Midwinter calling, day 49

T(raining)

I don't like training. It's boring and just repetition and repetition. Yes, I get why that is so, and why I need to actually become proficient with weapons. I really can be a matter of life and death in a world like this, and I'm literally a medieval ruler.

I just really loath training. Especially outside during winter, even when it's in the pavilion. Training here would be nicer once the temporary wall sections for the wedding feast is in place, so they will probably be kept over winter.

The good news is that this is the last training session before the wedding, so Iselin have forbidden anything that will give me bruises or injuries, so it is technical training, which is especially boring as that means endless repetition of foot movement, stances and movements and responses to movements, and responses to counter movements. Being distracted sure doesn't help and it makes Alith displeased. At least Iselin's order stops Alith from giving me the usual twacks and painful stings the guards do to get my mind on task.

Iselin comes out to the pavilion and we kiss and hug. I can't wait to be able to call this lovely goddess my wife. When she asks me how the training goes is when I remember I should be training, but Alith have already throw up her hands in defeat and realised there will be no more training today. Iselin have planned to take a ride over to the other island and say hello to her parents, and I follow along just to get some change, which of course means we're escorted by Alith, Bodil and Caecilia.

It's nice that my smart watch gives me a storm warning, but riding takes time, so we're half-drenched and cold before we make it back to the mansion. I miss having a car. And proper waterproof gear. Hillevi mentions that it is fascinating how the barometers mercury had dropped since this morning, and Bodil gives her a boop on the head. It would have been lovely if she told us before we rode off, but then again, neither of us thought to ask. In any case, it sort of prove that the barometer is useful, and I don't mind that Iselin and Caecilia quickly decide what we need is to share a warm shower.

I am so very happy that they really get along.

Wedding preparations have mostly been work for others, partially because that is the tradition here, and I have four women trying to prove themselves, and plenty of staff and other people to do the actual work. I basically just check in to stay informed and show interest. The pavilion is getting its walls with windows attached, and the fireplaces with chimneys are being tested and wood have been prepared. I can also see that the wedding site in the south is prepared. Not that there is a huge amount of work to prepare that.

The rain have stopped and we go for a walk to check that our guest accommodations are getting finished, and general progress in the village. During the voyage back here, Kari will discreetly ask the royal couple what they prefer; staying at the mansion, the guest house, or have a craftsman house for themselves, so we can accommodate our other guests. It's mainly a matter of how much privacy they want, but of course the mansion is the most luxurious due to central heating and such. But hey, they might prefer the privacy. We believe that they will always choose the mansion simply due to the status of being the only ones who are housed here, but we might as well ask.

There have been sporadic work on a lot of projects, including radios, and with the parts that Iselin, Ciara, Kari, Asta and Bodil have helped make, we have finally finished the last of three new radios, plus the Norse trainers. All radios are getting an extra modification where the final output stage have been made stronger with up to 25 watts, while also selectable between bypass-low-medium-high, because it is practical to have three power levels on these radios and being able to bypass for troubleshooting, test signal strength and so on. The radios already have selectable input attenuation for testing, as I doubt there are powerful multi-kilowatt transmitters here. We completed the modification of the first two radios before Kari left, and we will test how different transmission power and attenuation will affect the connection to Borgarsandr. We simply need to gather data and knowledge, and I really want to know how that remote control and 'call' function work with weak signals. The transmitter output selection in combination with input attenuation gives a testing range over approximately 36dB, which in radio terms is 6 S levels.

The last radio we just finished is the new mobile radio with Tom's powerbank with the solar panel strapped to the back, which as a bonus also gives that radio a built-in flashlight, which can be handy when we're away or need to use the radio in the dark. The mobile radio case is smaller and a vertical design with all the important controls and contacts on the top, but a bit recessed so they won't be damaged, and can be protected by the wooden plate in the lid. If the radio is carried, that person can adjust the controls, switch between receive-transmit, access its built-in small Norse key the blue LED shines upwards towards the wearer's face. The radio have the smallest moving coil instrument I've made so far to indicate battery and output power. The radio can easily be placed on a surface like a table and used like the other radios, but it is optimized for carrying, and Ciara has sewn a leather case with side compartments for the radio. One side compartment store a small remote Norse key with its cable, which is nicer to use than the built in, and for now, the other side compartment store the D style earpiece. There is also a rolled-up dipole antenna for field use, which can be thrown up between two trees with a bit of string and a weight, or lifted up with a long branch. In the slim lid pocket is a cheat sheet for Norse and the Huffman root like system to decode dot or dash or just encode it, including a list of what the different short codes mean. The back of the radio bag is open so the solar panel can get light, and if the radio is laid down on a table, the lid is folded underneath to raise the radios front, which also exposing the solar panel towards the sky and sun.

The antenna will be terrible when the radio is carried, and I can't even make a useful telescopic antenna, which would still be too short for any practical use. At least he mobile radio will be very useful to experiment with different mobile antennas, and I have a few I want to try to see which will suck the least. One is a 2m long foldable antenna in spring steel with a coil at the bottom, but I need to talk to Olafr at the wedding feast about it. Another will be an long spring. For now I've only made a collapsible frame antenna that looks more like a big spider web. Hardly the most practical thing to carry, but this is a 3.6MHz HF radio and it works. Higher frequency would have been so much nicer from a compact antenna point of view on a mobile radio, but the antenna will always be worse that a raised field antenna. In the future I'll probably experiment with a collapsible telephone style or bowman style headsets with a microphone, but for now the radio has a buzzer and that blue LED indication.