A Belated HAPPY NEW YEAR! But a disappointing start.

Hull's "City Of Culture 2017" fireworks display, entitled "THE BIG BANG"!

To bring in the 2016 new year, Jane and I drove to the St Helen's Church at West Keal. This hilltop location provides a great vantage point to the south.

Midnight on New Year's Eve offers the only time of year where you can guarantee an abundance of synchronised fireworks. The view from St Helen's Church is quite spectacular. It's not that high at only 70 metres above sea level, but the view over the flat plains of the Fens to the south is quite impressive. There's nothing else quite like it around here.

The evening of December 31st 2015 was dry and the air was still and crystal clear. At the stroke of midnight, the whole horizon was aflame with thousands of fireworks, providing a display of colour and light, making the horizon look like it was dancing. It was the most bizarre and mesmerising sight. I can't put into words just how magical this was. I had heard reports about how stunning this kind of fireworks-gazing was and we can wholeheartedly concur.

We could see fireworks as far away as North Norfolk. The Boston area was flooded with light. Yet not a sound could be heard, apart from the wildlife on the ground and in the nearby trees.

So we thought we would repeat the same experience again this New Year's Eve. But the display this time was extremely disappointing. At the stroke of midnight, we counted only three small firework displays on the distant horizon. This was an enormous reduction over last year's breathtaking spectacle. Apart from a couple of fireworks at the bottom of the hill, we probably didn't count more than a dozen in the distance. The air was the same. Cold, crisp and beautifully clear.

So why the dramatic reduction in fireworks? Is it now considered bad taste to let off bombs in the air? I could understand that. Or is it because money is tight? I hear that New Year retail sales are considerably down this year. The shops and the roads around Skegness this season are empty! You can see that there is a huge reduction of New Year visitors, which we always have. This follows one of the busiest summer seasons on record for the resort. I think I am opting for the financial reason. Or are fireworks just not in fashion anymore?

Skegness has had all its many fireworks displays cancelled in 2016. I don't know why, but I am not disappointed. Although I love a good fireworks display, I would happily support their ban as I have seen the terrible effects they have on pets.

Driving home from West Keal, feeling a little disappointed, Jane and I discussed travelling to Kingston Upon Hull the following evening. It's a 70 mile (110 km) drive from Skegness, but they were boasting that they were having a fireworks display which would be better than London's! Something I found hard to believe. But 2017 is Hull's "City Of Culture" year, which has many, many events to celebrate the city. Maybe we should go.

Come the following afternoon, we did indeed take the drive to Hull and witnessed their stunning fireworks display. It was probably the best one I have seen. I don't think I would class it as 'better' than London's New Year's display, but the only difference was that Hull didn't have a giant Ferris wheel as a centrepiece. Other than that, it really was a very impressive 12 minute display, carried out on two barges which were moored just off the Marina in the Humber river.

To get a waterfront seat for the fireworks, you had to book a year in advance. It was ticket only, but they were free. All 25,000 tickets were snapped up the moment they were released too.

A little planning on google Earth and Google Street View found us a good spot, right next to the Marina, where we could see the whole display. We chose the car park of the Odeon Cinema. Only a small handful of other people had thought of this. Most other people travelled slightly further away to St Andrew's Dock. But the fireworks were huge, so they could be seen from all points across the city.

According to local newspapers, the display consisted of 15,000 projectiles and weighed 3.5 tonnes. How that compares to the London display I am not sure. I have only ever seen that on the TV, but I have no doubt that the two are very similar in size after seeing Hull's effort.

It was certainly a big fireworks display and the fireworks were very loud, considering they were about half a mile away. One or two car alarms were being set off by the blasts.

Listening to BBC Radio Humberside interviewing the public after the event, I was surprised to find that a lot had gone wrong with the fireworks. It seems there was some problem with synchronicity of the fireworks and the video and soundtrack which were playing for those in the Marina. The fireworks were also slightly late starting, being billed to begin at exactly 2017. I don't know why the rather odd time. They were only about five minutes late, but I imagine this may have upset the timings of other events in the evening's celebrations.

I'll leave my own video effort of the evening's proceedings at the top of the page, but mine is poor by comparison to some of those I have seen on YouTube. I will post a few links to some of the better ones below. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

BREXIT? DXIT? STOPIT!

I recently called for help from a fellow DXer. I had a few stations I wanted identifying, so I called on his help. He has been kind in the past and has willingly identified a number of stations for me but this time there was no response. "Fear not" I thought, my message must have gone astray. I contacted him again. Nothing! So I tried an email. Nothing! I tried one more time and asked if everything was OK. Nope. I was now convinced he was deliberately ignoring me. It wasn't just me he was ignoring though. Another UK DXer asked for help and got the same zero response.

