Monday, 10 November 2014
Thursday, 27 December 2012
2012 and all that...
Well as a further year looks to be drawing to a close, and I reflect on the content of this blog, I can see that my so called "goal" of keeping it reasonanbly current has again fallen by the wayside. I'm reluctant to provide any sort of promise that next year will be different, but I'll try.
In short it's been a good year. Work has been challenging and interesting, and while I still don't get as much time to persue my interests as I would like, it's much improved on this time last year. If I am to change anything next year, it will be to set some sort of time management routine to ensure I get to dedicate sufficient time to those things that interest me the most. So, what are the priorities? Well here are some, and in no particular order.
1) - Having swapped all my amateur radio gear, I'm still keen to get back on the bands more than I have in 2012. With that in mind, I'm going to concentrate in two areas. One, the Tuesday evening VHF RSGB contests. Clearly I'll only be able to do that while I'm not travelling, but these contests give the ability to get quick results from experiementing with home made arials. And I also need to concentrate on CW on an HF band too. It needs to be a band where I can get contacts pretty much any time of the day and time of year too, so LF is the only way to go. Currently I'd say it's likely to be 30m, but 5MHz and Top Band may yet still be in the mix.
2) - This Christmas, my good lady bought me something I've always wanted since I was a kid, an electric guitar. I am hoping that by the end of the year I'll be able to bang out some tunes. Having spent two evenings on chapter one of the beginers book of guitar, I can confirm that the likes of Brian May and Eric Clapton make it look ridiculously easy. So far, I can play three notes on one string. Well at least it's a start. Aiming for aroud half and hour a day when I'm at home.
3) - I've been extremely lucky over the last couple of years to be involved with the wonderful TV programme "Time Team". I even managed to be part of what turned out to be the last ever dig at Brancaster (to be broadcast in January 2013). While I am greatly saddened by Channel 4's decicion to "pull" the programme after 20 years, my hope is that we haven't yet seen the end of it. With that in mind, I've already attended what the series producer (Tim Taylor) hopes will be its successor, DigVillage. For further information on DigVillage click here. If plans come to fruition, I believe there may be around five of these next year, and I've an invite to attend them all. Work travel permitting, I aim to be there :-)
4) - In recent years, the number of times we escape for a day or two walking in the Lake District have fallen dramatically, in fact this last year, I can't even remember one visit. Needless to say, I'm aiming to improve on that in 2013!
5) - As regards fitness and exercise, I can thankfully report that this year has seen a continuation from the previous year. I'm run somewhere between four and six miles most days. I've still not run anything further than half marathon distance, and I've no desire to enter any formal races or suchlike. Neverthesss, I feel I need to have some form of target for 2013. It's not much, but I've set 20 miles as a target distance. No timescales, it'll happen when the timing / conditions are right. But hopefully I'll achieve it in 2013.
6) - Golf, plain and simple goal here, to play at least one medal every month during the summer season. I need to get my active hapndicap back! In addition I must play a lot more golf with Mikey this year too.
7) - To try and give more frequent updates to this blog. Time will tell if I succeed!
There are probably loads more things that I should list here, I can even think of a few now, but those listed above are at least a start.
In the meantime , I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and furthermore, wish everyone a great 2013.
M.
In short it's been a good year. Work has been challenging and interesting, and while I still don't get as much time to persue my interests as I would like, it's much improved on this time last year. If I am to change anything next year, it will be to set some sort of time management routine to ensure I get to dedicate sufficient time to those things that interest me the most. So, what are the priorities? Well here are some, and in no particular order.
1) - Having swapped all my amateur radio gear, I'm still keen to get back on the bands more than I have in 2012. With that in mind, I'm going to concentrate in two areas. One, the Tuesday evening VHF RSGB contests. Clearly I'll only be able to do that while I'm not travelling, but these contests give the ability to get quick results from experiementing with home made arials. And I also need to concentrate on CW on an HF band too. It needs to be a band where I can get contacts pretty much any time of the day and time of year too, so LF is the only way to go. Currently I'd say it's likely to be 30m, but 5MHz and Top Band may yet still be in the mix.
2) - This Christmas, my good lady bought me something I've always wanted since I was a kid, an electric guitar. I am hoping that by the end of the year I'll be able to bang out some tunes. Having spent two evenings on chapter one of the beginers book of guitar, I can confirm that the likes of Brian May and Eric Clapton make it look ridiculously easy. So far, I can play three notes on one string. Well at least it's a start. Aiming for aroud half and hour a day when I'm at home.
