Chris - Dadmin²

If it was between 8 and 9pm then it probably was them. There was nothing else flying around at the time.

I don't know. They don't show up on flight radar so I could only watch them from my back garden in Layton. They did fly north a couple of times but I don't know how far north. They weren't out of sight for long so it wasn't too far north.

SAS helicopters spotted over Blackpool's Winter Gardens and Lancashire Police HQ Britain’s most elite soldiers, the SAS, were spotted training in Lancashire last night.

It was the SAS.

www.lep.co.uk/news/traffic...

About 100w. It was rated at 400w, but not on the frequency that I accidentally used through it.

Punched cards were OK. You could replace individual or multiple cards in a pack and then feed them back through. Paper tape was more of a problem. I heard some people used to patched over holes/made new holes on cards to fix bugs, but I never did that.

I could read Z80 code 40 years ago but not now

It's scary to think how we used to do stuff. I could read hex code fairly well, recognising the instructions and sometimes patching hex code by hand to try to fix problems.

They had lights on when they came back and they then flew around the area for about 35 minutes before heading south. Sometimes close together, sometimes a mile or two apart.

As in Manchester, they didn't have ADSB transponders turned on so no way to identify them.

Last night we saw them circling around the Layton Rec area and they then flew south towards the airport after about 10 minutes.

Tonight they flew over Layton at about 8:10pm completely blacked out - no flying lights at all. A few minutes later they came back (I assume the same ones).

Why were 'blacked out' helicopters over Salford on Monday night? Several residents say they were left shaken after

Blacked out helicopters over Blackpool!

I'm pretty sure the same two were circling over Layton last night and again tonight between 8 and 9pm.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I think you'll find a limited number of stations to listen to these days, especially if you're wanting unbiased news.

I hope you get good propagation.

Time to get your ham radio gear sorted out!

I tend to wake at 2am which is before the grey line gets here and then sleep until 8am so I miss it ☹️

I should try to wake up earlier 😆

Just put a 50A fuse in the first extension and I'm sure you'll be ok. If you don't have a 50A fuse then I believe a cut down 6 inch nail works well 😆

My shack only has a single socket too. Luckily my coax runs have to go out through another room before they reach the outside and I've got an extension cable through the wall from that room. Not ideal, but at least I have two sockets now.

You have two sockets per room? What a luxurious house you live in ;-)

www.caa.co.uk/drones/movin...

UK drone rules change January 1, 2026: What you need to know UK drone laws: What's new for 2026. Summary of new Flyer ID requirement for 100g+ drones, Remote ID, drone class markings, and what it means for drone pilots.

www.heliguy.com/blogs/posts/...

I was wrong about next year. 1st Jan 2028 is when major changes come in. Remote ID for all drones over 100g and current 'legacy' drones can no longer be used. So you need to be very careful what you buy today if you'd like to still use it in less than 2 years.

It does mean that my drone is useless as of next year. I don't think you can retrofit a transponder.

I took 3 positives away from this afternoon:

(1) At least it was only 4-0

(2) we don't need to complain about how crap Husband is for a few more games

(3) At least we only had a 15 minute drive home

Check the rules. I think it's next year they change and the under 250g exclusion becomes under 100g. Anything over 100g needs a tracking transponder which I assume is going to add £££s

It's already feeling like summer here - 4.9C

Newspapers are published and available to the public but that doesn't mean you can just copy them. Your point about wider distribution is a fair comment though.

There are RSS to BlueSky tools but they start at about $16/month. A significant issue might be copyright. Presumably BFC own the copyright of their content on X so can someone else other than BFC repost to BlueSky?

I wasn't there but there have been good reports about them last week at Huddersfield. I know we went from 2-0 up to a draw but I don't think that's awful away against a top 6 team.

There's a feed for anyone interested... bsky.app/profile/did:...

I'll be there in Block P. Need your thermals on today!

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