I am not revealing the names and locations of those concerned but, let me make it clear, I do not 'expect' people to help 'on demand'. I think it's nice when we all make some effort, at least once in a while, to return the help we receive.

Our hobby is well known for promoting friendship across the world, but I am concerned that the recent political situation in our country is now starting to cause a divide.

I am ashamed of my country in some ways but, more to the point, I am very much ashamed of our governments. They DO NOT represent the majority of people and they certainly do not care about people other than themselves. They have their own agenda and I am sick of the way they ride over the ordinary people of this country.

What I am seeing appears to be a result of that stupid "BREXIT" thing we had recently. It has caused us a lot of damage. Moreover, I am shocked by the number of people generalising about UK citizens being RACIST as a result of our vote to leave the European Union.

It has often been stated in the media that our vote to leave the EU was based solely on immigration issues and that this is causing our problems. Some of our own politicians were branding us as "racist" if we were going to vote to leave. Let me tell you, there were many reasons people voted to leave. There are always a few - a small minority of people who are racist. It's the same anywhere, and I do genuinely believe that we are one of the least racist countries in the world, but I feel that these issues about immigration were never based on racism, but purely on numbers.

I know what racism feels like. I have experienced racism in most European countries I have visited. It's not nice. It's actually quite scary. But most people are sensible. Racism is irrational. It's reasonable to dislike an individual, no matter where they are from, but to dislike an entire country, just based or race or religion? That's just ridiculous. I am stating the obvious and, as we know, there is good and bad in all walks of life.

Most people here are in favour of immigration. I think it's great to welcome other cultures to this country and we mustn't forget that people are fleeing impossible situations worse than we can imagine. PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE the CRAP propagated in our media. The media in the UK has a longstanding history of bias and lies. Oh - just like our evil governments.

I DESPISE our governments. We have a terrible history of walking over other nations and helping ourselves to other countries as we wish. Just understand that this is what our governments do and NOT what the people generally want. "Not in my name", as people say. The vast majority of people in the UK are peaceful and we welcome friendship with people of all nationalities, faiths, skin colour, cultures, etc.

How about we all try our best to get on with each other? Most of us do. Don't let politics get in the way. I don't vote. I know I probably SHOULD vote, but I have never voted in my life. Why? I don't feel qualified. I know little about politics. In fact it disgusts me. But the main reason I have never voted is because I have NEVER found a political party I have WANTED to vote for. As for Brexit, I didn't vote, but I probably would have voted to stay.

Peace!

The EU Referendum and "British" politics. Disgusted with the whole thing.

The word which comes to mind here is "concerned", but I would have said the same thing had we voted to stay in the EU. 

I don't vote as I have never taken an interest in politics until recently. Quite simply, I have never felt qualified to vote, plus I have never found any politician or political party body I would want to vote for. "Shame on me" for not voting. Perhaps. But I feel slightly more inclined to want to vote after this fiasco. 

Firstly, our politicians have let themselves down very badly in the way they have behaved in their campaigning concerning Brexit. If our overseas friends don't already know this, our politicians have been using scaremongering tactics and outright lies to scare us into voting one way or the other. That is totally unacceptable, not to mention embarrassing. Telling us that we are all racist if we vote LEAVE is one example of something which is completely wrong. The whole campaign has been manipulative on all sides. 

I don't know who to believe in politics, which is one reason I never vote. Party A says one thing, Party B says the opposite is true. How do I know who is telling the truth? Politicians don't do much more than just have a go at each other. Forget about hearing the the actual facts! 

As I see it, the BREXIT (stupid word! What's the opposite? BRAYIN?) campaigners simply want us to be in control of our own country. Nothing more, nothing less. Also to get rid of some of the restrictive and unfair rules and regulations the EU impose on us. 

Common sense tells me two things. 1. "Better the devil you know". 2, "Strength in numbers" and, hopefully, a willingness for us all to get along together nicely". So my immediate leaning was more towards REMAIN. Then I started to read a bit more into the detail of the EU thing. Some things did not seem to be fair at all. I then started leaning towards LEAVE.  I have no idea what is right and what is wrong. My knowledge is simply insuffcient for me to decide one way or the other.

At the end of it all, I was back to being undecided, but possibly still favouring REMAIN, but I could see good and bad if we stayed in the EU or left. Surely safer to stay as we are for many reasons. 

