Greetings from a pleasantly mild and quiet Crete.<\/p>\n
All the tourists have now gone, all the coaches have been put away for the Winter, most of the shops and Tavernas have closed and we are left with one or two independent travellers taking in the peace and quiet. Most of November has been very nice WX-wise and so they have been lucky. Even spotted a couple of \u2018em swimming . . .<\/p>\n
A Bit of Greek Life:<\/strong> \u201cOut here there a group commonly known as the \u2018Financial Police\u2019 who check on establishments to make sure that receipts are issued, and thus VAT charged and accounted for, and that cash taken is banked in a timely manner. I would like to see how they get on at Gournia, the archaeological site about 20kms from us. It is so far out of the way that it does not even have electricity in the admission hut!<\/p>\n More taxes!<\/strong> Fancy a smoke?<\/strong> Now some bad news:<\/strong> The Magazines:<\/strong> I was sorry to read that Peter Dodd is SK. You pay your money etc:<\/strong> I may be out of touch but I seem to recall that the Foundation License power limit is 10 watts. Happy Crimble es 73s<\/p>\n Dick. SV9RPE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greetings from a pleasantly mild and quiet Crete. All the tourists have now gone, all the coaches have been put away for the Winter, most of the shops and Tavernas have closed and we are left with one or two … Continue reading
\nWhat follows is a pr\u00e9cis of a couple of items from a local Greek on-line newspaper and here are a couple of examples of how the Government coffers have lost hundreds of thousands of Euros due to mismanagement and theft.<\/p>\n
\nHere on Crete, at the famous Knossos Minoan site, they found that staff were hardly ever issuing receipts and even if they did, the till was not registered with the Financial Ministry and so, in effect, no money has been collected or paid to the Government in years.
\nIn Athens, at the Acropolis, it is reckoned that in 2014 they had about 3 million visitors but when checked, it was found that over half of these visitors were issued with free passes as it was easier than taking the money.
\nThe article goes on: \u201cCrackdowns against corrupt or inept public officials are always heralded with much fanfare and declarations of \u201czero tolerance\u201d from whomever is in charge at any given time and then just fizzle out, losing steam and leaving behind just one winner.
\nWho?
\nThe lawbreaker, a species with a very fast rate of reproduction\u201d.
\nAt a press conference earlier this month, the Culture Minister said that electronic ticket machines would be introduced at all archaeological sites before the start of next season but was not sure if, in fact, the machines had been delivered or installed yet.<\/p>\n
\nPeople who bought a new car during the past five years with an engine capacity of between 1400 and 1600cc have paid no road tax as the emissions, according to the Government, have been so low. Also, anyone buying a diesel car received the same benefit. However, from January 1st they will have to join the rest of us and pay road tax. Here, everyone gets their road tax during December as if you pay late, say in February, you pay double.
\nThis new tax seems ok except that the Government will now reduce the tax on old polluting cars rather than put it up like everywhere else in Europe!<\/p>\n
\nAgain I pr\u00e9cis another article:
\nIntroduced in September 2010, like the majority of Europe, Greece banned smoking in indoor public places. However, despite Government pledges of vigilance and heavy fines, smokers continue to light up in the vast majority of Tavernas, bars and cafes as inspections by State Authorities have ceased.
\nIt seems that anti-smoking laws are only respected on public transport, hospitals (though not always) and a small number of very expensive restaurants.
\nIf you wish to complain about someone smoking where they shouldn\u2019t, you should contact the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, however, their 4-digit telephone hotline where you make complaints has been out of action for over two years . . .<\/p>\n
\nThis year the amount of Raki (the local firewater) distilled has only been about 15% of what it was last year. This is because that the grape harvest was ruined by some heavy rain a couple of months ago and this left grapes rotting or suffering with mildew. Hence a lot of the grapes could not be turned into wine and the resulting left-over mush could not be distilled into Raki.
\nThis comes at a bad time as the Government have just put the VAT rate on Raki up to 23% from 6% so prices will rise due to lack of supply and a tax increase.
\nSeveral people have been seen wearing black armbands.<\/p>\n
\nPW<\/strong> arrived and seemed bulkier than usual and had a bit more stuff of interest this time.
\nI was, however, amazed to see my comments sent to Roger, G3LDI, about NFD, printed in full. They were just comments sent to him on his recent remarks, and also those made by Jim Bacon G3YLA, in the magazine a couple of months ago. No doubt I will get more emails from people agreeing, or more likely, disagreeing with my views. T\u2019was ever thus . . .
