GB8WW

A nice E-mail from Ofcom arrived with a Notice of Variation attached to it. This permits operation of a special event station GB8WW for the Mills on the Air weekend, 14/15th May 2016. So we are looking forward to a bit of portable operation at the Open Day for National Mills Week at Willesborough Windmill. I found and scanned a nice picture I took at an open day in 1994 - not much has changed!

Hoping to operate the station with my good friend Peter, G8WMZ, and any other willing volunteers who can be found.

Hope to work you on the air in May. 73

Hugh M0WYE

Tim Peake ARISS Contact

Used my Yeasu FT60e and an HB9CV to listen to astronaut Tim Peake as he conducted a  schools contact with a school in Rickmansworth.
The clear sky gave a good visual pass, so pointing the antenna quite easy ... manual satellite tracking. I made an audio recording that I have edited into a YouTube video, here...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nNLsvPfyHG0

Making Plastic Objects at Home

After a seeing a comment about some rather tough Jarlsberg cheese on Facebook, I was reminded that milk was once used to make a kind of plastic - casein plastic was used for buttons and other small items. Manufacture of this material is possible at home. I turned to my copy of "Chemistry Experiments at Home for Boys and Girls" - a 1949 book by H.L.Heys M.A. (Cantab). Such publications as this would not be encouraged nowadays, but in 1949 making plastic objects in the kitchen was aparently well within the abilities of school boys and girls.  Here is the recipe...

73 Hugh