At the end of the proverbial day, I think all sides need to get their act together and the EU should stop being so controlling in some ways. "Fair's fair", but what is ever fair? The bottom line for me is that something needs to be done with our corrupt political system and my concern is that this exit will cause a lot of unnecessary trouble and that our governments will take even more advantage. 

Just my personal opinions, for what they are worth.

2016 Mid-term Es (& Weather) Analysis

We're about half way through the 2016 Es season, so time to post my personal opinion on this year's Es season. These are my own experiences and differ from other DXer's experiences.

Like last season, this year's Es have been the worst and the best for me. "The worst", based on the sparse number of openings, the lack of intensity/lower MUF of the openings and the number of stations received. "The best" because of the frequent double-hop conditions to Turkey, plus the phenomenal opening to Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East on May 29th! So the contrasts have been quite extreme.

Being on the east coast places me closer to the European action, so I am often lucky to experience some Es openings which don't penetrate further inland.

What I am still struggling to get my head around is the fact that I have received Turkey more than twice as often as I have received Italy this season and almost four times as frequently as I have received Spain! That just doesn't happen .... well, clearly it DOES happen. This is the nature of sporadic E. You just never know what to expect, even when you think conditions are poor. It only takers a few minutes and the Es clouds can develop in the right places. But such DX is rare.

Also, just like last summer, there have been more Es openings in Eastern Europe and which didn't reach this far west, so DXers in eastern parts of Europe may argue that their season has been OK, but even there, you can see that the openings have been less frequent.

There have been many days with no Es at all here. The same could be said for the sun. Yes, I am going to moan about the weather. Cold northerly winds have often dominated our weather here on the Lincolnshire coast. The sun has been quite scarce too, with many days of cloud cover. Unusual for the east coast.

We sometimes use the term "British summer" hee to describe the weather. This is usually taken to mean "two sunny days then a thunder storm". That's about right, but storms never seem to come overhead in Skegness and are drawn into the Fenlands or into the Wolds. We are exposed to many elements in these Islands due to our geographical location. It can be oppressively hot due to high humidity levels sometimes, or the opposite, though we don't really have extremes here. It's a fairly 'temperate' and pleasant climate on the whole. Not too hot and not too cold. Personally, I do not like hot weather.

The eastern side of England usually benefits from drier, sunnier weather than the rest of the UK. Not so this season! Weather systems have been in the wrong place, so we have had a lot of cold northerly winds for most of the British summertime. It's been hard to believe that the east of England has been struggling to reach 9C at times when it should have been more than double this.

So, in conclusion, it's largely "RUBBISH" but with rare and unusually good highlights. The season has a few weeks to redeem itself, but I am not holding my breath.

'Closed' DX Clubs & Societies: Is There A Place For Them Today?

I have been wondering whether to make this post as I know it will probably come across in the wrong way, but here are a couple of things I have been pondering lately.

I was browsing through a well-known DX club's printed bulletin a few months ago, reading through the various articles and browsing their DX loggings section, and it got me wondering to myself if the traditional paid subscription type of hobby radio club still has a place in our society.

This is probably going to read like a rant, but I hope not. I am not criticizing DX club/s in general, but two thoughts keep coming back to me:

1. Is there still a place in today's society for the traditional "paid subscription" type of DX radio club.
2. Sharing loggings in realtime so everybody benefits: Do you mind other people getting DX tips from you?

Back to the DX bulletin I was reading: The first thing which crossed my mind was how 'elitist' the bulletin seemed. Some of today's DX clubs and societies began 20 or more years ago. We didn't have the internet back then and online magazines and DX forums wouldn't have been considered as an option by most of them.

In the late 90s, a few groups were forward-thinking enough to look at possibilities of going 'electronic' and ultimately ditching their printed publication in favour of something free and more accessible to everybody. The British FM & TV Circle was one such group, now simply known as "Skywaves".

The British FM & TV Circle did start out by having a paid subscription system, which worked perfectly well. Once the internet started becoming popular, we soon introduced a free pdf version of our DX magazine so people could download it free of charge. Those who still preferred to have a 'hard copy', delivered by post, could still do this, but the printing costs which had to be met. No profits were made.

A year or two after Skywaves became electronic, most of the original paying members were taking advantage of the free pdf version. As expected, the number of those paying to receive the posted version decline. At the time, I remember a certain co-ordinator of a well known medium wave DX club, publically stating in their DX bulletin, that the move from 'printed' to 'electronic' had caused the downfall of the British FM & TV Circle! This is totally incorrect and I have no idea whay they reached this conclusion and also stated such. Or have I? Going digital and becoming free had the exact opposite effect! The group became known simply as "Skywaves" and its publication became fully 'public', thus developing into a much larger and global community as a result. 'Membership' was open to everybody, free of charge, and everybody could help each other in 'realtime' as a result! What could be better?

