Saturday, 16th March, 2024

I did nothing and now the domain renewed. I do use as it my secondary domain for services as my primary one is blocked at work. Of course I still have two other domains I keep which I could’ve used instead…oh well. I’ll think about it again next year.

Spoke to my boss about part time and she was supportive. That’s good. Just need to talk to HR and then actually do it. Still can’t help feel like I’m going to be the one cheated in the situation…I’ll still do the same amount of work, I’ll just do it in 4 days instead of 5 and maybe faff about less. I just have to pay for the day off. Plus fight my natural instinct to maximise income now because who knows what’ll happen in the future. It’s reversible so that’s fine. Anyway, one step at a time.

Someone semi-nearby is selling a full loaded satellite setup, radio, antenna, rotator the lot. Probably circa £3k though 😨 I suspect, like him, I’d do it for a while and then think “that’s nice but I’m done now”. So probably a good price relative to what he would’ve paid new for it all. Plus I’m not sure where I’d keep it all. Think I’d get greater satisfaction from building more of it myself as a temporary, one afternoon I play satellites in the garden then pack it up. Which is what I’ve started doing.

Bought a control cable for my fm radio, need to get it hooked into the computer and the software to do the Doppler correction and then connect it to a white stick dual band antenna. Be interesting to see if I can make any contacts that way. I know some people have done and they were then less interested in bespoke sat setups. If that doesn’t work, I can make (or buy) so called eggbeater antenna which have a wide radiation pattern that is like a dome covering the whole sky.

I’ve also got my handheld dual band antenna to use, just I’m incompetent at aiming it. But practice and maybe some headset to free up a hand would help. But this could also be used with a homebrew rotator. That might take me a while to make but I still think it’ll be more fun than just spending a fortune.