Even lower price for the Yaesu FT991

Steve G1KQH has just informed me that the Yaesu FT991 is being sold at £991 by Moonraker until stocks are exhausted or Oct 4th. I am sure we will see lower prices still in the months ahead. I can see MLS, Waters and Stanton and others doing battle.

The question is what price will the IC7300 be?  Once this becomes available there will be a price war between the UK dealers to offer the best deals. I expect even now a better deal can be had for the FT991 if paying cash and not looking for terms.

A price war is brewing....

Re-tarring the windmill - NOT amateur radio

The 200 year old restored windmill next door is getting a new coat of tar. The mill currently has a cog problem which is preventing the sails turning in the wind and grinding corn. They are hoping to fix the issue. The picture was taken from our drive. Inside, you can climb to the top (great view), although my health has prevented me doing so since the restoration.

Processing weather satellite images

This is not my thing but others may find this of interest if you enjoy weather satellite images. I am content to put seaweed out the window here or even watch the BBC weather! The latter seems only to be correct if we have a long settled period here in the UK. So, you do as well looking out of the window.

See http://www.satsignal.eu/  .

2m big-wheel and feeder on HF

As an experiment I loaded up my feeder and 2m big-wheel on HF tuned against a mains ground. It matched on 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m and 15m but it did not like 10m. I have still to try other bands. On 15m it was getting USA spots on the first transmission at 2W and on 40m it got 9 spots (all Europeans) in the first TX with no effort. It was receiving well on all the bands I tried and giving plenty of stations spots via WSPRnet. The feeder and 2m big-wheel, tuned with my LDG ATU, would allow me to WSPR on most HF bands. One night I shall try the 2m big-wheel and feeder on 472kHz, using a ferrite rod to resonate it and a 3C39 toroid to match it. It will be interesting to see how this compares with the earth-electrode "antenna".

UPDATE 1427z:  I see my 10m WSPR has been spotted by FR1GZ (9724km) using the 500mW beacon and Par triband end-fed wire. Conditions on 10m are good.

UPDATE 1556z:   LA9JO (2096km) spotted me on 7MHz, for my best WSPR DX, so far, on that band.

The SLOW decline

Well, we are on the down slope of the current solar cycle.

The down part of the cycle is usually slower than the climb from the minimum to the next peak, so we may have a few more years of reasonable conditions.

At the present time, conditions, even on 10m, are quite good. This time next year I think we may be losing 10m (largely) as a DX band although N-S paths may still have some decent openings. I have mentioned before that I have worked LU on 10m SSB even with QRP right at the lowest part of the cycle.

It is a pity that more don't stick with WSPR on 10m as this is a good way to "smoke out" transient openings. Activity levels on 10m WSPR are way down on last year. Next year I suspect there will be even fewer stations on 10m WSPR.

Sunspots and 10m - Tues Sept 29th 2015

Sunspot number is 120 today, a little down on yesterday. K=3, so conditions are more disturbed than yesterday. K reduced to 2 later, so less disrurbed. The propagation forecast for 10m today is "fair" again, although I remain skeptical about 10m WSPR spots from North and South America.

In recent days the 10m band has been good with Africans and South Americans worked on CW.  On WSPR my 500mW beacon has only been spotted in North America on one day this season so far, which is disappointing. 10m, like 6m, is a magic band and one can never be quite sure how it will behave. Although I hope my tiny 10m beacon will be spotted in the Americas, only time will tell.

I shall be on 10m and 6m all day again. On 10m I am 100% TX with the beacon, but on 6m I am looking for others 80% of the time.

UPDATE 1112z:  Best DX on the 10m 500mW beacon today remains 4Z5ML (3572km). No Es seen here today on 10m WSPR and no F2 DX spots from Africa or the Americas. 6m WSPR remains dead here!

Good start on 10m WSPR this morning

As well as local G4IKZ (18km) I have already had spots from a couple of stations in Israel this morning early on 10m WSPR. I assume these are by F2.

On MF I spotted 9 unique stations last night. In all, I have spotted 15 unique stations spotted this season. Best DX on MF remains a German spotted at 995km.

472kHz RX

Using the RX preamp is allowing me to give stations I spot better reports, but my best DX stubbornly still stands at 995km to a German station. There are EA and SV stations active that I have not spotted yet this season. I shall leave the RX on overnight and hope they are active. I think both should be copyable, even with the earth-electrode "antenna". It would be good to copy one of the USA stations too at some point. I have managed to copy one before but never from this QTH on MF.

UPDATE 2148z:  I have now closed my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon until breakfast. Despite the early promise (lots of spots from Israel), not a single spot from North or South America today. With conditions looking good I really thought today would have been better on 10m. 6m was a dead loss yet again. I tend to go on 6m and 10m daytime. I am still active on 472kHz WSPR receive and will remain looking overnight until breakfast. The best nights so far have yielded spots from 12 unique stations on 472kHz WSPR.

Late swallows - NOT amateur radio

Eating lunch at the Maid's Head

Today we went for a walk around Wicken Fen and afterwards we ate at the "Maid's Head" in Wicken  village. In 1982 this thatched pub was badly damaged by fire but it was beautifully restored. Wicken is a lovely sleepy village with nice greens.

We went all around the boardwalk route at Wicken Fen and got back in the car when we saw 4 swallows overhead and quite close. This is, I think, the latest time I've seen swallows up here in East Anglia. I have seen them much later in Devon, but most have gone south by now. There are usually some late younger birds at Wimpole Hall but the latest I saw these was Sept 21st.

Swallow

As I get older, I wonder if this will be the last time I ever see a swallow in my lifetime? Hopefully I shall be around for their return next spring and for many springs to come, but there is something comforting in knowing this cycle will be going on long after I am just dust.

See  http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/s/swallow/  .

BBC Radio 4 on Longwave

From Steve G1KQH today:

"End of BBC on the LW?

Of course if they let this go, what will  the crystal set builder have to listen to?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11892805/End-of-Shipping-Forecast-on-long-wave-radio-could-leave-sailors-high-and-dry.html

Build another Solid State transmitter that is the answer..

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/"