I don't have a problem with paid membership groups, personally. I'm a bit of a traditionalist myself when it comes to having a printed bulletin you can touch and feel. I was actually slightly sceptical myself when it came to migrating the Skywaves bulletin from 'printed' to 'electronic' as it was an unknown, but it has worked very well indeed so far, far better for everybody and in many ways! Well, apart from one individual - the very last person who was in regular receipt of the printed bulletin. We continued this until the end of the year, but then decided to pull the plug  on it completely.

The comments made by that medium wave DX club were rather cruel and not called for. I still cannot imagine why on earth they continue to insist that members paying for the printed version of their bulletin if they only wish to receive the pdf version. Surely that should be free? Why would there even need to be a charge for a free digital publication if propit were not in mind? Well, that's their prerogative I suppose, but I think it's completely wrong. Just my opinion.

When I post my loggings in the FM List or MW List, my loggings are then shared, so other DXers can see what I have heard and when I have heard it. If they so wish, they can then check the bands at the same time as me to see if they have heard the same thing. This is mutually beneficial to us all. I usually always give credit to the original logger if I receive something thanks to another DXer's logging.

I have to ask myself "Do I understand why DXers want to keep loggings to themselves?" I think I 'get it', in a way. Coming from an amateur radio perspective, there are DX contests where people collect totals in order to come top of a league table or to win a certificate, etc. They call it Radio Sport and I see the fun in this. I have entered such DX contests myself for the fun of it, though I haven't come close to topping any table. I do understand that side of the hobby, but to keep loggings to yourself? Well, people clearly do and I suppose I shouldn't knock that too heavily. Each to their own, but there's so much benefit for us all when everything is shared. DXing is a great hobby and it's such a shame that a few do not wish to share. Would you mind other DXers receiving a rare catch you had one day?

Some years ago, I received a Brazilian station on 1470. I'm fairly sure it was a 'European First' and I only received this thanks to another DXer having received it himself. I still had a recording of that particular overnight session and checked the frequency on hearing the good news. I too had the same station at the same time! I thus concluded that this was now a joint European First. The originating DXer was not amused! He was furious that I did this and still managed to claim the European First solely for himself. Other DXers also agreed that what I did was completely wrong. I was chastised for this in no uncertain terms.

Looking back at this, I believe the originating DXer should definitely be able to claim the European First as it was he who spotted it. It's all about giving credit where the credit is due. Had it not been for him, I probably wouldn't have heard this station. He was King. But am I right to take the view that there is some form of snobbery involved here? I suppose it all boils down to giving him that original 'credit'. Had it not been for him. etc. I was thankful that he told me. Oh well, each to their own.

So, just what are the pros and cons of having a closed group system in a DX club? I've stuck my oar in and given my opinion here, but I don't expect everybody to agree with the above. What are your opinions? Especially if you disagree? Please tell me why. We all have different views and it's good to talk and get a balance.

The Evils of the TV Licence

The TV licence is a necessary evil here in the UK. The law states you MUST have one if you watch live TV and also if you record live TV. But if you only watch "Catch-up" or "On Demand" TV, then you do not need a licence. (UPDATE: From September 1st, 2016, a TV licence is now required to watch BBC iPlayer "On-demand" programmes.) 

Earlier this year, we moved home and found ourselves watching an increasingly large amount of the Catch-up TV services. It was very rare for us to watch live TV at our previous address, where we held a TV licence. But we hadn't been at the current address for long either when we received a visit by another Capita official, DEMANDING that we bought a TV licence. Capita are the company responsible for enforcing this scourge up on us all.

We didn't think about it much at the time, but soon discovered that the TV licence was not necessary if you only ever watched the Catch-up services, and this is what we were doing virtually all the time. We phoned TV Licencing themselves and queried this and they confirmed this was indeed true and, without questioning, put us straight through to the Cancellations Department. They took our details and, a few days later, we received a letter of confirmation that we no longer required a TV licence.

Also, one of the conditions of having my Korner 9.2 installed on the roof here was that I took down the existing TV aerial, so we don't have any means to receive television signals anyway!

Now we move forward to November of this year, when my wife received a court summons due to us not having a TV licence. Unfortunately, our original covering letter which stated that we did not need a TV licence had been lost, so we attempted to get a new one. This resulted in several phone calls to TV Licencing and the various monkeys who work there. We were given all kinds of conflicting information, including one lady who told us that we DO need a licence for watching Catch-up TV. This is not true and we later verified this (again) with another representative from TV Licencing.

