Ian Atkin 🇪🇺🌻 M9IAN 📻
LightNews LightNews
banner
ianatkin.bsky.social
Ian Atkin 🇪🇺🌻 M9IAN 📻
@ianatkin.bsky.social
260 followers 270 following 350 posts
PhD chemical engineering, nuclear process engineer, Independent Birchwood Town Councillor, EV owner, avgeek, Catholic, #ActuallyAutistic, amateur radio operator M9IAN (ex 2E1IAN, M7TKN)
Posts Replies Media Videos
ianatkin.bsky.social
Open your Photos app

Search “Aeroplane”

Scroll down to what you think is exactly halfway and screenshot it

Post.

#AvGeek
Screenshot of a Google Photos search for "aeroplane". Thumbnails include a Delta 757, BMI ERJ135, what appears to be a Brussels Avro, an American 767 in the aluminium livery, a Virgin 747, the inside and outside of Concorde, a Kuwait Airways 747, old military planes, and a British Airways A320
October 29, 2025 at 4:56 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Correct, see this from the Ofcom document
Ofcom document screenshot
October 14, 2025 at 9:38 AM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Hi, is this what you're expecting when the Major Cities overlay is selected now? Very few labels but "city lights" appearing both for daylight and night time cities. Cache clearing isn't helping
A world map with a day/night line and some clocks and other data around the edges
September 3, 2025 at 12:26 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
"What did you do on Friday night Ian?"

"Just the usual, catching up on the Corgi racing on ESPN 8 The Ocho..."

youtu.be/0KznRV9Yv7M?...
Corgis racing on a sandy track, Gustave the Girl Dog in the lead
August 22, 2025 at 9:08 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
20m FT8 not going too badly tonight on the cheapo AliExpress vertical, first ever contacts with China and Kazakhstan too! #AmateurRadio
A world map with yellow lines and markers emanating from the UK to most parts of the world except South America
August 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Captured using my AliExpress 5m long vertical whip thingy I posted about the other day... 🤷‍♂️

Still going and working surprisingly well!
Wefax north Atlantic weather chart
August 13, 2025 at 7:41 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Inspired by this website put together by a fellow OARC member I fired up fldigi and tried leaving it to decode some wefax... in no time at all I'm up to date on ice in the Arctic, north Atlantic weather, and Tropical Storm Erin
radio.doismellburning.co.uk/projects/the...
#AmateurRadio
A weather fax chart with a map of the ocean between Greenland and Norway with various lines and boxes A weather fax image showing the isobars across the north Atlantic, weather fronts, and a symbol for Tropical Storm Erin A pager of text from a weather fax transmission showing information about the position and strength of Tropical Storm Erin
August 13, 2025 at 6:50 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Bought one of those very cheap and fairly cheerful vertical antennas on Aliexpress - whacked it up in the garden, 15W FT8 on 20m and made my first ever Japan QSO 🤯

Once again my flabber has been gasted!

#AmateurRadio
A metal extendable whip antenna, a ground spike, some computer ribbon cable with a lug connector on the end, and a red cylinder used to connect them all together with an antenna socket on the front Screenshot of WSJT-X showing a completed QSO between 2E1IAN (me) and JA9CHI, a station in Japan
August 11, 2025 at 8:47 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
24h of WSPR on 20m @ 2W, not a terrible effort #AmateurRadio
Map of the world showing a number of lines emanating from the UK. There are many lines to Europe and North America, three to Australia and individual lines to Namibia, St Helena, the North Pole and the far north of Canada
July 28, 2025 at 3:44 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Testing using WSPR after messing with my antenna... over 8000km/W would suggest it's working ok 🙂 #amateurradio
Screenshot of website wspr.rocks showing VK5ARG has received from 2E1IAN, transmission power 2W, distance 16305km
July 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
You probably already know about this but I'm seeing some slightly mad graphics at the moment!
A map of the euros with a green overlay
July 3, 2025 at 5:24 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Full scale deflection on the living room Galileo thermometer today 🥵
Galileo thermometer (vertical glass tube with coloured beads all at the bottom) Close up of Galileo thermometer coloured beads showing all at the bottom and the uppermost temperature tag showing 26°
June 30, 2025 at 3:50 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Condor - undeniably the best liveries in the business #avgeek

Taken at Frankfurt airport yesterday
An airport apron with three planes, all with bold blue and white hoops as their liveries
June 17, 2025 at 11:00 AM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Consider my flabber well and truly gasted - can't believe that worked! @arissintl.bsky.social #amateurradio
June 4, 2025 at 12:29 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Well that's... something #amateurradio
Solar terrestrial data showing extremely severe conditions, including K8, mid latitude aurora, all HF bands with poor conditions and a signal noise level of S20+
June 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Callsign checker for 2E0FLX showing it is allocated
May 30, 2025 at 7:09 AM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Welcome to the greatest week of all... Eurovision week!

Here are my top ten tips for the week...
Eurovision 2025 logo
May 12, 2025 at 6:52 AM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Learned from @georgeeaton.bsky.social article that the village I grew up in recorded the highest vote share for Reform anywhere in the country at last week's local elections - bleakness of the highest order
"Farage's party won 85% of the most deprived wards (its best performance coming in Thornley and Wheatley Hill in Tony Blair's former Sedgefield constituency with 65.1% of the vote"
May 6, 2025 at 9:12 AM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Don't think I'll bother firing the radio up tonight... #amateurradio
Solar-terrestrial data showing, amongst other things, all HF bands as "poor", the geomagnetic field as "severe storm" and the signal noise level as S9+
April 16, 2025 at 6:43 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Setting up an ADS-B receiver can be entertaining, even if the antenna is "suboptimal" (a magmount stuck to a baking tray in the loft!) 📡

Can clearly see approach-departure tracks from Manchester as well as GA traffic at Barton and through the Manchester Low Level Corridor ✈️
An ADSB plot showing colourful tracks crossing the image as well as many converging on Manchester airport An ADSB heatmap image, showing departure tracks from Manchester airport and a large concentration of points around Barton aerodrome
April 13, 2025 at 8:17 AM
ianatkin.bsky.social
I'm still pretty new to this game but I did *not* expect this on 10m at 9pm...
A screenshot of WSJT-X showing numerous contacts between the UK and the USA on FT8 on the 10m band at 9pm UK time. The day/night line is clearly visible mid-Atlantic.
March 18, 2025 at 9:09 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
A very obscure (for me) FT4 QSO today on 12m - I had to look up where Saint Barthelemy was when it popped up in WSTJX 😳
A QSO details page showing callsign FJ/DK6AS and a map of the Carribbean
March 1, 2025 at 3:19 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Come on BBC, you're better than this
BBC news article describing Elon Musk giving a Nazi salute while only saying that some X users have "likened" it to a Nazi salute
January 20, 2025 at 10:32 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
Just noticed the @flightradar24.com ADS-B track of this EK A380 arriving at MAN has quite a big error (or it landed in a field) - is this the result of GPS degradation en route?
Flightradar24 screenshot showing the track of flight UAE19 arriving at Manchester airport, but the track is displaced to the south of the true location
January 7, 2025 at 6:41 PM
ianatkin.bsky.social
#YouTubeMusicRecap
YouTube Music 2024 recap showing my music character as "the life of the party", my top tracks as Rim Tim Tagi Dim, Doomsday Blue, Arizona, La Noia, and Unforgettable, and my top artists as The Offspring, Blink-182, The Saw Doctors, Green Day, and Queen
December 4, 2024 at 5:43 PM