22:07. That's it, had enough for today. Total shutdown, including myself. G'night all 73

17:04 local. Thought i'd take a break from the weather page and make a start on the BC log. Got it off the ground by backdating a few days, though when i'm going to add some more logs i don't know. Seems so much to do at the moment. Take this evening. Apparently there is something going down on 136 Kcs with ROS mode, and email reports (Automatically sent by ROS software) are requested by the station experimenting. Starts at 18:00 local, so i'll have a listen for that.

SSTV is a bit iffy again. Leave it running, see what turns up. It's the last day for the JASTA contest, so should get more varied pics from tomorrow.

XYL says 'Why don't i get a flat screen tv instead of watching that 22 inch bottle?'. Thing is though, after a squint at BBC news i turn the thing off for most of the day. The headlines are on my computer anyway, so why am i paying all this bread for a license, i ask myself. Mind you, i could have used a 60 inch flat job for the world cup, but how often does tht come round?. Yes alright clever, 4 years. I've got to be really desperate to watch the commercial channels, simply because i refuse to accept the blatant attempts at brainwashing and being shown 'THE BOURNE IDENTITY' AGAIN. On the rare occasion i switch from BBC i use the mute button constantly to lose the adverts, which are taking an increasing proportion of program overall.

The actual program is now beginning to interrupt the commercials, right?. Anyway, enough of this idle banter, 'm now going to check around the forums for new posts before i do some radio listening. KN

That's clever, the imprint says i took the picture after i got back home. Time travel even.

12:12 local, i'm back.

Here's the one i picked to use for the page, but hold on!. Have you spotted my deliberate mistake?. Yes your right, i forgot to turn off the date/time imprint. Blast!, that's not going to look good on the page, is it?. Oh well, it'll have to wait now. I can't be bothered to go out and do it all over again now. Lunch calls.

10:51 local. That seems to have sorted it. Noticed a very silly air pressure reading of 1034 mb this morning, missed that yesterday. Anyway, i have managed to recalibrate Cululus to agree with the readings from the weather station. checked for my area air pressure on the web for my area, so now reading 2022 mb.

Of course anyone reading the page at the moment will see 'Pressure falling very rapidly' on screen. That is because of the alteration i have made, and will settle down after a few exchanges of data have been made between the station and Cumulus (Software on the computer).

Maybe i can relax and go and get some nice forest photos now.

21:34 local. Closing everything down for the night, which includes the weather computer. Have to upload the accumulated data in the morning. Night all! 73

20:20 local. Another day pouring over a hot computer *sigh*. Not doing my minces much good i reckon. however, i seem to be making headway with the weather page. Still work to do, and i'm going into the forest in the morning to get some pics for it. Hopefully one will be suitable as a backing picture for the web page. Can't make the one i've got work with the font colours.

Haven't done any shortwave listening last couple of days, but will get back to it eventually. Going to make a log book page for broadcast, instead of putting reports on this blog. Tidy things up a bit i think.

SSTV quality is well down today, loads of weak images coming through. Oh well, that's live for you.
A cup of a Rosey is called for now i think, i'm spitting feathers.

22:39 local. Had enough, still can't figure it. Try again tomorrow. Night all! 73.

22:18 local. This is doing my head in *sigh*. I've tried every logical way of modifying the Index page that auto uploads weather data, and still the page appears as the original. Apparently a file called 'Index T' gets uploaded afresh with each update. Logically, if i alter the html code of that file with an editor and save overwrite the original, there is no way the original can still appear on the web unaltered. Well that is if the page on the web is indeed over written each time, as indicated in the help files.

09:23 local. Incidentally, i've tried changing the ini file to reflect the right date for 'Records began' and uploading it, but the records page still refuses to show it. Life's a bitch, right? *chuckle*.

XYL has something lined up for me now , so that's it for now. 73

09:15 local. I have the weather page working ok, but the template supplied is a bit boring for my taste so i'm trying to figure out how to make my own and import the data from my wx station. It's not worth making a link from the home page, i don't think, as i am only going to take take the page off to modify it anyway.

If anyone actually reads all this stuff, i'll include the link here where the page is, and will be when modified, hosted. http://freespace.virgin.net/brian.walker3/weather/

09:12 Local. I wish i wnew why it does that?. Every now and again a picture will appear on the site oversized resulting in the whole page being screwed up. The only way out is to load up enough pics to fill the page and chase the duf one through, which i have just done . Hopefully i can now carry on with fresh uploads as normal....Again!.

09:38 local. Seems to be some action on pskmail already this morning. Went dead just now, but realised the batteries had gone in the Roberts. Sorted a power supply, so now ok again.

Can't see any call signs in the messages above. Obviously someone with a yacht sending. Had the program 'pskmail' running aswell, but apart from a small burst of script nothing happened. I was kind of hoping that it would log actual messages, as opposed to the data flowing up the page and dissappearing for good on Fldigi and Multipsk. Something on the lines of ROS, which automatically logs calls at least. Anyway, something else to play with.