Now there are differing opinions across the land regarding the ups and downs of having a TV licence,. Is it worth it? Is it fair? It's interesting how I have only ever heard people singing its praises on BBC phone-in shows. Funny, that! Personally, I think it is about as close to being an extortion racket as it possibly can be. In the UK, the licence fee is classified as a tax and evasion is a criminal offence.

I am disgusted by the methods used by these Capita thugs when they visit your address. The methods they use to enforce the fee can be quite brutal at times, and not just on paper, though lately their tone of voice has been moderated somewhat. But I well remember the visit by a Capita official when we had just moved into our previous address. The representative, who would have passed as a 'bouncer' in any rough night club, simply said to me in a raised and threatening voice "YOU NEED A TV LICENCE AND YOU NEED TO MAKE A PAYMENT NOW!". I just closed the door in his face. No, we hadn't got a TV licence at that point, but reluctantly started paying for one in instalments shortly afterwards.

So, back to the present day and we have been waiting for TV Licencing to send us another confirmation letter so we can forward it to the courts. This took TWO WEEKS, far too late now to pass on to the courts, but it wouldn't have been accepted anyway. You'll realise why when you read what it says:

    Dear Mr Faulkner

    I can confirm that you don't need a TV licence at (address). Your TV licence is due to expire in
    2000 and we will send you a reminder next year.

    Yours sincerely

    (No signature)

Really?

So, we await the outcome of the court hearing. My wife, whose name is on the summons, is waiting to hear from the courts after pleading "Not Guilty". Let's hope common sense prevails.

February 24th 2017 Update:
Just looking back at this article and I can give a useful update.

I happen to know somebody who is a barrister and who deals with TV licence dodgers on a regular basis and I have learned some interesting and very useful information as a result. Please take note.

If you don't have a TV licence and ever have to go to court for non-payment, buy a TV licence prior to your court visit. Even is you have just paid for the first week of your licence, you will not be fined or punished in the courts. Your case will be thrown out. I must stress that this is how things are at the time of writing this update.

The outcome of my wife's summons was, as you might no imagine, quite predictable. We paid for a new licence the week before our court hearing. The judge at Grantham Magistrate's Court told us that no further action would be taken. He actually took us to one side and advised, very politely and sympathetically, that we should get a licence under any circumstances as it would save a lot of hassle in the future. Quite simply, the TV licence enforcers will not stop.

Flooding, Nelson Mandela & Our Evil Government

It's been a very rough day in Skegness. Severe winds gusting to 70 mph (112 kmph) have literally battered the coastline causing a lot of damage, though we seemed to get away with the worst of it. Some towns and villages around here had to be evacuated. Most notably was the town of Boston where 18,000 people were told to leave their homes.

Obviously I was concerned about my FM antenna mast coming down but I am thankful to report that it didn't. The weight of this structure is about 75 kilos with the thick aluminium pole and the heavy duty rotator. Fingers crossed this stays up but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't. Some large trees were snapped just around the corner from here though.

What was of more concern today was the threat to life as weather forecasters predicted a large tidal surge of similar proportions to the storm which flooded Skegness in 1953. Severe "Red Alert" weather warnings and flood alerts existed across the east coast from Yorkshire down to Essex and they're not over yet.

The winds abated by early evening but the tidal surge was expected to cause flooding here around 6:45 to 7:30 pm. Curiosity got the better of me and I took my camera out to the sea front to see what was happening. The police had closed lots of roads along the sea front so it was difficult to get a clear picture of what was happening, but having seen local photos on Facebook depicting minor flooding I realised that the sea defenses had been breached.

The damage turned out to be 'relatively' minor here, though pathways have been torn up and there is flood damage to a few sea front properties. The real damage was down the coast in Boston, some 20 miles from here. BBC Radio Lincolnshire was reporting that much of the town centre was under two feet (more than half a metre) of water.

We're not out of the woods yet as more tidal surges are expected over the next 24 hours but hopefully the worst has passed.

I'll finish this off with a little grumble. This evening I learnt that Nelson Mandela had passed away. Obviously this is very sad news. I must point out that I do not wish to be disrespectful towards Nelson Mandela and all those concerned with his passing, but it really pisses me off big time how all the television news channels, including the BBC and ITV regional networks, suddenly stopped their coverage of the local flooding situation and gave us something which is not important to us locally, especially at a time when we need as much local information as possible about something which is far more important to us and potentially life-threatening.

Plus it has been the perfect day for this evil government of ours to bury all their bad news which we should be hearing about.