Robin Davies

New toy day! Mr Postman has deliver a shiny new Xiegu 6100. Wow! I wasn’t expecting it to be so diminutive - size comparison vs Icom R15 (which is pretty diminutive itself)! Now to order some new memory cards to flash new firmware.

Watched sn0ren’s latest video on the Xiegu 6100 & IU1WXY firmware for it - looks *very* interesting. Might have to treat myself to one of these youtu.be/5CRo3zju9Y4?...

How did I miss St Crispin’s Day yesterday!

@bakeliteguy.bsky.social One for you Guy! hackaday.com/2026/10/25/a...

Extra hour in bed tomorrow morning as the UK moves from British Summer Time (BST) back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

We’ve not turned the central heating on yet. The rooms are mostly staying around 18-19°C and it’s not been so cold. However electricity today is quite cheap between 10am-3.30pm…so my wife is twisting my arm to heat the house up😂

Seen on Mastodon. Offered with no comment

I applaud Octopus Energy for giving away over 100,000 free electric blankets octopus.energy/blog/free-el... (a good, low cost way to keep people overnight & lower home heating bills). However I really worry this is papering over the looming massive January energy prices hikes…

I hope tomorrow's ham radio operators aren't actually trying to learn anything from AI slop videos. Because some of them are laughably bad. These screenshots are from the same video, demonstrating how to make a choke balun with ferrite beads.

Brrrr! That was a chilly night 🥶

Family member is enjoying Appelbol for breakfast in the Graaf Floris in Utrecht…one of my most favourite treats😋 Lekker!!

@wgoodf.bsky.social Have your tried the NYX Historic Porter before? Sounds like one to go on a tasting list…

@gkt-wales.bsky.social Bara brith, bara saim, and most importantly (for me) bara planc 😋

Trying to tidy up my garage & make it usable again. Making good progress…but hit a box of radio gear, some of which has never been opened, including an interesting Cross Country Wireless antenna www.crosscountrywireless.net/terminated_i.... I may need some time to read, study & play for a bit…

I didn’t have supermarket fridges as the latest cyber attack vector😳 www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

Recursive islands en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursi... ! This feels like something @G7SOZ would know about

The "Ra-1 Grand Prix" runs at Okubo Park in Shinjuku, Tokyo, until 15 November, with 64 ramen and tsukemen shops from across Japan taking turns over eight phases. Visitors vote for their favourite, and smaller tasting bowls let you try several.

This book looks absolutely sumptuous and gorgeous! I think I’ll try getting hold of this as a Christmas present to myself

This morning, I suspect many homes will be putting their heating on for the first time this autumn! I’ve just been out & the sky is cloudless, but it’s definitely a bit cool out there this morning (at least until the sun starts to have an impact)

Noticing the nights drawing in? 🌙 October brings a big shift, with most of the UK losing over 2 hours of daylight this month. Do you enjoy the cosy evenings or miss the longer days?

My wife has just made doner fried rice with the left over doner meat (& its associated chilli sauce marinade) from last night. It’s absolutely gorgeous! That will be a scrumptious tea this evening

This is the funniest thing I've seen today, possibly ever

Clyde-based Waverley, world’s last sea-going paddle steamer, marks 80th anniversary. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

With this Indian Summer we currently have, our house is currently around 24°C and we are still running fans to stay cool. However my wife has pronounced that she plans put our Christmas tree up in 31 days😳 My poor brain can’t handle this dichotomy…

Hope is a constantly surprising, extremely entertaining film with incredible, adrenaline fuelled action set pieces and stunning production and sound design. The score is brilliant too. It’s not perfect and may not be for everyone, but I loved it and am hoping for the sequel! #hope #koreancinema

Cheese pastries are just the best nibbles…😋

Insect starting out as a PhD student and ending up a full professor #AcademicSky

We are missing Tokyo hugely, despite the current Typhoon season rains (which we just escaped!!). My family are all desperately trying to calculate every possible wheeze to allow us to travel there every month or so…🤣🙄

Christening my new titanium mug with a few bottles of Dragon Stout. Very tasty

New toys have arrived! Some M5Stack Tab5 gear to make a portable panadapter & console for QRP Labs QMX/QMX+ github.com/SteffenLav/q...

RadCom has arrived…and in a much more solid envelope than usual. No sticking of the front cover to the envelope either👍

QMX owners might find this of interest — tab5.lav.dk

Thoroughly enjoying the new Taiwanese comedy action series, The Fixers, on Netflix…I fear we’re already addicted to it, and all the episodes in the series won’t even last a couple of days😬

The Kombini is a Japanese institution…Family Mart, Lawson and 7-11 are everywhere and they stock everything you need from clothing, sunglasses through to ice cubes & ice cream. I think we’ve used them many times a day, everyday! I can’t imaging not having a Kombini nearby

Might have bought a toy☺️

Japanese toilets cleverly have wash-hand basins above the cistern. Some of the water used to fill the cistern up is used for washing hands first! Simplifies plumbing, lowers water usage and reduces space requirements👍 Very smart!!

One thing I really like in Japanese supermarkets is that put random things in their freezer section for you to eat/drink from frozen. I’m particularly addicted to the frozen bottles of Suntory Natchan Orange Juice