Pondering Ponds and Other Things
In other news, mostly we've been getting on with garden projects. I did some work to raise the water level in the pond just a little. The aim is to get the level as even as possible, so that as little of the liner as possible shows above the water line when the pond is full, and that the pond overflows at one controlled point. The catch is that the soil in the bank compacts slightly over time, so the levels change a bit. The good thing is that the parts most prone to such compaction are also mostly the bits that are easier to reach, but the process is iterative. The frogs were unimpressed by my recent efforts, as I disturbed a favoured bit of bank, but they've not moved out, so I guess that's a win.
I've done very little radio. At present the hexbeam is lowered. I brought it down before the storms a few weeks back, and havn't put it back up yet, but it being down does limit my activity on the bands from 14MHz up. I'm also getting a lot of noise on the bands from 7MHz down on the other antenna, so the only band that's working reasonably well at present is 10MHz, and I've not done much with it, apart from a brief burst of FT8 activity last night so that my score for the club monthly activity challenge wasn't too paltry. I have caught the Thursday morning GB2CW morse practice broadcast on 3.605MHz as usual (the signal is plenty strong enough to get over the noise), and done about as well as usual.
The astronomical society over in Orpington decided to hold a virtual meeting for the first time since the lockdown started, and the advantage of those sorts of meetings is that they're relatively easily attendable even from over here, so I got to hear an astronomical society talk for the first time in a while. It was enjoyable and interesting.
We've been for a couple of short excursions recently. One was to collect a compost bin that was going begging (because our garden work is generating a lot of compostable material, and anything that can help speed up the composting process is useful. The other was over to Thornbury to get some bits and pieces from the shops, and to the local builders supply place to check on flooring. It says something about the present situation that an excursion of a few miles is a big event...
I've done very little radio. At present the hexbeam is lowered. I brought it down before the storms a few weeks back, and havn't put it back up yet, but it being down does limit my activity on the bands from 14MHz up. I'm also getting a lot of noise on the bands from 7MHz down on the other antenna, so the only band that's working reasonably well at present is 10MHz, and I've not done much with it, apart from a brief burst of FT8 activity last night so that my score for the club monthly activity challenge wasn't too paltry. I have caught the Thursday morning GB2CW morse practice broadcast on 3.605MHz as usual (the signal is plenty strong enough to get over the noise), and done about as well as usual.
The astronomical society over in Orpington decided to hold a virtual meeting for the first time since the lockdown started, and the advantage of those sorts of meetings is that they're relatively easily attendable even from over here, so I got to hear an astronomical society talk for the first time in a while. It was enjoyable and interesting.
We've been for a couple of short excursions recently. One was to collect a compost bin that was going begging (because our garden work is generating a lot of compostable material, and anything that can help speed up the composting process is useful. The other was over to Thornbury to get some bits and pieces from the shops, and to the local builders supply place to check on flooring. It says something about the present situation that an excursion of a few miles is a big event...