Bills Posts

There are several books about various aspects of Gosport, and there is a book, the story of Gosport by Lesley Burton & Brian Musselwhite. It’s getting toward time to read that again and use it as a reference.

Also, I need to make a bit more coherent and actually start using it. I learn bits and pieces but it is very disjointed. What am I saying here? I’m not committing myself to anything, but I do want to learn more about where I live. I have some of the basics, I do want more.

I still haven’t identified a good book about James VI & I, and then Charles I, the Stuarts I guess and the run up to the civil war, in which Gosport played a part.

I’ve just found a book. I’ll report on it when it arrives. That’s not due until 12th – 13th of April. I have 5 – 6 days where I am without a firm book to read. I shall have a bit of a read of The Story of Gosport in the meantime. Quite a good temporary compromise.

Not Really, it’s tonight’s Radio net, called the Confusion Net mostly because the radios we use for the net are a specific brand – Yaesu, and most Yaesu radios support a mode called fusion, one aspect of which is a method called C4FM (I’m probably getting the basics if this really wrong, which will drive a radio amateur up the wall, but I suspect other people might not care a bit).

Anyhow, the Confusion net is run over thee C4FM way of working. Tonights net had ad good number of callers and we covered a wide range of topics form ships in the Solent to dog breeds. It all made for a very pleasant hour and a half, and brought to an end what had been for the most part a really rather nice weekend.

With some things to look forward to over the coming week, and some the prospect of which I am not relishing quite so much, it promises to be an interesting week.

Last night’s post was very short. I haven’t felt that bad (tired, exhausted, drained) for quite a while. No idea why it should come on like that. I was in bed just after 9PM, and barely managed to get that blog post written. I feel tired tonight, but not like that.

I’ve been going on about vlogging a fair bit, and saying how I wasn’t going to post any just yet. Then I go and add a piece to a FaceBook post during the week entirely accidentally. A couple of people have commented on it in a positive way. If you’ve seen that, and have read this – thank you for the positive response.

I am eager to learn about vlogging and posting on youtube, I’ve done something a bit daft – I’ve become a patron for a youtube channel. It’s Paul Whitewick’s “Footnote in history channel”; His first post was about seven years ago. I’ve got it lined up and ready to watch. I suspect that it will be nowhere near as bad as I expect mine to be.

I am just so tired tonight, sorry.

Yes, mixed up, but in a good way. What with Amateur Radio, photography and camera club and a bit video logging, it has been an interesting week.

I’ve now got hold of the user manual for the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro, so that has really got things going. I’m beginning to understand what I am seeing on the screen (note; beginning to). I shall be out again tomorrow (unless it’s chucking it down).

The problem I am now having is that it is very clear that I don’t know enough about anything that I want to talk about on video. So, I need to start studying about the topics that I am interested in. But then there comes the little bit of a dilemma, the videos are not going to be that much fun, I want it to be relaxed and casual, so I am going to have to practice that, and a critical part of that is being relaxed in front of the camera, and that will only come with gaining confidence.

When Misty jumped on the bed at about half past 4 this morning, she was slightly damp, not drenched, so I thought that it might be raining lightly. No, not raining at all, there was quite a thick fog. I got up for my walk.

It was one of the thickest mists I have seen in a very long time. Visibility must have been no more than 50 yards; I couldn’t see the end of the Haslar Marina Pier Wall, and I couldn’t see from one side (note side, not length) of the pond to the other. I really didn’t feel cold, though, thanks to my nicely padded jacket and flat cap.

As we started shutting up for the night, I noticed that a bit of mist was forming yet again. I’m looking the CCTV monitor now, just a couple of hours later. The screens are almost completely wiped out, it looks like a real blizard, but in reality it isn’t that bad out. If it stays like this I will be going for my walk in the morning.

I am very pleased to tell you that the #Breakfastclub is returning, perhaps not on GB3IW, but it was really nice to have some old familiars on the air for a chat whilst on this morning’s walk.

The day did come to a bit of a crashing halt, I ended up standing myself down for work around lunchtime, to be honest, I had a headache, couldn’t focus on anything, and just wanted to go to sleep so I did. I woke up around 4-ish, feeling considerably refreshed, so hopefully it was just being a bit overactive at the weekend finally catching up with me. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

I felt well enough to go to the Camera Club tonight, I’m glad I did. I think the main thing that I learned was that Japan is as fascinating a country as I have always thought it is. We had a presentation by a chap, Ric Gillams, He’d spent a year in the country and during his time off he had explored and taken a lot of pictures, which he has turned into a presentation. It was fascinating.

Early to bed now. I want to make sure that I wake up fresh in the morning.

With the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro Mobile Phone Gimbal. The important thing with any new piece of tech, is to use it to become familiar with it. Even though I haven’t fully got to grips with my radio, the Yaesu FT-500 which my sister bought me for Christmas I try to learn something new about it every time I use it.

One of my other hobbies received a new gift last Thursday, the gimbal I referred to in my first paragraph. I took it out with me this morning and used it to do some videoing (I find it very difficult to break away from calling it filming). Like the radio, I intend to try and use it as often as I can to become truly familiar with what I can do with it.

One trick I do want to learn is how switch between videoing and still camera, there’s one button you have to click a certain number of times to switch modes. I want that kind of thing to become so automatic that I don’t even have to think about it. That’s why I’ve designated two mornings per week as non-radio days. I’ll be using them as training g days for vlogging.

We had another lovely day today. One of the things that we really like about the Gosport Camera Club is the Sunday walk, on the last sunday of the month.

The Sunday walk usually involves visiting a location for the purpose of taking photos, sometimes it has a nature inclination other times it could be urban (one of next seasons topics is Architecture, so expecting some walks to help that.

The walks always end up at a pub, where we have lunch. Of the walks that we’ve taken since joining the club we have not had a bad experience. The pubs have invariably delivered excellent food, and today’s walk on the Old Southampton Common was the same, and the follow on visit to the Cowherds pub where, to be honest, the meal was exceptional. We would definitely go there again.

We had a day out today, visiting the Postal Museum in London. Included in the trip was a short 15 minutes ride on Mail Rail, the little underground train that used to carry post across the city without interference by the hubbub of city life above. I have to say that it was an extremely enjoyable day.

When we do things like this, I get really enthusiastic about wanting to know more about the history of the postal service, and to make it local to us, concentrate upon the postal service in Hampshire. Now, I do have one post related book in my wish list, and I think it may include material on Hampshire but before i buy it, I’m going to do a little bit more research on it.

I think that amongst other things including an interest in the postal service, something which has in the past and continues today to both intrigue and frustrate us, is something that will only enhance my studies and the output from them. Well, that’s my intention.