http://www.bengamblin.com Blog of Ben Gamblin http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/497/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2010-03-10/thompson-comments-on-6-music-closure/ Caroline Thompson, Chief Operating Officer at the BBC, has made comments about the closure of BBC 6 Music and changes to BBC 7. The Guardian report which details these comments is linked below, but I'm drawn to a few quotes from the article: "The a... Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:36:09 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/496/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2010-03-09/testing-the-magnetic-loop/ I've been further testing my magnetic loop aerial over the last 24 hours, but haven't made any changes to the setup as such. I did find out why, just before writing my blog yesterday, I couldn't get a good SWR reading despite doing so the day before. Ra... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:19:28 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/495/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2010-03-08/magnetic-loop-aerial/ About 6 months ago, I visited the website of Julian, G4ILO who had detailed how to build what he has called a 'Wonder Loop' - a small indoor magnetic loop aerial. Following this visit I was inspired to build one myself. As is my way, I've taken a little... Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:17:57 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/494/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2010-03-02/the-end-for-6music/ The BBC has today announced cutbacks to it's services intended to save £600m which will be re-invested into programming and original content. The victims of these cutbacks are the radio stations 6 Music and the Asian Network along with a signific... Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:55:59 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/493/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2010-02-25/new-digital-mode/ A new digital mode is on the scene called ROS - a spread spectrum mode ideal for weak signal/QRP use. The mode can operate at two symbol rates - 1 and 16 baud; the former is ideal for very weak signals with the user guide stating transmissions can be dec... Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:34:28 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/491/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2010-02-01/man_not_on-the-moon/ I'm really quite disappointed. President Obama has scuppered plans to send people back to the moon. George Bush announced the idea back in 2004 that NASA would return man to our nearest celestial neighbour before aiming for Mars. If all had gone to pla... Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:39:57 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/490/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2010-01-30/photography-and-light/ I was asked recently via Twitter if I had any tips on taking photographs in low light situations. Now, I'm no photography expert but here's a few pointers that I've picked up since owning a DSLR. There are three main elements which control how much ligh... Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:04:33 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/489/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2010-01-13/will-i-ever-buy-an-e-book-reader/ There's been a lot written in the technology press recently about e-book readers - tablet like devices with e-ink screens used primarily for reading e-books but also, in some cases, as a basic media player. Whilst the concept of e-books has been around f... Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:01:59 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/488/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2009-12-31/review-of-the-decade/ As is tradition, here is my final blog entry for the year - and this time, the final one for the decade. Blogs all over the internet seem to be doing it, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and take a look back over the last ten years, from a personal... Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:03:09 +0000 http://www.bengamblin.com/entry/487/ http://www.bengamblin.com/2009-11-08/fireworks-photography/ Since obtaining my first DSLR camera in October last year, I haven't had the opportunity to try fireworks photography. So yesterday I found myself at the Maldon Promenade Fireworks Display fully kitted out to make a first attempt. Before this event, my ... Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:34:21 +0000