Saturday, May 11, 2013

Not much happening

Nothing blogworthy has happened at G4ILO in the last few days. My mind has been preoccupied with two other things: frustration at still being without a driving license and anxiety about my forthcoming gall bladder operation. As a nurse said yesterday during my pre-operation assessment, a gall bladder op is nothing compared to the surgery I have had for my brain tumour. The difference is with the brain tumour everything happened very quickly so I didn't have time to do much thinking about it.

I haven't been completely inactive on the radio in the time since my last post. Most days when I haven't been going to a medical appointment I have turned on my 2 metre and 30 metre APRS gateways. Most days I have also set my K3 to monitor the WSPR frequencies on 10 metres. There have been some signs of Sporadic-E activity, such as the presence of Russian taxi operators on the 10m WSPR frequency. A few days ago DXmaps showed a small but intense Sporadic-E opening on 6 metres. My 10m signals have frequently been spotted by 4X1RF and have also reached Argentina and the Philippines. I hope that things will soon perk up and motivate me to do something worth writing about again.

8 comments:

He who shall not be named said...

Keep your chin up, Julian! Believe me, I know what its like to be down, but eventually things will perk up. At least you are alive and have the ability to be distressed about the DL issue. These are good problems to have! We'll be praying for you!

-Richard, KK4JDO
http://hamprojects.blogspot.com

Chuck Furman said...

Don't worry about that Gallbladder surgery. I had it done a few years ago. With the modern surgical techniques the surgery is a breeze. You will be in and out in no time and you will have no pain.

Unknown said...

I had my gallbladder removed a few years ago. It was a keyhole job. Apparently it was stuck to things inside, so I stayed two nights in hospital instead of one until the drain cleared. The worst part was getting the drain out - it felt like the end of it was down around my feet. Otherwise pain free.

Since then, no problems at all. I can - and do - eat almost everything.

Bob MM0RKT

Unknown said...

I had my gallbladder removed a few years ago. It was a keyhole job. Apparently it was stuck to things inside, so I stayed two nights in hospital instead of one until the drain cleared. The worst part was getting the drain out - it felt like the end of it was down around my feet. Otherwise pain free.

Since then, no problems at all. I can - and do - eat almost everything.

Bob MM0RKT

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hi Julian, the same here. But an operation is something else. Though, in medical terms: it's a minor operation, but nevertheless an operation you'll have to go through. Take care, 73 Paul

BillB said...

You will feel better after ridding yourself of the old gall bladder. I know it made a difference for me. I had an especially bad infection that kept me hospitalized for two weeks. In the end, all is well. It is important to not wait too long for this to be done. That caused my bigger infection problem.

G4FUI said...

Julian,

(Many Happy Returns btw ...)

Regarding Es, if you check my "meteor" page from time to time (www.g4fui.net/meteors.html) I have grabbers running 24/7 and two of them are partly tuned to TV channel R1 (49.75MHz) and you can see the E.European stations at Minsk/St Petersburg/Moldova coming and going (not necessarily all at the same time). It's been pretty "hot" for the last few days, on and off.

The 62MHz grabbers on Iceland are only a part time affair (beware the text accompanying these is out of date until I get round to updating it), but when running obviously give some clues as to the state of propagation on that frequency.

Hope this is of interest or use.

73

Martin - G4FUI

Keith GW4OKT said...

Hi Julian,
My 24 year old daughter had the op two weeks ago and it was no problem at all so don't worry. Happy birthday!

72

Keith GW4OKT