China

It seems odd to me that the Chinese haven't taken the amateur radio market by storm already. When the Chinese do wake up I think ICOM, Yaesu and Kenwood will struggle. It would not surprise me if at least one goes bankrupt. They are "swimming against the tide". China is currently a low cost assembly area and even Apple take advantage of this.  So far, the Chinese products we have seen have not been a match for the Japanese, but surely this will change? Volumes are not the issue as some variants are made in decent numbers. No, the Japanese amateur manufacturers need to wake up fast or they will go under.

Sunspots and 10m - Fri Jan 8th 2016

Solar flux is 95 today and sunspot number 29 (K=2). 10m propagation is expected to be "poor" so I am not hopeful of decent results on 10m today.  We are definitely seeing the effects of falling solar activity sadly, although at times 10m is good so never give up on the band. This is exactly where WSPR is useful. At present I am active on 10m WSPR and 630m WSPR.

472kHz WSPR

I am back on 472kHz (630m) WSPR (5mW ERP 20%, RX 80%) and will remain on overnight.

UPDATE 1004z 8.1.16:  No surprises overnight.

20m WSPR and JT9-1

As I was busy with other things all morning I was active on 20m WSPR. We are out most of the afternoon so JT9-1 may have to wait until I have more time in the shack.

Sunspots and 10m - Thurs Jan 7th 2016

Solar flux is 101 today and the sunspot number 38 (K=3). 10m is expected to remain "poor" again today.

Presently I am on 20m WSPR using the new shack PC running WSJT-X V1.6 and the Par end fed 3 bander, which is low on 20m. Already VKs have spotted me.

New shack PC

I have just fired up a new shack PC (Asus X205ta) which has an 11.6 inch screen and runs Windows 10. After a few set-up issues (nothing major) it runs WSJT-X V1.6 very well. I have the feeling this little PC will serve my needs well.

It has a SSD and runs very fast and without a fan. For additional local storage I bought a 64GB micro-SD card although I have very little need for storage on this PC.  It comes with 2 years of free 500GB cloud storage and a year of MS Office 365. It was a bargain from Tesco Direct. Currently it is running WSPR on 630m using WSJT-X V1.6.

ICOM IC7300 - still made in Japan

It looks from the pictures on the MLS site that this new radio is still made in Japan although the fan on the back says "Made in China". One wonders when one of the big Japanese manufacturers will design in Japan but make the radios in China? This would certainly be less expensive. At some point, the high Japanese manufacturing costs will bankrupt one of the big three. It is a case of who jumps first.

With decent volumes of the same design, the manufacture of Japanese designed radios in China makes some sense. Just wait until we see a quality amateur radio product both designed and made in China. It will happen. Then Kenwood, ICOM and Yaesu will be seriously undercut and worried. Why do so many products say "Made in China"? Manufacturing costs are much lower than Japan.

See www.hamradio.co.uk/amateur-radio-main-equipment-base-station-radio-icom-base-station-radio/icom/icom-ic-7300-hf-50-70mhz-transceiver-deposit-pd-6016.php

This image is located on the MLS website and not on this blog.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed Jan 6th 2016

Solar flux has fallen to 95 and sunspot number is 29 (K=3). The forecast for 10m propagation remains "poor". It would be a pleasant surprise if 10m was any good today. I shall switch on my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon shortly.

144MHz January UKAC

Stations worked tonight with 5W and big-wheel omni antenna

This evening was the first leg of the UKAC 144MHz RSGB activity contest.  In the limited time on-air I made 7 QSOs with 5W SSB and the big-wheel horizontal omni antenna. I was only on for just over 1 hour because of my poor voice. Several of the usual locals were absent tonight, so no JO02 stations worked. Best DX was G0VVE who was on the far side of London at 123km. Heard, but not worked, were F stations in IO10 and IN99 squares. Several Gs in the north were also heard. A lot more stations would have been worked had I stopped around longer.

More on the IC7300

There is a little more on this new ICOM radio on the MLS website. Deliveries are expected "in early 2016" with a UK (initial?) price of "under £1000". I shall wait.

See www.hamradio.co.uk/amateur-radio-main-equipment-base-station-radio-icom-base-station-radio/icom/icom-ic-7300-hf-50-70mhz-transceiver-deposit-pd-6016.php