Fell at the first fence!

Well, what a brilliant start! NOT.

My soldering iron has failed and I cannot find the replacement as my wife packed everything when I was in hospital, so I cannot do anything that involves soldering, which is just about everything with field work. So, as I cannot afford a new Weller soldering station, I shall have to invest in a new Maplins sourced soldering iron or soldering station. Just trying to find bits in boxes has just about flattened me too. I am now exhausted.  Bother, and I was so looking forward to this day.

Any recommendations for a decent soldering iron, not Weller?

VLF experiment?

VLF 5W TX beacon (as now)

Although I still feel unwell because of the after-effects of my stroke, I feel in the mood for some field work for the first time in a very long time.

I'll try to optimise the match of my VLF earth-mode QRSS3 beacon to my earth-electrodes as a first step.  This alone will probably exhaust me as it will probably mean re-winding a 3C90 toroid.

I can transmit a crystal derived, stable signal at 8.97kHz. Once done, I'll copy this on another PC in the lounge running Spectran software. If this all works, I'll go to my nearest test site to see what copy is like using a RX loop and preamp.

Sunspots and 10m - Sun March 29th 2015

Sunspot number has dropped back a bit to 82 today and 10m propagation is again expected to be "fair"., which is the same as recent days.

EA8BVP (2986km) has spotted my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon many times already this morning, but nothing reported from elsewhere as yet.

UPDATE 1106z:  I see that TA2AEG (2547km) has also spotted me a few times now as well.

472kHz WSPR

No new MF stations spotting me, just the same ones! My best spot this evening is currently from PA3ABK/2 (306km). We'll see if I am spotted by any new reporters overnight or if I spot any new DX. Somehow I doubt this.

I need to switch back from the earth-electrodes to my strapped feeder antenna to compare results. I've been using the earth-electrode "antenna" for several months now.

10m WSPR spots from the USA today

KD6RF (7547km) was the first USA station to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon at 1454z today.

UPDATE 2004z: So far I have been spotted by 5 different USA stations on 10m WSPR and 10 different stations in 4 continents today.

UPDATE 2126z:  The last USA WSPR spot of me was at 1956z by K3GEN (5883km). I suspect this will have been the last USA spot tonight, but I will continue beaconing for a while longer.

UPDATE 2204z:   No further USA spots since K3GEN at 1956z.  I think we can assume the USA opening on 10m has ended.  Will now go QRT on 10m WSPR but will stay on 630m (472kHz) overnight.

Stroke update on energy levels - NOT amateur radio

I am still suffering the after-effects of my Sept 2013 cerebellum brain bleed. My main symptoms remain that I feel permanently slightly drunk (in a slight fog), my speech is still poor as is my swallow of thin liquids, and my energy levels are still very low with the slightest physical or mental activity exhausting me.  I thought the latter might be low B12 levels, but supplements have made no difference. My fine motor skills must be better as I built a 40m Pixie kit recently and this would have been impossible a year ago. I can drive OK, but I have to concentrate hard.  Driving long distances is still not possible.

Overall, progress is being made on my recovery, although it is taking much longer than I was expecting. I guess these days the improvements are very small and harder to notice. At the moment, the exhaustion is the hardest thing to accept as I was a very active person.

UK clocks change tonight

The UK changes over to British Summer Time tonight, so we get a hour less in bed, but it is lighter in the evenings.

I change all clocks in the house except the one in the shack that stays on GMT.  For a few days, I tend to forget and enter my log an hour wrong!  Habit.  I always keep my log in GMT although in the UK it is no longer compulsory to keep a log. I still like to keep a paper log of the more important QSOs

Sunspots and 10m - Sat March 28th 2015

Sunspot number is still good at 109, although 10m propagation is expected to remain "fair". In a years time when the SN will have really fallen, we'll think these are really high numbers!

So far today on 10m, EA8BVP (2986km) has been spotting my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon multiple times as has local G4IKZ (18km). Otherwise very quiet so far.

If there is a USA opening at all on 10m, I suspect it will come late in the day.

UPDATE 1206z:   EA8BVP has spotted me 21 times so far today.

SPAM comments - deleted again

This evening another SPAM comment was removed. As soon as SPAM comments are found (usually very quickly) they will be removed. Don't bother - just play your silly games somewhere else.

East Anglian Churches blog - NOT amateur radio

See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/.
This has been updated today to include St Edward King and Martyr in Cambridge. This little church has a famous place in the English Reformation as the place where Robert Barnes gave one of the very first Reformation sermons. Hugh Latimer also preached here. The very same pulpit is still in use to this day.

Our 7 year old grandson's day was made earlier this week when he was shown the bells and rang some of them.