That's #9L8MD nabbed on 12m #RTTY 🎊 Oh, wait... it's my computer to their computer... is #RTTY a "real #hamradio " then?

Less than 1/2h to @psbhq.bsky.social matinee at the #barbican #london 🎵

I look forward to meeting fellow #hamradio fans at #rsgb convention over the weekend (although the plan is to mostly spend it at the #amsatuk 🛰 Colloquium). Do say hello if you see me.

yup. It was impossible to separate it cleanly 😡

I noticed that the shiny aluminium bit that sits inbetween the rod and the mast on my 2m radiator was on one side about twice as wide as on the other. And then the penny dropped. I tugged it a little bit only for it to, much to my horror, completely separate. Now, finally, it all made sense. 6/9

And so I arrived at my 1st stop, Vestmannaeyjar Islands HP93. I tried a reasonably high elevation 🛰 pass, but was surprised when I couldn't hear myself until quite late in the pass. I suspected the TX coax (RX was fine, as far as I could tell) and duly swapped it for the next pass. 2/9

A couple of weeks back, I was planning my holidays in Iceland 🇮🇸, hoping to activate a few rare grids on #hamradio LEO #satellite. In the run-up to my them, I tried hard to leave nothing to chance: I had a spare coax, audio cables, diplexer, batteries... even got myself a brand new #arrowantenna 1/9🧵

Ironically, I myself miss most of the TF grids I've activated, so here are a few photos in case anyone needs some persuasion to do something similar 🙂 4/4 🧵🔚

combined with some technical issues I didn’t manage to troubleshoot despite several attempts (IP15 onwards) prevented me from doing more. Still, when I plot activated grids in #cloudlog, I'm pretty satisfied (note: the HP ones are from 2024). 2/4

I've uploaded my yesterday's #hamradio #satellite activity from IP13 to #lotw Please let me know if you spot any missing.

This is the log for my yesterday's #hamradio #satellite activity from HP93. Please let me know if I've missed to log anyone. Shout out to @2m0sql.com , whose Portable Planner made this a much simpler experience than ever before.

Arrived safely at Heimaey Island, one of the Vestmannaeyjar Isles, 🇮🇸 HP93uk. Weather is rather poor, persistent drizzle currently making it impossible to operate #hamradio outdoors. 🤞it improves in time for tonight's RS-44 pass I'd tentatively announced earlier this week.

From anecdotal evidence it seems to me, after a few recent popular roves, that everyone’s worked most 🇮🇸 TF grids on #hamradio #LEO #satellites. gridmaster.fr disagrees. The real state is probably somewhere in-between, so I’ll try to do my bit to make this image just a shade greener.

I thought I was maybe overthinking this, that perhaps some plastic end element caps weren't fully fitted, but then I managed to find the original instalation instructions for comparison. And there it was in black and white: 70 cm elements indeed are different in my new purchase. 4/7

I promptly ordered a new one from #amsatuk , thinking to myself at least I'll have one for spares should the worst happen again. I compared the elements side by side and noticed something peculiar: while the "new" 2m elements are the same size as the "old" ones, the 70 cm ones are not! 2/7

I already posted this on #mastodon but had little traction, so reposting here hoping that I'll be luckier. After a rogue gust of wind tipped over my tripod-mounted #hamradio #satellite #Arrow2Antenna, its 2m reflector snapped (I shouldn't complain, for I'd had a similar "close call" already) 🧵1/7

If you're worried about droughts, floods, and increased likelihood of other extreme weather events, worry no more: in the latest #rsgb #radcom there's a letter to the editor that explains this is all just a hoax 🙄 This must be a novel attempt of attracting youth to #hamradio.

Turns out it's much easier to aim your antenna towards a #hamradio #satellite when you can actually see it passing 🙂 The #iss was quite bright over my QTH tonight.

I like #homeassistant but its inconsistency in naming entities drives me nuts. This time last year my switch used its friendly name for entity ID. A year (and a few #esphome updates) later and it's the physical name, so now I have to hastily update all my automations that use it 🙄