Plessey reborn as UK's newest semiconductor firm

Many of us remember the Plessey name from the range of RF ICs it made back in the 1980s e.g. the SL640, SL641 and the SL6440. In their day they were ahead of the time. Many an SSB transceiver was built around these ICs. Well, Electronics Weekly reports Plessey is back.

"Plessey Semiconductors, one of the most renowned names in the UK’s semiconductor history, has been relaunched as a chip business operating from the original Plessey CMOS fab at Roborough in Plymouth.
Plessey Semiconductors has been created out of Plus Semi, a company set up to acquire the manufacturing facilities of two former Plessey fabs in Swindon and Roborough."

Electronics Weekly is available online and is well worth checking.

Solar Flare and Aurora

Yesterday, satellites picked up the strongest solar flare in almost 2 years. The M2 class eruption came from an old sunspot (number 1039) behind the sun's eastern limb. There is a chance of HF blackouts and auroral conditions today Jan 20th. See http://spaceweather.com/

Overnight 500kHz WSPR tonight

For one of the last times this winter, I'm going to leave the 500kHz WSPR beacon running through the night. Beating the 1000kms barrier seems to be limited not by my low 1mW ERP, but by the absence of stations in the 1000-1200kms range staying active through the night when conditions are quieter. So, a few more tries before I say enough is enough.

If you have a well equipped 500kHz WSPR station in Poland, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic or at a similar distance from England please leave your RX running for the next few nights and keep a close watch for G3XBM around 503.900kHz +/-20Hz.

Simple 80m rig (not tested on-air yet)

This is the schematic of a little experimental 80m CW transceiver. It puts out about 60mW and is only moderately sensitive, although I have not managed to accurately measure it yet. Offset between RX and TX is about 400Hz but more can be obtained by closing S1. It should be used with a low pass filter really.

Some QRP operating

This is a picture of me in my shack. I had just completed some homebrewing and was having an SSB QSO. See next post for details of the homebrew experimental transceiver I had been working on.

Dutch online SDR now has 500kHz

The Twente University online SDR in The Netherlands has now got a 500kHz receiver. It works well and SM6BHZ's SSB beacon was coming through very well a few moments ago.

Want to launch your own satellite? You can!

Interorbital Systems of California have introduced a kit to allow you to build your own satellite! The price of the Tubesat kit ($8000) includes the cost of a launch into space as well.

More overnight 500kHz WSPR TXing tonight

Tonight I shall have another go at breaking the 1000kms barrier on 500kHz WSPR. If you decode me, be sure to upload your report to the WSPR online database please.

10m WSPR

This morning I've been WSPRing on 10m again. G4IKZ 18kms away is a good signal and he has been heard in Italy. G4IKZ is copying me, but no DX reports yet. There is a great deal of aircraft Doppler on local signals. We have the Mildenhall and Lakenheath airbases some 20-30kms away, so I expect it is because of aircraft taking off, circling and landing.

Transatlantic reception on 500kHz

This evening, early, the transatlantic WSPR stations are coming through well into Europe. So far I've only seen WE2XGR/6, running 100W, appear on the screen on 511.5kHz, which is above the UK allocation. This is a new transatlantic station for me. The signal is varying in QSB with around 8 minutes between peaks of signal.

UPDATE: I eventually moved off 511.5kHz at 8am this morning and WE2XGR/6 had been coming in all night until then. At best it reached -14dB S/N with me on one occasion but usually it was around -20 to -25dB S/N level. Also copied was WE2XGR/2 who was running 50W. He was audible until 0638am