\nI also read in PW that using all this new DMR or D-Star rubbish is no good if you are mobile as the signal degrades so as to become unreadable at times, unless you stop. What is the point of all these DMR or D-Star or ConFusion mobile radio adverts then?
\nDespite there being a bit more stuff of interest, PW still contains much for the computer geek. There is much talk about Arduino (Who She?) and even in the \u2018basic\u2019 article by Mike Richards about getting going on Data there is a section about building your own Blueteeth interface. Why? If it is meant to be a simple \u2018Getting Started\u2019 piece, why not show a simple interface and not jump straight into something that few people understand or let alone can build.
\nRadComic<\/strong> arrived and, oh joy, I now have a sticker to put on my car, van, boat or XYL.
\nQuestion: Why is \u2018amateur radio\u2019 written without capitals? It would have looked so much better if Amateur Radio<\/strong> was written thus . . .
\nI may get into trouble here but as this is my penultimate Blog thing, I worry not.
\nThere is a review of a Ten Tec rig on Page 45. There is no dial on the thing. The thing starts up on, say, 7.030 and in order to change frequency you turn the knob on the front. To where exactly? Do you count the clicks and hope that you remain in-band? Want to change band? No problem \u2013 first take a screwdriver and take the case apart . . . And why buy a rig and then modify it? Crazy.
\nWhat a total piece of rubbish put out by such a brilliant company \u2013 what on earth were they thinking?
\nAgain the computer geek was well catered for this time with the review of the SunSDR rig. Written by Mike Richards again (Does this man ever leave his typewriter?), it was full of gobbledegook. I mean, who understands \u2018FPGA decimation\u2019 or a video card that \u2018supports Open GL 1.5\u2019?. I\u2019m sure he puts all this stuff in to (a) show how clever he is and (b) pad the article out as he probably gets paid by the word. He waffles on about \u2018virtual cables\u2019 and expects the average reader to be fully conversant with such twaddle.
\nI\u2019m not and I bet you\u2019re not too sure either, and anyway, isn\u2019t FPGA something to do with golf?
\nWhile on the subject of SDR, did you see the advert on Lynchie\u2019s page for the MB1?
\nIf you look at his site, apart from the cost of the thing, the other thing you will notice is that a lot of the spec is written in Russian!
\nNo, another less than average edition of RadComic I\u2019m afraid . . .<\/p>\n
\nYes, I know I pilloried his antenna articles but this does not mean you don\u2019t feel for someone who had been seriously ill.<\/p>\n
\nA friend was looking to buy a new Kenwood TS-590SG.
\nHe phoned Lynchie and asked if he could order it and pick it up at the West London Radio Show thing a few weeks ago.
\nLynchie said they would not be attending as they were only 4 miles away and did not want to hump a load of gear just down the road. So they lost a nice sale
\nW & S were phoned with the same request.
\nYes they said, they could do that – Great. My friend ordered the ring and also ordered some headphones and a new lead to run from his SignaLink USB Interface to the new rig.
\nHe attends the show. He collects the rig and headphones. They give him the wrong lead.
\nNo problem they say. We will pop one in the post on Monday.
\nThey don\u2019t.
\nHe waits a week and phones them.
\n\u201cOops, we forgot. Put it in the post now Sir\u201d etc etc.
\nThey don\u2019t.
\nMy friend phones again.
\nThis time they say they put it in the post with the instructions that the lead must be plugged into the microphone socket. Seeing as the lead is meant to have a 13 pin DIN on the rig end that plugs into the ACC2 socket, I don\u2019t see how you are meant to do this.
\nSo, fully qualified, knowledgeable staff at W&S then . . .
\nAnyway, a week later nothing had appeared.<\/p>\n
\nI will not comment on the fact that this License was meant to be band and power limited when it was first promoted but will just stay for one minute on the power limit.
\nI worked a chum on 14 Mc\/s PSK the other day. He has had a \u2018proper\u2019 Licence for well over 25 years, CW and all. He lives just south of London and was running 30 watts PSK31 to a long wire. His signal was solid and readable, let\u2019s say 579. 200 c\/s away was another station just south of London calling CQ. He was exceptionally strong. He was not over-modulating but was a good 10-15db over 9. This was M6TET whose power limit was meant to be just ten watts. There was no way he was running this power. Even with a beam and 10 watts he would not be that strong . . .
\nWhat a good example of the workings of the Foundation License conditions \u2013 not.<\/p>\n