Activity contests and antenna article

It must be my age!  My wife said last Tuesday "have you got a radio contest tonight?" I said, "no" thinking it was the end of November. Somehow I also read my email reminder of the 70cm UK activity contest too late last night.  So, I managed to miss both the 2m and 70cm December legs of the monthly RSGB amateur radio activity contests, thinking it was the end of November still!

Incidentally, my article on the big-wheel antenna for 2m is in the January RSGB magazine RadCom. If I had remembered, this is the antenna I would have used! It works well and is a horizontal omni with gain. Mine was very kindly erected by a fellow radio amateur David Tegerdine G0LRD, to whom I am much indebted.

Stroke exhaustion

It is perhaps surprising that well over 2 years since my stroke, I still get very exhausted so easily. We have had good old friends staying for a couple of nights and after helping to prepare lunch and washing the dishes, I was totally exhausted. After 10-15 minutes I am OK again, but anything physical or mental gets me very tired after a short time.

I guess I have to accept this is how it is going to be, although people tell me I am getting slowly better. They can see progress, although I cannot generally see it.

Sitting down  and driving are OK generally.   I find I get stressed more than I did and my instinct is to, "say it as it is". This sometimes gets me into trouble! I am sure I was more tactful in the past.

Floods

As I write this, Storm Desmond is dropping record quantities of rain over northern England and Scotland.  I can imagine little worse than having your home or business flooded out, especially at this time of the year.  My heart bleeds for those affected, who may be without homes for months and even when they get back there is the ongoing threat of it all happening again.  There is also the worry over insurance. No, flooding is going to become a major issue in the years ahead.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35019021 .

Winter

The Met Office official "winter" is December, January and February.  To me, this makes a lot of sense. In just over 2 weeks time the evenings will start to get lighter again, although the mornings get darker still for a few more weeks. Once January has passed the nights are quite a bit lighter. By mid-February there are usually clear signs that spring is on its way. Mind you, snow is not unusual in January and February and the summer bird migrants don't usually arrive until April mainly.

Boring old fart?

I am officially a boring old fart!

Coming back from my U3AC course on the buses today I could not help overhearing the word "like" interjected many, many times in every sentence by most youngsters! Also, most under 30 years old seem to be in love with their smart phones. In days gone by we'd actually talk, but these days this would be too much to ask.

Syria

It looks likely there will be a free vote in the UK House of Commons this week on whether or not to join the coalition forces bombing targets in Syria.

As much as I hate the despicable acts being carried out, I very much doubt more bombs are the answer. All the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to have the opposite effect on the number of terrorists in the world to that intended: there are now far more than before!

I am against the bombing Syria and believe a long term, fair, peace deal would achieve far more good. This will never be easy.

Small steps?

My wife tends to do the major housework on Tuesdays and I usually try to clean some windows. This morning I managed far more than before. I also managed a 200ml glass (actually a cup) of orange in 16 sips. To me, both are progress. To "normal" people these may seem trivial but if you have had a brain bleed, like me, they represent small steps on the road to recovery.