I reckon Point Nemo (48°52.6′S123°23.6′W) might be fairly quiet.
Now to get a research grant and head out there with my rig…
A few moments later…
I wonder what it is that drives that hate.
Social pressure; an Orwellian Two Minutes of Hate.
You’re right, and I was little ambiguous and unclear what I meant by formality.
By formality, I was suggesting that the US government spends a lot of time hand wringing about the budget, delaying for compromises, and then exceeds the budget anyway in certain areas.
They intentionally hold it hostage for compromises on other things we don’t actually want.
The budget is probably more a formality anyway.
I brought you into this world, so I can take you out of it! GO BRUSH YOUR TEETH!
Worked at a business which offered reduced pricing for kids. Front desk was trained in the habit of asking, not how old the kids were (because parents had trained them to give the age under the pricing shelf), but “what grade are you in this year”?
Not having prepared for that particular question, the kids would always answer honestly, and we could derive their age and charge accordingly.
I had a friend in high school who had an amazing sound system. He was deaf.
I asked him and he explained that he could feel many of the sounds. So while he couldn’t hear the finest details, there was a lot he could make out.
Tape both, and you’ll sleep for the rest of your life!
How expensive and to where can we send money because I’ve gotten a lot of value out of your hosting this instance.
Take it outside and turn it on high for a few minutes.
If it catches fire, turn it off and buy a new hot plate.
I got it into my head that I would like to see a spherical depiction of my QSOs. Azimuthal and other representations weren't cutting it for me.
I managed to coax an LLM to output my ADIF into a KML so I could better visualize the reach of my QSOs, and I am quite stunned. 20m has almost complete global reach, as you'll see below. Admittedly, on CW it probably does. In these visualizations, the vast majority of contacts are on FT8 20m, but there are a few dozen SSB contacts as far as Indonesia. Usually I made these contacts well before sunrise.
This is a representation of my entire logbook, so any QSO not from the SW US are 10m.
Setup: IC-7300, barefoot, 15m mast, and a 20m twinlead j-pole. Having been temporarily based in a residential area, I had quite a high noise floor from various EMI sources, and could have probably done better with weak stations had my noise floor been lower.
Moving to the west:
More west, Australia prominently visible:
Antipodal view:
Looking toward the east, the west coast of Africa coming into view:
Africa; the lonely QSO east of Madagascar is Reunion Island, got this one on FT8:
You can see a sharp decline in activity about mid-screen.
About 1m 15s remaining:
45s after 1200Z:
Granted, this is the IARU Championship. But that's a lot of people on the radio.
20m at 1500Z.
Side note: for the last three days I’ve enjoyed nearly bottomless noise floors; been making SSB QSOs to Japan, Indonesia, and even Rarotonga. Then–today of all days–the AirBnB beside my house has turned on their aircon and it’s completely wiping out all but the strongest signals. My waterfall looks like college ruled notebook paper:
1830Z Update:
1900Z. This is wild.
Man, what an amazing day which will be long–if not impossible–to forget.
In the late 90s, I observed my first partial eclipse from South Florida. Then and there I decided I needed to see a total solar eclipse. Nearly 30 years later, I made good on that little personal promise. The moment I realized I would be in position to get along the path of totality, I made plans with my spouse to do so. We saved the date and planed the logistics.
I, of course, ensured my radio was packed and fully functional; charged the battery the night before. We left Del Rio, the closest place we could find reasonable accommodations, at 0400L. By 0700L we had hoisted and strung the OCF dipole and we were ready to go in DL98rv, just under the central path of the eclipse on the side of Hwy 131 in Texas just beyond the US-Mexican border.
The Tech section of 10m was silent that early, but I kept calling CQ until I started getting QSOs, pretty much went ten in a row in nearly the same number of minutes once the band came alive.
I had wanted to participate in the research project contest, but the instructions and bonuses were a little overwhelming, but I did manage to make one QSO during totality. On the one hand, I was expecting propagation attenuation, but the QSO I made was over 1,500 miles away.
I've read over and over about experiencing totality. Photos will never do it justice. Words doubly so. If you've ever been on the fence about traveling to see totality–just do it.
Lessons learned or confirmed:
I am eager for your questions and feedback!
Let’s QSO!
18:05Z QSY to 28320khz
19:30Z QSY to 28315khz
I’m going to have heirloom Instinct 2s to pass down to my kids.