…starts today, on September the 10th 2010, my 45th birthday. Looking to the future I’d be perfectly happy with another 45 years (and I’d certainly settle for that). I just hope that both body and mind last that long. 
For now though it’s my 46th year that is of particular interest so I’ve decided, for reasons that are entirely my own, to document the next 365 days in the form of a personal photo blog with one picture for each of the 365 days (which won’t all be shown here you’ll be relieved to read). If this kind of thing interests you then there’s a great little website that makes all of this really easy - check out 365 Project.
This is in itself nothing new but it’s something I’ve never set out to do before. I don’t have the best of memories anyway so this might well serve to remind me of times good, bad, mundane or indifferent through the year that might otherwise be forgotten. It will certainly require a level of commitment that I haven’t previously asked of myself because I’ve never kept a diary of any form, and I’m sure this blog doesn’t count given the infrequency with which I update it!
So here goes then, I’ll be adding one picture a day to my photo blog so I’ll be giving some though to what would make a good opening statement through the course of today.
Now, I wonder…
Dean Blog, Life..., Totally random birthday, blog, photo
If you have a HTC smartphone you may well have used the HTC Footprints application. This application lets you create your own virtual ‘footprints’ around the world with geo-tagged pictures, web links, timestamps and Google maps integration. It’s a pretty slick little app.
There’s a problem though, you can’t easily change the date of ‘footprints’ added after the fact. So for instance, if you get a phone tomorrow and add all of your ‘footprints’ (for which you can import your own pictures and enter the GPS locations), these will all be created with date and timestamps corresponding to when you created them, not the date of your visit to the place. I have seen many forum posts asking how you can ‘fix’ this.
Well, I have found a way. It’s simple and it works reliably on my HTC Hero with Android 1.5 and I’m pretty sure it’ll work on any other versions of Android on any other HTC phone.
Read more…
Dean Blog, Totally random date, footprints, HTC, time
It’s true. Twenty days into the month of July and nothing in the log since the last week of June…save for 4 RTTY contacts a few days ago. So far this month I’ve just been busy doing other things and getting on the bands has taken a bit of a back seat.
The 4 RTTY contacts I mentioned were on 20 and 30m a few nights previous when I called CQ for a while to see what was out there. ‘Not very much’ was the answer! Having said that though, one of the stations worked was A61E in the United Arab Emirates for which I still need a QSL card so I’ll be sending my card to his Spanish QSL manager in the next few days.
I do keep telling myself I really should try to get back into some late night PSK31 and as 20m is often crowded with signals I may well give 30m a try. I’ll be hoping I can do that before the end of the month!
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog, Totally random A61E, G0RIF, QRT, QSL, RTTY
Love them or hate them but you certainly can’t ignore them. On this day in 1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the company we now know as Microsoft (known then as Micro-Soft) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I’d wager there aren’t many companies setup in the past 35 years that have had anywhere near the same impact on the lives of many (or indeed most) of us.
Google…Apple…? I can’t think of another one right now…can you?
Dean Blog, Totally random history, Microsoft
Construction of two prototypes began in February 1965: 001, built by Aerospatiale at Toulouse, and 002, by BAC at Filton, Bristol. Concorde 001 made its first test flight from Toulouse on this day in 1969 piloted by Andre Turcat and first went supersonic on 1 October. The first UK-built Concorde flew from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969 piloted by Brian Trubshaw.
|
Orders were received for over 70 aircraft but a combination of factors led to some cancellations - the 1973 oil crisis, financial difficulties of airlines, a crash of the competing Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 at a Paris air show, and environmental concerns such as the sonic boom, noise and pollution. Eventually only 20 aircraft were built of which 14 entered airline service.
Although familiar in British Airways and Air France colours in 1977 Concorde G-BOAD was painted in Singapore Airlines livery (on the port side only) for services between London and Singapore.
|
 |
Concorde in Singapore Airlines livery
|
Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow (British Airways) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (Air France) to New York JFK and Washington Dulles, flying these routes at record speeds in less than half the time of other airliners.
The fastest transatlantic flight was from London Heathrow to New York JFK on 7 February 1996 by British Airways’ G-BOAD in 2 hours, 52 minutes, 59 seconds from takeoff to touchdown.
Thirty-seven years after her first test flight, Concorde was announced the winner of the Great British Design Quest organised by the BBC and the Design Museum. A total of 212,000 votes were cast with Concorde beating design icons such as the Mini, mini skirt, Jaguar E-type, Tube map and the Supermarine Spitfire.
I was fortunate enough to see Concorde fly on several occasions and I consider it unlikely there will be anything to replace her in my lifetime. As someone said on the final aircraft being withdrawn from service, “today the world has become a bigger place”. She is and will be sadly missed by many.
Dean Blog, Pictures, Totally random Concorde, history, maiden flight
Well that’s it - January 2010 is no more. Over, done, finished! Blink and you would have missed it. It’s now February the 1st and before you know it winter will recede and give way to spring.
So, what did January 2010 give us? Not a lot to be fair. I was QRT for the whole of the month and my only forays onto the bands were occasional listens to 20m and 40m where I heard little of interest. I really do need something to re-enthuse me. I keep thinking I should get back to working more PSK31 on 20m but so far I haven’t even got round to doing that. I’ll hope to address that during February.
January 2010 will likely be most remembered for the cold snap and the accompanying snow and ice that brought the UK to a near standstill. That is now thankfully passed and not to be repeated anytime soon with a bit of luck. Roll on warmer weather, longer days and improving HF conditions as cycle 24 starts to gather momentum.
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog, Life..., Totally random 2010, antenna, January, QRT, Solar Cycle 24
Rain, a lot of rain. Non stop all night in fact. It is still raining this morning.
But at least it is warmer. A whopping 3 degrees this morning with a forecast high of 6 degrees. Break out the sunscreen!
Dean Blog, Life..., Totally random ice, rain, snow, weather
NASA satellite image
|
|
That’s right, there is no let up to the snow & cold icy conditions in the UK. The extent of the recent snowfall can be seen in this NASA image taken by the TERRA satellite on January 7th 2010. This shows the entire British mainland and the Isle of Man under a blanket of snow and ice.
Apparently this prolonged cold snap is in part attributed to climate changes in so far as the warmer air from the northern Atlantic ocean (which would normally afford us slightly warmer temperatures at this time of year) is being deflected to the south of the UK by a plunge of cold arctic air from north eastern Europe.
A larger version of this image is available on the BBC website for as long as they continue to host it - you can click here to view that image.
|
Dean Blog, Pictures, Totally random January 2010, NASA, snow, weather
I wrote back in June that I was making good progress toward working 100 countries since moving to Lichfield in September of 2008. Well I can now report that coming out of the CQWW CW contest this past weekend I have now reached that milestone - 100 countries worked from this location.
The details are 100 countries worked with 74 on CW, 66 on RTTY and 60 on SSB. This includes 8 all time new ones in the form of Anguilla, Desecheo Island, St. Maarten & St. Eustatius, Bermuda, United Arab Emirates, Alaska, Montserrat and the British Virgin Isles.
This brings the overall numbers to 170 worked with 119 on CW, 122 on data modes (RTTY & PSK31) and 111 on SSB. Here’s to the big push towards 200!
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog CW, DXCC, G0RIF, Lichfield, RTTY, SSB
From SpaceWeather.com:
Two sunspots (1032/1033) are emerging in the sun’s northern hemisphere. Both are members of new Solar Cycle 24. Sunspot 1032 appears to be the reincarnation of old sunspot 1029.
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog Solar Cycle 24, sunspots