3) - I've been extremely lucky over the last couple of years to be involved with the wonderful TV programme "Time Team". I even managed to be part of what turned out to be the last ever dig at Brancaster (to be broadcast in January 2013). While I am greatly saddened by Channel 4's decicion to "pull" the programme after 20 years, my hope is that we haven't yet seen the end of it. With that in mind, I've already attended what the series producer (Tim Taylor) hopes will be its successor, DigVillage. For further information on DigVillage click here. If plans come to fruition, I believe there may be around five of these next year, and I've an invite to attend them all. Work travel permitting, I aim to be there :-)
4) - In recent years, the number of times we escape for a day or two walking in the Lake District have fallen dramatically, in fact this last year, I can't even remember one visit. Needless to say, I'm aiming to improve on that in 2013!
5) - As regards fitness and exercise, I can thankfully report that this year has seen a continuation from the previous year. I'm run somewhere between four and six miles most days. I've still not run anything further than half marathon distance, and I've no desire to enter any formal races or suchlike. Neverthesss, I feel I need to have some form of target for 2013. It's not much, but I've set 20 miles as a target distance. No timescales, it'll happen when the timing / conditions are right. But hopefully I'll achieve it in 2013.
6) - Golf, plain and simple goal here, to play at least one medal every month during the summer season. I need to get my active hapndicap back! In addition I must play a lot more golf with Mikey this year too.
7) - To try and give more frequent updates to this blog. Time will tell if I succeed!
There are probably loads more things that I should list here, I can even think of a few now, but those listed above are at least a start.
In the meantime , I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and furthermore, wish everyone a great 2013.
M.
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Some Webcam Surprises....
A few months ago, I decided to utilise and old webcam and an unused PC with the idea to re-create (on the cheap of course) something similar to what can be bought for several hundred pounds to "capture" images of the night sky automatically.
So, Ubuntu was loaded, the wonderfully flexible "motion" application was installed along with the webcam driver, and that was that. http://webcam.willowhey.net was born. What soon became apparent, was that it wan't that good at seeing stars, a far more superior webcam would be required for that, so instead, I simply used it for monitoring the weather.
The set up captures snapshots every five minutes, creates hourly timelapse videos and record images and mpegs when something within the frame appears to move. All this comes as standard with the motion package.
Following the recent news item of a spectacular metor, or as it was later confirmed, the break up of some space junk, I was tempted to have a look what, if anything, my webcam had caught. The answer can be seen in this video that I uploaded to YouTube :-
http://youtu.be/VpkITqYIVyE The action is towards the end, here's a frame capture of it :- http://yfrog.com/5lrwhp
Needless to say I was delighted with the results!
M.
So, Ubuntu was loaded, the wonderfully flexible "motion" application was installed along with the webcam driver, and that was that. http://webcam.willowhey.net was born. What soon became apparent, was that it wan't that good at seeing stars, a far more superior webcam would be required for that, so instead, I simply used it for monitoring the weather.
The set up captures snapshots every five minutes, creates hourly timelapse videos and record images and mpegs when something within the frame appears to move. All this comes as standard with the motion package.
Following the recent news item of a spectacular metor, or as it was later confirmed, the break up of some space junk, I was tempted to have a look what, if anything, my webcam had caught. The answer can be seen in this video that I uploaded to YouTube :-
http://youtu.be/VpkITqYIVyE The action is towards the end, here's a frame capture of it :- http://yfrog.com/5lrwhp
Needless to say I was delighted with the results!
M.
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Update on all things radio...
Well, after several months of faffing about, I've taken the plunge. I've traded most of my "old" gear in, and am now the proud owner of a Yaesu FT-897D. And I'm very happy with it too.
Still got the aerials to sort out, but the thought of having 100W on all HF bands (including six metres) and a decent bit of grunt on 2M is good enough for me.
Planning to start the RSGB VHF contests on a Tuesday night before too long.
Will keep you all updated once I've got the aerials sorted. I do have aerials now, it's just they're not that good :-)
M.
Still got the aerials to sort out, but the thought of having 100W on all HF bands (including six metres) and a decent bit of grunt on 2M is good enough for me.
Planning to start the RSGB VHF contests on a Tuesday night before too long.
Will keep you all updated once I've got the aerials sorted. I do have aerials now, it's just they're not that good :-)
M.
Behind again!
Ok, time to catch up! As ever, been a bit busy of late, but will be trying to post a daily update for the next few days, once of course I've remembered what the hell cross posts where!
M.
M.
Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Annual pilgrimage...
And so the time comes around again! In the morning I'm off to the Gadget Show at the NEC. Mikey coming along too.
