Hello again from a slightly cooler Crete.
This missive is being prepared a bit early this time as for the last few days of October we are away on ‘holiday’. Holiday is just a posh word for saying we are staying up the other end of the island with some friends who happen to be renting a villa near Maroulas.
So, quite a different few weeks recently. My Nephew arrived from VK6 and it was really great to see him and catch up on things. What made it even better was that he did not want to do any of the usual ‘tourist’ things but just do whatever we did, when we did it. This was fine by us and so we did not have to worry about going here and there but just take him places that we liked and, of course, most of these places involved eating and drinking.
He left a few pounds heavier . . .
Radio-wise it has also been a funny few weeks. With the Nephews visit, the radio was not fired up for well over two weeks and so I got a bit out of touch with things.
However, a few days after his leaving, I had a play in the Polish PSK63 Contest. I prefer RTTY contesting but seeing as no-one from Crete has entered the contest for the past few years, I thought I would have a go. Set myself a very modest aim of 30 QSOs as I was not sure of condx or what else the XYL had ‘planned’ for the weekend.
All was going well and after about an hour I had worked the 30 Qs.
I stopped for something to eat and returned to the bands.
Of course, in my enthusiasm for food I had closed down the laptop and rig, as you do. Only when I turned everything back on do I find that MixW starts again from 001 as I had not set the dates and times correctly.
Anyways, we played a bit more and ended up with 110 scoring QSOs which was no bad.
Yannis, SV9FBK, was also on but as yet I do not know how many he worked but with his beam and excellent station, he probably trounced me!
Sadly, the downward spiral has begun.
While my Nephew was here, the XYL took advantage of his vast computer knowledge to ask him about these eyepad things. He had one of them idiot-phones with him but could not use it at our QTH as we have no WyFy, so visits to civilisation were attempted each day.
I thought that we had dissuaded the XYL from thinking about these stupid things – but no. She watched what he did with his ‘machine’ and asked loads of questions.
Worst was to come when she ordered an eyepad thing and we collected it from Heraklion a few days later.
Unfortunately my Nephew was on his way back to Oz by then and so he could not be asked about how to get the thing to work. The XYL asked me but I am about as useful as a chocolate teapot when it comes to this computer stuff now and as the beast does not seem to come with any instructions, I’m afraid the wife is on her own.
From what I saw of the thing while looking over the XYLs shoulder, you need a magnifying glass to see the ruddy screen as everything is so small. I did not get too close to the beast but could see no buttons or USB slots, so how you get info in or out of the little bugger beats me.
I thought that by living out here we had stopped trying to keep up with the Joneses, but apparently not.
Bad News Dept:
Have booked flights to the UK for early January. I hope to attend the Club meeting on 9th (and pay my Subs) and attend the Xmas Lunch on the 13th.
November RadComic arrived a little later than recently as the direct flights from the UK are now virtually at an end as so all post is routed through British Airways and Athens again.
Still, we had time to notice that Dave ‘VGR, has, over the course of his 50 years of Membership, paid the equivalent of the Greek Nation Debt to the RSGB in the way of yearly subs.
Apart from a couple of decent articles, the Tropospheric Ducts piece being particularly good, most of the magazine seemed to be about reviews of various things, just in time for Christmas. There was yet another ‘brochure review’ by Mike Richards, this time of the Icom ID-5100. I was amazed to see that the ‘Basic Manual’ is 90 pages long! 90 pages! and from what I read, the model reviewed is the base model with no fixings for mobile operation.
Not worth the over 550 quid asking price in my book . . .
There is mention in the Contesting bit about the White Paper put out recently and some of the responses.
When I put in my two pen’uth, I said that NFD was started to show that Amateurs could, if needed, operate from anywhere, without mains power, in an emergency situation. This is what I believe NFD was designed to do and what it should be.
For the past 20 or so years it has changed out of all recognition and today looks like someone just moved their shack to a field somewhere. Witness the two pictures on Page 68. One group have hired a mechanical lift thing to keep their aerial aloft and the lower picture shows a chap with three, yes three screens and two rigs. Why?
This is not what NFD is meant to be . . .
Quadcopter v birds of prey….
A quick mention about the ‘Quadcopter’ things advertised by Lynchie.
I have seen a couple of videos where these things are flying or hovering about only to be attacked by a Buzzard or similar bird thinking it is some form of interloper into its territory.
The Quadcopter is attacked and crashes to the ground while the on-board camera shows all the action. So several hundred quid ruined there then.
Result: Birds 1 – Quadcopter 0.
Meanwhile I’ve had this thought:
“They should make wine bottles larger so there is enough for two people.”
Yammas!
Dick. SV0XBN/9
