VDSL/TV problems after a thunderstorm

 

We seldom get thunderstorms here. Tree in a year is many. But last weekend we were unlucky and had several thunderstorm from midnight till six in the morning. Unfortunately lighting did damage a VDSL (internet) cable in the neighbourhood and we discovered we had no TV on Sunday. After some modem resets our internet speed went down to only 4 Mbps. And after we called the internet provider who tested the cable remotely, we only had a speed of 2 Mbps. Right now the speed got down to 0,5 Mbps. Next week they will dig up the cable to fix the damage. 

I was not the only radio amateur that had problems. Koos PE4KH also reported problems. But this was quickly resolved. I know from 3 other people here in the street they have the same problem with VDSL and TV.

I was glad lightning didn't strike my antenna tower. I think I was really lucky...

My quest to learn CW (31)

 

I'm proud of what I accomplished this month with plain text training. Last month I was on 86,1%, now I got a full percent increase. I want to increase speed from 28/20wpm to 28/22wpm as soon as I am on 90% average accuracy. In theory it would take another 3 months. I would be surprised when I will reach the 90% faster.

I still do random letters & numbers training which is very hard. But in the last week I see a huge improvement. As soon as I increase speed for the plain text training I will increase the speed for this as well to 28/24 wpm.

Anyway, it is not all about training of course. I made a few CW contacts on 6m which is different from HF since it is normal to send your QTH locator along the signal report. It goes surprisingly well. And on 6m the signal has often a very clear sound which is easier to copy.

I found an interesting site which is development. It is CL1ILT's callsign training platform. Obviously made with AI, but who cares. It is the result that counts. I and others have fun with it.

https://cw4ever.eu/trainer/

I saw a small video on facebook from someone that was training with 75wpm. It went very well but it is far beyond my abilities :-)

MeshCore DX

 

Since there are some differences between several MeshCore communities now there's more chance to see DX from the Netherlands. The majority of MeshCore stations here in the Netherlands has chosen for other (regional) settings and other SF/CR settings so they only have their small regional group they can see and chat with. Something I don't like. I prefer to see DX and luckily most European stations are still using the old settings. So last week I was chatting with someone in England. And also saw German and Danish text. It actually surprised me that so many other Dutch stations are still on the old settings and enjoy some DX as well.

I've been on MeshCore on and off. I wish this whole off grid mesh network was easier to setup with less hassle these days. In other words this is getting far too complicated to promote it as easy access mesh network. So I lost my interest a bit. Actually I don't think this network has much use during an emergency situation or a power outage. I think the role of the "roomserver" is underestimated. A roomserver (kind of BBS) is needed in this kind of network so if in an emergency someone can leave you messages and you can respond when you're not busy surviving. But in reality now 99% of the users doesn't have any roomserver running and only use this network to write/transmit unimportant things.

Well, if you see me in your list and you can't reach me. Try my roomserver and leave me a message. It is on 24/7. All DX is welcome ;-)