Writing
RSSBlog
Occasional writing on technology, astronomy, temperature metrology, creativity and photography.
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The Dwarf Mini Smart Telescope
A small, relatively affordable instrument that can find and stack deep-sky objects from a light-polluted garden. First images and early impressions.
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Home Assistant: building a WSPR radio integration with AI assistance
WSPR signals tell you how radio propagation is behaving on any given day. I wanted that data inside Home Assistant, so I built an integration to bring it there.
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Building a Live Train Display
A small, always-on departure board for my two nearest stations, Meols Cop and Southport. The look is there; wiring up the live Darwin data feed is the part still to crack.
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Building a Ham Radio Dashboard
A lightweight online dashboard that brings live operating conditions, RF propagation and an ISS video feed into a single readable view, adapted for G0IKV from VA3HDL's open-source HamDashboard.
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From Wireless to YouTube: my first video
I set myself a challenge: learn to make a YouTube video. The subject chose itself, a short comparison of two Roberts radios, one from the 1950s and one from today, and what carries across the seventy years between them.
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Marine Lake in metal: an old Southport printing block
In 2012 a friend let me examine an old metal printing block showing Southport Marine Lake and its landmarks. Its date and purpose are uncertain; an archaeologist put the typeface at around 1890 to 1920.