RSPB Garden Bird Count - NOT amateur radio

The annual UK RSPB bird count is any hour in the last weekend of January. I have been doing this for years. You just choose a spot and count the maximum number of each species seen in the hour. It can be surprising. When done, I submit results to the RSPB online. It is always a great pleasure and you do not need to be an expert birder to do this. Each year, the RSPB get a great deal of data.  Some years I see very little. Some years I have seen up to 11 different species.

Most times you will see quite common birds, but occasionally you may see something unusual. It is the number of the ordinary birds seen that tells the real story.  If you can, grab a coffee and sit down, look out the window, and count the birds in your garden or park.  I am sure, like me, you will enjoy it.

See https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdwatch .

Back on 10m WSPR

Just a few minutes ago I QSYed from 630m to 10m WSPR and re-synced the clock. Currently I am running 2W TX 20% and on RX looking for others 80% of the time.

UPDATE 1150z:  Overnight and this morning on 630m there were no surprises with the same stations spotting me and being spotted. Tonight, I might give another band a try for a change. LA3JJ (993km) did spot me on 472kHz (630m) overnight though. I was still using just 5mW ERP and the earth-electrode "antenna". He must have a quiet location!

UPDATE 1200z:  No spots on 10m as yet.

UPDATE 1240z:  Some evidence of wintertime Es on 10m with DK6UG (633km) spotting me. There is also some F2 around with 10m spots from the Canary Is.

UPDATE 1830z:   EA1KV (1304km) spotted several times, presumably wintertime Es again.

New record number of visits to blog

Yesterday saw a new high in daily visits to this blog. I have no idea why!

As you know, I try to reflect what interests me, what I am doing in our hobby and a few things which are unrelated to amateur radio. I intend to continue in much the same way, hoping you all find something of interest here. Please let me know if you think the blog is missing anything important.

Clearly there is a QRP bias, but my stroke has made me concentrate on what I can do. This year, I want more 2-way QSOs but as I find speech hard (for too long) I will be looking for JT65 and JT9-1 QSOs in the main.  Of course, these will be with just a few watts.  When not in the shack I shall be on WSPR monitoring elsewhere in the house.

As I am slower at spotting errors than I was, please let me know if you see any. I try to correct any I notice but I must miss some.

Sunspots and 10m - Tues Jan 19th 2016

Solar flux is 99 today and sunspot number 48 (K=3) and the forecast for 10m propagation continues to be "poor".   I am not expecting great things on 10m today, but I am often surprised.

QSYed to 472kHz WSPR

After most of the day on 10m WSPR, I have now QSYed to 472kHz WSPR for the evening and night.  For some time I have had problems accessing WSPRnet. Again I am TXing with 5mW ERP and on RX for 80% of the time using the earth-electrode "antenna" with no preamp on RX.

10m USA yet again

As well as G8VDQ (93km) earlier by tropo and aircraft this morning, WA4ZZW (6873km) was spotted on 10m mid-afternoon. Both stations were using 5W. I have been on 10m TX (randomised TX frequency) continuously until the last few days since when I've been on RX for 80% of the time.

Yaesu

As a proud owner of Yaesu gear going right back to an FT7 in 1979, I wish them well.  In  recent times, life has been very hard for them, and they seemed to lose their way. Today, they still face a threat from China and many of their radios are struggling to compete on price. I was totally amazed at their stupidity at not bringing an FT817 successor to market as we approached the solar peak.

It is rumoured that an FT817 successor will be announced at Dayton in May this year. Like many around the world, I hope they do. There is (was?) a vast market for this product as the original FT817 is now very very old. To do a successor would be so easy.  Yaesu - get real and release this product before you lose the market. To not put too fine a point on this, I think if you do not, then you risk bankruptcy within 5 years.

My recommendations to Yaesu are:

1. Design in Japan but make in China (but with excellent quality control in place from the start).
2. Launch a successor to the FT817 soon.
3. Look at your product range and rationalise it.

You must survive. This is the real world.

QRP Kits

The kits that were Hendricks are now Pacific Antenna. I have no idea how long ago this change happened. They market a fine range of QRP kits.

See http://www.qrpkits.com/ .

QRP and low sunspot activity

There is some debate over QRP and declining solar activity. Certainly more power helps when conditions are marginal although often if a path is open then a few watts are fine for a QSO. At present, I use 5W maximum and most times 2W yet still seem to get spotted around the world on WSPR and JT 2-way modes. As I have mentioned before, even at the rock bottom of earlier solar cycles I have still worked LU (over 11000km) on QRP SSB on 10m with very modest wire antennas. No, more power may help with a pile-up but even QRP is fine if the band is open. Of course, summertime Es generally needs only QRP. I have worked Es DX on 6m with QRP and a helical whip on the FT817. Es can be great fun.

Sunspots and 10m - Mon Jan 18th 2016

Solar flux is 101 today. Sunspot number is 48 (K=0) and the forecast for 10m propagation is "poor" still.  I QSYed to 10m early and am already TXing for 20% of the time at 2W and looking for others on 10m for 80% of the time. Overnight I was on 472kHz (630m) RX with the preamp, but nothing new copied on that band.

UPDATE 0910z:  Not surprisingly, no spots given or received yet on 10m WSPR.  It is still very early.