Gut Ubuntu user mag yesterday, basically for the disc included. I was thinking, and even made a start, on replacing windows on the notebook with Linux. I have used it before and found it very good. I didn't finish it, because i then thought of downloading Fldigi to it so as to use it portable with the Roberts with a view of recieving pskmail. After that i thought of the extension lead idea to the main computer, which i prefer using because of the large screen.

Might do it today, not having anything to loose as i have an restore disc supplied with the notebook(Novatech) to replace windows if i want.

That's it, one brief peace of inteligent text, but enough to show we're in busines.

20:56 local. Spent most of the afternoon making a web page for my weather centre. No problem getting Cumulus to talk to it, but tarting up the page is another story. Initially i transfered the original html to my editor and after changing the colours etc to my liking, i loaded it up. That worked ok, but as soon as Cumulus sent an update of data, the page reverted back to the original.

I had thought that the page would remain as i wanted, with only the data being altered by Cumulus. Obviously not the case, blast!. I decided to play with something else. maybe something will come to me if i don't concentrate too hard on it.

Over to pskMail. 10.147 is where it's at, however, a snag already. There's a computer sprog right on frequency. Same on the alternative of 14.090. Brilliant!, that's all i need.

Thinks!. Try a radio away from the computer gear. Grabs the Roberts R861 and tunes for 10.147 on the other side of the room (Log wire around the window frame). Nothing!, all clear of sprogs. Great, now what?. Simple, run an extension audio lead back to the computer. Just done that and immediately fldigi showed a brief burst of inteligent text using bpsk-250. Wer'e in business.

The cursor was on about 75 hz when i recieved something, but it keeps jumping back to 1500. Wonder if that is really the default pskmail position?. Anyway, it's gone quiet now, but will have another listen during tomorrow.

19:06 Well that was quite painless, unusual not to have some sod's law in configuring something new. Put the weather centre together and fixed it to a redundant bottom antenna section and held it up with a bracket bought today at BQ for the job.

Fired up the base unit and all came to life. All readings ok. Then installed the 'Easy Weather' software and fired that up. Voila!, in business. I have an extension lead from the computer in the bedroom to the base unit in the room closest to the outdoor sensors, which i had used for the SBS1 unit.

Next i turned off the 'Easy Weather' and fired up the 'Cumulus' software and configured for 'Fine offset'. Once again no problem. Couldn't believe everything had gone so smoothly, but there you go. Been messing about with various configs since, but saving the web page part for later. I know uploading a target page is straight forward, as i've already done a dummy run recently. The test will be auto uploading data at regular intervals. Can't see any reason for worries there though.

Might have to replace the digi sstv page to do it however.

Earlier, after perusing Radiouser that i bought today, i downloaded a couple of progs mentioned therein. One was PSKmail, and the other KG-ACARS. Neither of which i've had much luck with running. As to PSK mail, i couldn't find any action on 10.147 to try it out. And KG-ACARS was a bit iffy to set up. All the config setting seem to come up with a question mark against them and i couldn't decode anything, even after various trial and error settings to get the prog to listen to my radio. I did get the sound from the notebook so data was going in anyway. looks like it could be a very interesting program when it's running, but it's brand new and written by a Japanese gentleman just like KG-STV. No doubt clear instructions in English will soon appear. I'll keep looking.

22:04 Reckon i'll hit the sack, eyes are closing. Couple of stations in the log worth a mention today.
HCJB Global Voice Australia@16:00 bst on 15.340 Mhz 'Talk about mosquitoes and glue ear'. EWTN Global Catholic Radio@21:57 bst on 15.610 Mhz 'Listeners questions/Family prayer'.

Couldn't resist the Spurs match on tv when i should have been monitoring Hi!. Night all 73.

18:37. Raining pesistantly.

Well that' it, i've finally made my mind up about what to concentrate on shortwave listening wise.
Broadcast it is. Why?. basically, in the main, it's because i can always find something to grab my interest whatever time of the day it is and whatever the condition are prevailing, which means not just hanging about on some frequency or other waiting fruitlessly for something to happen. The Ham Radio Deluxe log book facility fits in nicely too. Digital modes are ok, but they are more suited to interraction (Two way contact) rather than monitoring, to be really meaningfull i think.

Anyway, i seem to have found a decent community to join at last (Shortave-radio), so hope this is where i can settle down. With over 250 post already this month, it looks pretty lively so looks very promissing.

I see the sun spot level has risen to 11 from 0 of the last couple of days, so hopefully things are looking up SSTV wise. Got some mediocre stuff coming in at the moment, but might pick up in the next couple of hours before dying for for the night. Still the same stations calling JASTA. Can't see them reaching Japan in these conditions though. Got to hand it to SP8LEP though, he keeps hanging in there.

21:24 local. Oh dear!, sstv didn't pick up this evening. Trouble with having a live cam, is that the whole page could end up with rubbish pics on it, as is the case today. Oh well, always tomorrow. Might as well call it a day and switch off now.

19:05 local Concidering the hf conditions are well quiet at the moment, Kinloss Rescue is fully readable on 5.680 usb. Radiocom 6.0 here is scanning all known channels for activity.