Never fails to please :-)
Will provide an update with some pics and info once we're back.
M.
Never fails to please :-)
Will provide an update with some pics and info once we're back.
M.
Monday, 9 April 2012
5MHz (60m and all that...)
Many years ago, when I was a keen shortwave listener, 60m was one of, if not *the* favourite band of mine.
That's because there was always something to listen to, day or night. For sure, the more exotic 'DX' was to be had during darkness, fond memories indeed of listening to Radio Sutatenza just above the 5MHz time signal. But as dusk approached, lots coming in from the farthermost points of the the USSR, Radio Tashkent springs to mind as a station that could always be heard! Also, although harder to pick out against all the QRN were stations from Africa. These were usually all domestic services since due to the distances to be covered, medium wave was a none starter.
So, to the present. I decided to turn my FT-817 on last night, hooked it up to a D2T aerial (granted not my best ever purchase) and took a listen. All those years ago, a copy of WRTH (World Radio and TV Handbook) was essential, I guess a copy would still be just as useful, but here are so many wonderful online resources now all you have to do is type in the frequency of where you're listening and up comes a list of possibilities. If your luck is in, you can then stream the stations output on the Internet to check its the same as what you're listening too! Makes the process of station identifying so much easier!
I managed to log several PBS outlets from China, Voice of America and this morning Radio Rebelde from Cuba. I even took a recording, available here :- http://youtu.be/gxzAwKi9xig
Not bad for starters.
So much for the commercial side, I'll keep up with that since I find it fascinating, but it got me thinking of the amateur allocation. After a quick read up, I've now applied for my NOV from Ofcom, hopefully it shouldn't take long. All the spot frequencies are now plumbed in, and this morning I've heard several QSO (all G stations) and two of the three UK beacons, GB3RAL and GB3WES, hopefully should get the Orkney one before too long.
Now to start planning some NVIS aerials :-) All great fun!
M.
That's because there was always something to listen to, day or night. For sure, the more exotic 'DX' was to be had during darkness, fond memories indeed of listening to Radio Sutatenza just above the 5MHz time signal. But as dusk approached, lots coming in from the farthermost points of the the USSR, Radio Tashkent springs to mind as a station that could always be heard! Also, although harder to pick out against all the QRN were stations from Africa. These were usually all domestic services since due to the distances to be covered, medium wave was a none starter.
So, to the present. I decided to turn my FT-817 on last night, hooked it up to a D2T aerial (granted not my best ever purchase) and took a listen. All those years ago, a copy of WRTH (World Radio and TV Handbook) was essential, I guess a copy would still be just as useful, but here are so many wonderful online resources now all you have to do is type in the frequency of where you're listening and up comes a list of possibilities. If your luck is in, you can then stream the stations output on the Internet to check its the same as what you're listening too! Makes the process of station identifying so much easier!
I managed to log several PBS outlets from China, Voice of America and this morning Radio Rebelde from Cuba. I even took a recording, available here :- http://youtu.be/gxzAwKi9xig
Not bad for starters.
So much for the commercial side, I'll keep up with that since I find it fascinating, but it got me thinking of the amateur allocation. After a quick read up, I've now applied for my NOV from Ofcom, hopefully it shouldn't take long. All the spot frequencies are now plumbed in, and this morning I've heard several QSO (all G stations) and two of the three UK beacons, GB3RAL and GB3WES, hopefully should get the Orkney one before too long.
Now to start planning some NVIS aerials :-) All great fun!
M.
Friday, 6 April 2012
Sunday, 1 April 2012
Test post!
Nothing of interest here :-)
This is a test, historically I've got all sorts of scripts and utilities set up that auto post to various sites which, I think, I've now removed. So if this turns up anywhere I need to work out how :-)
M.
This is a test, historically I've got all sorts of scripts and utilities set up that auto post to various sites which, I think, I've now removed. So if this turns up anywhere I need to work out how :-)
M.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Time Team - Swansea
For those that are interested, the Time Team dig I was involved with in July last year, is airing this Sunday 26th February 2012 on Channel 4 at 5.20pm.
I doubt very much whether you'll see me on TV, but you should of course be extremely satisfied in the knowledge that I was indeed "there".
And what a fabulous couple of days it was too :-)
Channel 4 link below.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/episode-guide/series-19/episode-7
I doubt very much whether you'll see me on TV, but you should of course be extremely satisfied in the knowledge that I was indeed "there".
And what a fabulous couple of days it was too :-)
Channel 4 link below.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/episode-guide/series-19/episode-7
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Catching up...
