Sunspots - Thursday September 19th

 Solar flux is 163 and the SSN 106. A=12 and K=2.

Advertisers and radio magazines

Today I received my copy of the RSGB RadCom. One large UK dealer has most of the advertising space. I have no idea what this must cost, but it must be a lot. If this major dealer decided to stop advertising, or advertised far less, it would have a major impact on the RSGB and the remaining UK radio magazine available on newsstands.

Without this one dealer, I suspect RadCom would have to shrink in size and the one remaining magazine radio amateurs could  buy in newsagents would enter terminal decline.

I hope I am wrong.

History Society - NOT amateur radio

 

We have a very busy history society in our village. Tonight was the first meeting of the season and was on Fen Skating which is in decline as a result of global warming.

10m 500mW WSPR TX ( Wednesday)

 Although my beacon has been on all day just 2 stations spotting me. See table. 

Sunspots - Wednesday September 18th

 Solar flux is 165 and the SSN 140. A=71 and K=1.

With my brother - NOT amateur radio

Although we message daily on WhatsApp, we see each other face-to-face a few times a year if we are lucky.  He lives in Devon and I am in Cambridgeshire.

Yesterday, we visited Bury-St-Edmunds. The photo is of us in the Abbey Gardens, with the ruined abbey behind.

Radio Magazines

 Already this year we have seen the disappearance of CQ and Radio User (at least as a separate magazine). Others may follow. 

At one time you could pop into a UK newsagent and see several radio related magazines. Not any more. Over the years more and more have closed or maybe gone online only. If you want a magazine about PC games or steam trains there are several to choose from.

It is as if few people are interested in radio technology any more, sadly.

10 years' time? The best we can expect is a few pages in a magazine about technologies in general. 

I have made my view plain in the past. Am I right or am I right?

Fewer EU openings today?

 It looks like there are fewer European openings today, which may account for just English reports so far (1039z) on 6m FT8.

See https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/europe-sporadic-e/ .

Brother's visit - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned before, my brother and his wife are visiting us from Devon. Yesterday we went to Bury St Edmunds and today they have gone to Norwich. The photo shows some of the day yesterday.

4m

This is a band that is gaining in popularity. It is very good when there is Es, but it is also good for inter-G working. I am sure that with reasonable power and FT8 the whole of the British Isles would be in range. The new Yaesu FTX-1F is supposed to include this in European versions.  I would expect 6W and a dipole to reach widely on FT8 especially.

A while back I designed and build a 4m transverter that is on my website. It is only low power but managed to work well. It was in  GQRP SPRAT some years ago.