfall  EDUPIC3  434.650 mhz usb rtty 50/340 8n2) but didn't have time to wait for a green decode before going out. (434.650 is always a bit iffy for me as there is an Echolink node working on that frequency).

I'll be concentrating on jt9 today for a change from jt65 and SIM31..

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Beats me why, but moving from Chrome browser to Firefox had allowed me to download Opera and the latest ROS modes that actually work on my desk-top!.  Here's ROS in action to prove it . Not exactly jt65 in the world's digital mode popularity stakes, but I'll give it a whirl for the time being.  Take a rest from retuning the loop *smile*..If only I wasn't too lazy to make a slow motion drive for it.  Still, nobody's perfect, right!

Taken by surprise again yesterday. Checked Spacenear.us by chance and saw 'EDUPIC3' already airborne.  Found the signal on 434.650 and decoded rtty 50/340 8n2 green at 13:44,
Other than that I've been playing with jt65,wspr and SIM31, trying to find best place to park to save keep retuning the loop with the analyzer. 20 mtrs seems to be favourite as I can switch between jt65 (14.076) and SIM31 (14.067) without retuning the loop (wspr at 14.0956 needs a retune).  The loop covers 20,30 and 40 mtrs, but 20 appears the most productive so I'll leave it there I think..