I've got that many social media accounts, applications to access them and methods of cross posting from one to another that quite frankly I've tied myself in knots.
So, starting today, I'm trying to unravel them all and come up with something far simpler. The question is, which social networks to use? Well it appears that the heavyweights of twitter and Facebook are too strong to be ignored so they need to be in the mix. Add to that I've never really properly got going with the blog (but want to) that I think I'm now close to deciding the best way forward.
So, from today, any posts to my blog will now get auto posted to both Facebook and twitter. And I'll endeavour to update the blog far more regularly than I've done over recent months. Short (and more frequent updates) will get posted to twitter but not Facebook. Updates that involve photos and videos that I don't want the world to see but am happy to share with friends will go to Facebook. Not sure where google+ fits into all this at the moment. I'm sensing it hasn't quite 'taken off' as much as was anticipated. For now it'll probably just take the feed from the blog.
So, all clear? No, I guessed not.
M.
So, starting today, I'm trying to unravel them all and come up with something far simpler. The question is, which social networks to use? Well it appears that the heavyweights of twitter and Facebook are too strong to be ignored so they need to be in the mix. Add to that I've never really properly got going with the blog (but want to) that I think I'm now close to deciding the best way forward.
So, from today, any posts to my blog will now get auto posted to both Facebook and twitter. And I'll endeavour to update the blog far more regularly than I've done over recent months. Short (and more frequent updates) will get posted to twitter but not Facebook. Updates that involve photos and videos that I don't want the world to see but am happy to share with friends will go to Facebook. Not sure where google+ fits into all this at the moment. I'm sensing it hasn't quite 'taken off' as much as was anticipated. For now it'll probably just take the feed from the blog.
So, all clear? No, I guessed not.
M.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Initial thoughts on the ipad2
It's now a week or so since I've had the iPad2, so thought it appropriate to report on my latest thoughts on it.
On the whole, very impressed. It's quick, responsive, and extremely useful. I've managed to connect all my mail accounts, and installed a number of the most used apps.
On the downside, there are some niggles, but I'm assuming that could be down to it still being new to me. One, the keyboard isn't fast enough for my typing. It often misses letters and characters that I'm sure I've typed. Secondly, getting files on and off the thing to work on is a pain. I've SugarSync and Dropbox, but even they don't play ball sometimes.
I'll maybe have to resort to the manual. Never been my strong point!
M.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
On the whole, very impressed. It's quick, responsive, and extremely useful. I've managed to connect all my mail accounts, and installed a number of the most used apps.
On the downside, there are some niggles, but I'm assuming that could be down to it still being new to me. One, the keyboard isn't fast enough for my typing. It often misses letters and characters that I'm sure I've typed. Secondly, getting files on and off the thing to work on is a pain. I've SugarSync and Dropbox, but even they don't play ball sometimes.
I'll maybe have to resort to the manual. Never been my strong point!
M.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
A view of Gemini - Astrophotography
At this early stage, I'm still just feeling my way around. Given the degree of light pollution both generically from the town, and locally neighbours, the best view can only really be deduced once outside. I had planned some further investigation of stars in Leo last night, but too much residual light from the town made efforts futile. Instead, my view out towards the NW (out over the sea) was quite dark, and given the neighbours outside light was off, gave the best options. So instead, I tried some constellation mapping (wide field) of Gemini.
I soon noticed, that even though this direction offered the best view, the lowest magnitude visible was still fairly high (to the naked eye). It's only when you take an image (this one is 10 seconds), that some of the fainter stars become visible. I've labelled all the major stars in the constellation, but was surprised to notice, that even on this wide view, it's *just* possible to make out M35. To be fair, I couldn't really see much in the spotting 'scope either, but it must be remembered that it was fairly close to the horizon.
I'm genuinely surprised what can be caught on a fairy standard point and shoot camera, granted the G11 wasn't cheap, but with an ISO3200 setting and 10 second exposures, I seem to picking up a lot more detail than I expected. The maximum exposure I can have is 15 seconds, but I find that light pollution often is too great for that length of exposure, and in addition, the stars "trail" a lot more. Still, I do recall reading somewhere it's possible to get software to remove trails, so may take a look for that at some point.
My views are very restricted, anything looking from N through E and up to S is useless unless it's *very* high in the sky. All due to the street lamps on my road. Anything S through to W is a no go up to about 30 degrees high (light pollution from the town). Anything W to N is best, that is of course unless next door neighbours outside light isn't on. Must have a word about that one day, but they have only just moved in and I don't want to rock any boats yet :-)
And so ladies and gentlemen, I present, Gemini....
