Kostverlorenvaart

Volvic is said to be very good water for espresso machines, causing little or no scaling and facilitating great taste in espresso. In The Netherlands though, Volvic is rarely found in shops. I found a source now: https://www.lyreco.com/webshop/NLNL/welcome?lc=NLNL There I ordered two 8L bottles. The water kettle that I also use didn't scale up when using Volvic and the espresso tastes wonderful. I can't compare it side by side with the water from my inline BWT filter as I have just the one espresso machine. The espresso tasted wonderful before the Volvic water was delivered ;-) here in Amsterdam we can look up the recent analysis of our tap water here: https://www.waternet.nl/service-en-contact/drinkwater/waterkwaliteit/ and also request the most recent one on that page. I will add this quarter's number: There's also a booklet about water quality by the Specialty Coffee Association, see below. I just sent it and the one next to it to a fellow coffee enthousiast:

The new SDR-Control app that lets you use certain iCOM radios as remote controlled SDR stations for Macbook or iPad does not yet (May 2022 now) officially support my iCOM IC-R8600 but Marcus Roskosch from https://roskosch.de/ told me that he recently purchased an IC-R8600 and the app already works on an experimental basis. I immediately bought the app, installed it on my MacBook, connected a network cable between home router and radio and tried it out... I also show how I use bhi DSP units to filter out noise to enhance speech at the radio and at the computer audio.  

Loop antenna garden / comparing BH5HDE QRP to GRAHN SE3 and a big home made loop see also: https://swling.com/blog/2022/05/frans-compares-the-bh5hde-qrp-grahn-se3-and-his-home-made-loop-antenna/ I got the little portable QRP loop, assembled it and could not wait to try it out even though it was during tha day and signals were sparse and weak. The new one performs well, in part thanks to the tuning & impedance knobs. I compare it with the GRAHN SE3 and a big home made loop that I bought second hand. The latter has no tuning but is as directionlly sensitive as the others and it delivers an amplified signal to the receiver. I found a manual for the QRP, not included in the package: Instructions for use of BH5HDE QRP portable small loop antenna Welcome to use the BH5HDE QRP portable small loop antenna. This product can easily and quickly set up a short-wave transceiver antenna, allowing you to enjoy the joy of multi-band reception and communication indoors, windows, balconies and outdo

Mr Jacob Brodsky wrote me that he suspects the lab supply powering an antenna signal amplifier may  introduce noise to the signal, especially the longish cable that I am using on it. I found that interesting so I bought a 9V battery and made a shorter connection from it to the amp. Here I switch between llab power supply and 9V battery and I also move the power supply way back to see if that decreases noise. I also test it with the power supply switched off, in case a noise radiation from it would cause noise through any of the wires into the receiver.  The battery was drained in one afternoon of listening, so that's one reason to use the lab supply.  

 

  Normally after a seal change, the day after one can see some grease buildup / disposal at the bottom end of the group where this excess grease could invisibly clog up the shower screen. Now it's nice and clean and 'dry'.