Graham Cottew

Company Founder. Love Science, Technology and the Cosmos. SDR, guitar, and mountain biking. VK3RQ

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

Still have trouble speaking French but …

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

@cqcqcqdx Yes. I'll post a temp graph after it goes to the mast.

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

@cqcqcqdx Hmm I have even less space and two more radios. An Airspy mini and a Meshtastic node. At least it's winter here still. I'm using PoE and a fan on the pi

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

@cqcqcqdx Bad AI or Photoshop effort 👎

[the Juice Media @thejuicemedia]

The Australien Government has made ad about its new environment laws ahead of the coming election, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative #auspol #2025election

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

Great day to get out of the office and go for a bushwalk well away from Melbourne

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

Had a lovely week up in the Victorian Alps alternating hiking and mountain bike. Took the IC-705 and had some good contacts on 40m and 20m QRP

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

@PeterVogel Sorry I never got to call/catch up in BC. I did listen to the Rainbow net one Saturday morning briefly but was a bit shy about calling in. Loved Vancouver Island and Cultus Lake area.

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

@Swansongster Have a great day mate. Go Swans!!

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

French 😊

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

@ExploreCosmos_ Early morning swim today in Melbourne, Australia

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

Early morning swims are getting a little more challenging temperature wise but gotta love the sunrises

[Graham Cottew @zenmountainman]

@pamoshea I thought it looked a bit early in the day to have solar panel interference :)

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Scott Tilley 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 @coastal8049]

The @FCC allows an US registered commercial user of the spectrum to cause harmful interference to weather satellite imagery emissions that is @ITU coordinated for decades. So tired of unilateral spectrum usage by the USA. This needs to stop and only will with lots of protest ✊.

[the Juice Media @thejuicemedia]

The Tasmanien Government has made a tourism ad, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative! #auspol #politas

👉 https://t.co/aBRQBQX7Ge
👉 https://t.co/e6YAu8LFeT https://t.co/0VXZ7iWa5K