Monday, 2 May 2011
Latest offerings (Astrophotography)
So, it's clear I'm still learning, and more to the point I've a long way to go. I've continued to read up, and pleased to report I'm *just* starting to understand what equipment I think I may need to get me on the next rung on the ladder. I'm still in no rush to get there, since there's still such a lot I can do with what I have now, specifically my wife's Canon G11 camera, my Dad's old binoculars and a cheap "spotting" 'scope I bought several years back.
Over the last couple of evenings, when I finally could get outside when a) it wasn't cloudy, b) the moon wasn't in the sky and most importantly c) when one of my next door neighbours hadn't left their outside light on, I managed to take achieve my "task". I was wondering if it was possibly to use a standard camera (on a tripod) to get an image of one of the more popular open globular clusters M44 in the constellation Cancer. The answer it appears, is yes. To the unaided eye, it's very hard to spot Cancer since most of its stars are brighter that magnitude 3.5 and under light polluted skies, that's hard to see. Sure with binoculars it's pretty straight forward, so to start things off I took a large field image (which I've labelled). Castor and Pollux of Gemini are on the right, The entire constellation of Cancer is in the centre and the head of Hydra can be seen below. I've highlighted M44 in the square, all this with a 13 second exposure. M44 can clearly seen. By the way, it looks far more impressive through a decent set of binoculars or spotting scope :-)
As a further experiment, zoomed up as far as I could go (optically) on camera and took another image, this time to see if it was possible to see M67. It's a far harder target, and to be fair, it's only *just* about possible to make it out with the spotting scope so I didn't hold out much hope. Some may say I'm seeing things, but I'm fairly sure that in the second image (also highlighted), it's possible to make out something (also highlighted). Long shot I know, but further encouragement to press on!
Sunday, 24 April 2011
ISS pass through Leo
Starting to get a little more confident on astro photography now, but it's still *very* early days. I've bought several magazines, read lots of Internet articles, and slowly but surely it's all starting to make a little sense. There are several avenues to pursue, but I'm in absolutely no rush. And while I'm still reading and forming plans, I can still use the Canon G11 on a tripod to experiment.
Finally got some decent conditions tonight, a clear moon free sky, and the benefit of the next door neighbour not putting on their outside light :-) Add to that a wonderful ISS pass and I just had to have a go at capturing it. And I'm pretty happy with the result :-) A 15 second exposure (maximum the camera can do) of the ISS transiting Leo. For good measure I've also included Ursa Major with my amateur radio antenna in view.
M.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Friday, 15 April 2011
As an amateur golfer....
I feel for Kevin Na, while I have also racked up some horrendous scores over the years, it does make me feel a little better that even professionals can have such bad days. Granted I don't recall anything as high as a 16, but I've certainly had quite a few in double figures for one hole :-) For those that haven't already seen it, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWTXoNzuk8c
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Gadget Show Live 2011
Finally got round to going to a Gadget Show Live with Mikey. I must confess I'm only a recent "convert" to the programme, I seem to get so little time to watch TV these days so I'm very choosy about what I watch. No show is going to please all of the people all of the time, but for me this one just about hits the spot. Along with the BBC's "Click" it covers most bases. Most of all, it presents the information in a fun and engaging way.
Anyway, the show at the NEC, what did it do for me? Well, two things came out of it, one, that I now think I "get" what tablets are and what they're for. I can certainly see them replacing laptops / netbooks as the computer of convenience while out and about in time. Let's face it, for what *most* people use computers for (e.g. browsing, email, social networking etc), they'll do the job just fine. There were some cheap Elonex ones on show, the price was very attractive, but I couldn't help but feel their speed and responsiveness let them down. The screen didn't have the same vibrancy as the more expensive counterparts either, but for a third of the price I can see lots being sold. I'm not going to be getting one just yet, but would be hard pushed to decide between the Samsung Galaxy and the iPad2 at the moment. Both have the pros and cons, and that's before the Apple / Android antagonists get going.
The second "biggy", is it looks like 3D TV could be mainstream before too long. Had a "look" (with the silly glasses) at a fair few, and the quality was astonishing. Still believe a lot of content is targeted to accentuate the 3D, for example, snakes reaching out to you, but I was quite astonished at the quality of the game content that's out there now. It's *extremely* convincing, and although I'm no gamer, I could well understand those who are wanting to make the next step up.
The live show itself was very good too, although when we came out, the whole show had become much busier, and it was quite difficult to get around. We'll certainly be back next year...
M.
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