Conor, EI4JN asked me a few weeks ago if I would help him out at the Ocean to City , as he was doing safety boat and could do with an extra pair of hands.
Last Saturday was a fabulous day on the water. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I was quite envious of the kayakers, they all seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.
After the last competing boat passed our location, we motored up to the city and I started taking a few pictures again. This family passed us heading downriver, the parents looked to be getting the most enjoyment from the spin.
Fingers crossed that that was not the full extent of summer 2013 in Ireland!
So there I was a few weekends ago, wandering around the indoor hall at the UK’s National Hamfest (held just outside Newark). I had just left some items at the Bring and Buy, was browsing the stalls and I came across the stand of the Group for Earth Observation, where I stopped for a chat with the two guys on the stand.
I used to be a member quite a number of years ago until, for whatever reason, I lost interest, after a short chat, I purchased a few recent copies of their quarterly magazine and headed into the crowd. On the ferry home I opened them for a look and instantly thought I had to make an effort again.
So, when I got home I joined GEO (again), found my old licence and login details for Eumetsat. Downloaded and compiled xrit2pic and put my licence to use.
Once Mr B. drops me back my Ezcap eztv 688, I will have to try it on good old APT.
Thank you GEO for re-kindling my interest (though my wife may not agree. Hmmm… I wonder if she would mind me putting up a dish for EUMETCast reception. ).
We all have an interest in the weather to some level or other. I finally cracked earlier this year and got a weather station, a Davis Vantage VUE with a Weatherlink USB interface.
Unfortunately, not long after I got it the humidity and temperature sensors inexplicably failed. So back to Weathershop, and after a fairly quick turnaround, it has been working fine all Summer.
This weekend, the good weather co-incided with me being at home. So, with permission from SWMBO, the drills came out, and the sensor suite is now mounted in a reasonable location off the gable end of the house (it was in the garden up to now).
The data is available online, using the wview package. It is also available at aprs.fi or findu, as, being into APRS, I’m feeding it into the APRS-IS backbone and contributing to the Citizens Weather Observation Program.
Enjoy!
Winter is most definitely on the way, slight frost on the car this morning, and the weather station run by the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group showing a significant dip last night, though it was colder on Sunday night. Strangely though, I’m looking forward to getting a nice fire going on our new stove. And seeing how well it can heat the sitting room and the rest of the house.
I finished off the rewiring i mentioned in a previous post. This was mostly just a tidy up of the cables around the inverter. The inverter itself is an older model Powermaster PM-1500SL-24, however the battery charging circuit generates terrible Radio Frequency interference. This means that the shortwave bands are completely obliterated when charging is taking place (from either solar or mains/generator power), so I leave the inverter off unless I need it. I use a Steca PR3030 and two 80watt panels, facing roughly South, to keep the battery bank topped up.
I have tested the system it by running the central heating, fridge-freezer and chest freezer off the inverter for a few hours, but I must give it a more thorough test at some stage in the near future. The batteries are no longer new and, should there be a power cut, I’d better be able to keep the TV running or the boss will not be pleased!
The Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched in February of this year. Earlier today NASA held their first briefing where pictures and some video clips were released. One word, stunning!
Significant data was gathered on the recent solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections. This are of interest to Amateur Radio operators as when they happen, the HF bands are pretty much unusable.
Still though, the detail is just stunning.
From Met Eireann
Every day at Twelve O’Clock Greenwich Mean Time, a thousand people from around the world synchronise their efforts in one global act, the launching of meteorological weather balloons.
This non-political agreement between all of the world’s governments forms the theme of Nin Brudermann’s art project “Twelve O’Clock in London”. Nin, sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, has gathered 90 videos of balloon launches from around the world to assemble an illustrative short movie highlighting global scientific co-operation.
Midday launch from Valentia Observatory.
Midnight launch from Valentia Observatory.
Ohmygosh it is cold, very cold. I’m not made for this -11 this morning, rising to -8 this afternoon, looking forward to a balmy -2 tomorrow.
So far, learning to ski other than being cold, has been good fun, though pains are occurring in strange places this evening. We’re heading out tomorrow for another day of ‘learning’ at the conclusion of which, I hope to be able to turn a tighter circle than a 747, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Dee and I made a last minute decision to head for Killarney for the weekend. What a fantastic weekend it was. After we arrived on Saturday afternoon we wandered up Torc Mountain. After dinner I suggest that we attempt Mangerton on Sunday morning.
Maybe it was the wine or the weather, but Dee agreed, and we had a fantastic day in the hills.
In October I Posted that we (SEARG) had put an APRS Weather Station on the air, just behind the College in Waterford City. Mark, EI7IS has been working on integrating the output into the club web site, so now it is visible at http://www.searg.com/WXstation.php. If you find it useful, please do let Mark know.
Temperature/Dew point
<IMG SRC="http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/temp.cgi?call=EI2WRC&last=120&xsize=300&ysize=200&units=metric"
Barometer (millibars)
<IMG SRC="http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/baro.cgi?call=EI2WRC&last=120&xsize=300&ysize=200&units=metric"
Random thoughts — Mostly Amateur Radio, Satellite, Linux or Work related.
