Windmill - NOT amateur radio

This is the view from our lounge window. The photo was taken through the glass. The wind is from the east, so cold. The windmill is nearly 200 years old.

The buildings on the right are our local museum open Thursdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays Easter-October. Our grandchildren love it. The windmill forms part of the museum.

See http://www.burwellmuseum.org.uk/ .

Heathkits

The resurrected Heathkit company has launched a dual band antenna.  As much as I want them to succeed is this the best they can do?

They absolutely have to produce decent kits at decent prices or they will not survive. Their offerings so far do not exactly set the world alight. No, the offerings so far have not excited me. Years ago I started out with a Heathkit  Electronics Workshop. Years later I had an HW8 which gave me loads of contacts with small wire antennas.

Please, think of your potential customer base, think about prices, and look at your competitors. I have no doubt a few loyal USA customers will support you, but far far more is needed in the competitive world of the 21st century.

Amazingly low cost Chinese kits

See http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/262131628596?adgroupid=13585920426&hlpht=true&hlpv=2&rlsatarget=pla-131843262066&adtype=pla&ff3=1&lpid=122&poi=&ul_noapp=true&limghlpsr=true&googleloc=1006598&device=c&chn=ps&campaignid=207297426&crdt=0&ff12=67&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff14=122&viphx=1&ops=true&ff13=80

There are some amazing bargains on eBay. The link above is for a full Pixie 40m CW transceiver kit with sockets, PCB, IC and crystal all for £2.30 delivered free. There are other kits available including the Frog which is more expensive but has more power and a better RX. Last year I bought a 40m Pixie kit from a different Chinese supplier and it worked well first time on the air.

You'd be very hard pressed to buy the crystal for the price of the full kit delivered free.  With these sort of prices it is hard to go wrong.

Shaking off a cold - NOT amateur radio

I have had a cold for a week now. Last weekend I was rough with it and felt really under the weather. A week later, although I no longer feel unwell, I still have a runny nose. It is taking longer to shake off the symptoms. It is some years since I last recall having a classic cold.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Feb 27th 2016

Solar flux is 89 today and sunspot number 41 (K=2). Predictions for 10m propagation remain "poor" although they were "poor" yesterday and I managed to be spotted, and spotted others, in Australia with 2W on 10m WSPR yesterday! I always treat these forecasts with a degree of skepticism and the band often supports DX when it seems quiet. Use WSPR and find out.

UPDATE 1102z:  So far the only 10m spot this morning is of G8VDQ (93km) who I think was coming in via aircraft reflection judging by the Doppler, from IO91um.

Switched to 10m WSPR

All night I was on 40m WSPR, but since 1007z I switched to 10m WSPR. Several spots from the USA on 40m WSPR again.

40m WSPR

At 1905z, with all chance of 10m WSPR DX gone, I QSYed to 40m WSPR. There have been plenty of spots of my signal but I have only spotted one other station so far tonight because of my high local noise floor.

UPDATE 2240z:  Stations in the USA are again spotting my 2W 40m WSPR to an antenna that is far from any good for DX on 40m. It will be interesting to see how many USA stations spot me on 40m WSPR.

10m WSPR GDX

Since this morning the only spots on 10m WSPR have been G stations with the latest being G8VDQ (93km).  I suspect this is tropo and aircraft reflection. No international DX spots since this morning on 10m WSPR.

7-day high - NOT amateur radio

Last weekend I was away staying with one of our sons with limited internet access. Yesterday, the number of visitors to this blog was at a weekly high again.

In the past I have been able to update the blogs using my Apple iPod Touch 4g and Safari, but this no longer works for some reason. So, unless I take a PC with me I have to wait until I get back home.

Yet another stroke after-effect - NOT amateur radio

I have mentioned this before, but I seem far slower at noticing errors than in the past.

As an example I used the Roman phrase caveat emptor on my blog yesterday. Only a day later when this appeared on AmateurRadio.com did I notice that I had the wrong spelling caveat emtor . On my blog I have corrected the mistake, but I had not seen it! Sometimes it is a keying error, but I should have noticed this.