Sunday, 26 September 2021

Doggerland

No, Doggerland is not a new DX entity. 

Doggerland was the land between England and Holland/Belgium/Denmark appr. 10,000 years ago. The Northsea has taken its place nowadays.


Doggerland, abt. 10,000 years ago

Past years the Northsea has shown to be a gigantic storage of fossils. Fossils from The Netherlands, with Doggerland as origin, can be found on the Dutch beaches, in particular Maasvlakte2 and the Zandmotor (near Kijkduin). The sand used for those beaches comes from the Northsea floor and contains fossils.
I have visited Maasvlakte2 a couple of times and have found some small bones of mammals from the Pleistocene.

Interesting to know is that the Northsea level rise was 5 - 10 cm a year those days. Past 100 years the Northsea level rise is appr. 1.5 mm (millimeter) a year.

I got in contact with Kommer Tanis, a fisherman who lives in Havenhoofd, close to where I live on Goeree-Overflakkee. Kommer is a fossilhunter and has been collecting fossils for the past 40 years. Between the fishes he catches, sometimes there are fossils. Kommer has a nice fossile collection at home. In his workshop he prepares the fossils.


The big bones are mammooth bones


Mainly horse bones / yaws


Mammooth yaw with 3 enormous teeth



Kommer has a small shop where he sells some of his fossils. The above picture shows part of a deer antler which I took home (Estimated 12,000 years old).

If you want to get in contact with Kommer Tanis, you can e-mail him: tanisfossils(at)go6tanis.nl





Saturday, 11 September 2021

UHF amplifier under test

Last FT8 EU contest on 70 cm I participated with my homebrewed 50 Watt UHF amplifier. The amplifier uses an MRF186 in the final stage to boost the 5 Watt RF signal coming from the 28-432 MHz transverter. The amplifier seems to work well. I was able to make 25 QSO's during the evening (PA, ON, F, DL and G stations). Best DX was with Richard G7KHV in East Yorkshire (IO93vw) over 392 km.

FT8, 432 MHz signals



Amplifier under test


Housed in old Onkyo receiver case