6 Apr 2016

D-star Cubesat

Southgate Amateur Radio News has a report today of a D-star transponder on a Cubesat. I ahve to admit that I am not "turned on" by these digital modes. It seems to me we are in for a standards war in the coming years. I am happy to sit this one out until the punters decide on one. System fusion, C4FM, D-star, DMR?? Others? Who cares!

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2016/april/dstar_satellite_to_launch_from_kourou.htm#.VwTc_L6LWzk.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed April 6th 2016

Solar flux is 83 today. Sunspot number is 27 today (K=2). The forecast for 10m propagation is again "poor". After yesterday, I am not expecting much on 10m, but I might get a surprise!

QRT on 630m WSPR and now back on 10m WSPR

After a relatively quiet night on 630m WSPR during which I was copied by several different Dutch stations, I have now returned to 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 0945z:  No 10m WSPR spots as yet.

UPDATE 1558z:  Still not a single 10m WSPR spot here all day.

5 Apr 2016

Back on 630m (472kHz) WSPR

Since around 1900z I have been active on 630m WSPR. There have been lots of spots given and received. It would not entirely surprise me if my 5mW ERP signal is spotted in Norway again tonight.  LA8AV is quite strong here tonight.

OFCOM updates

See http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/ .

OFCOM updates, if you care to read.

Concert - NOT amateur radio

My wife's concert was last Saturday and she spent part of this morning erasing pencil marks from the many scores borrowed by inter library loan.

She now has a break until the autumn when they start rehearsals again for the 2017 concert which is Elijah by Mendelssohn.

The next concert will be at the West Road Concert Hall. which is an excellent venue in Cambridge. It is where the university music school is located.

The 2016 concert was good and enjoyed by the very full audience who attended.

Sunspots and 10m - Tues April 5th 2016

Solar flux was 82 and sunspot number 23 (K=1). The forecast for 10m propagation remains "poor" today.

UPDATE 0915z:   No 10m spots so far, although this is expected as it is still very early.

UPDATE 0942z:  G4CUI (172km), to the west of Sheffield,  has been spotted on 10m WSPR.  He is often spotted here.

UPDATE 1256z:  G4CUI spotted again, but no DX on 10m.

2m UKAC tonight

A reminder that the 2m leg of the RSGB's UK activity contest is tonight at 1900z for 2.5 hours. I shall be on with 5W QRP and the big-wheel omni. I seem to be able to work out to about 200km, although I usually only stay on for an hour or less because of my poor voice. 8-10 QSOs and I'm done in!

UPDATE 2025z:  After 8 QSOs I was done in.  So I stopped after 50 minutes on air.  Best DX was the South Coast with G4RUL/P (172km).
2m QSOs tonight with 5W SSB and big-wheel in 50 minutes

630m overnight and back on 10m WSPR

Quite a few spots on 630m (472kHz) WSPR overnight,but no great DX either way (i.e. spots given or received). Best DX on TX were spots from PA land (306km). I did spot LA on RX (1035km) but he did not spot me last night.

I have now gone QRT on MF and started up the 10m WSPR for the day.

4 Apr 2016

Another low cost rig from Yaesu?

See http://www.qrpblog.com/2016/04/yaesu-ft-891-new-hf50mhz-transceiver.html .

The date of this was April 1st, so this may be a wind-up. If it is, like me, you have been fooled!

YO9IRF/M0HRH reports on his blog about on the Yaesu FT891. As reported, if true, it is a mobile-sized rig covering HF-50MHz.

As I said, this could be a wind-up. Caveat Emptor. It was also picked up by Amateur Radio Weekly, so if a joke, they were fooled too!

They claim this is not an April Fool wind-up. I hope this is correct.The FCC data does look genuine enough.  If a hoax it is a very complex one. The question is, if genuine, will it be available in Europe and at what price?