Swallows - NOT amateur radio

Only yesterday I was that I'd seen no swallows (birds) in East Anglia. Today I saw two! I still think they are less numerous but at least I have now seen some this season.

Oxborough Hall - NOT amateur radio

Today we visited Oxborough Hall in Norfolk. This is a splendid moated Tudor house owned by the National Trust. The Bedingfield family has lived here for 500 years.

We ate at Hingham in a small cafe where we had been before.  This is my XYL tucking into her "healthy" meal.

Hingham is where Abraham Lincoln's ancestors came from. It is between Norwich and Watton. It is a lovely place.

See http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/oxburgh-hall

See http://www.lincolns-of-hingham.co.uk/

Active on 10m and 6m WSPR

Since about 0630z I have been active on 10m WSPR (100% TX 500mW) and 6m WSPR (20% 1W ERP TX, 80% RX, vertical).

So far just G8VDQ (93km) and G8AXA (103km) spotted several times on 6m WSPR and nobody spotting me yet on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 1600z:  No spots at all on 10m WSPR and just G8VDQ and G8AXA still on 6m WSPR. I shall leave both running in case there is some Es at teatime.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed April 20th 2016

Solar flux has fallen again to 28. Sunspot number is also down at 28 (K=2). The forecast for 10m propagation remains "poor", although 10m has been livened up by sporadic-E (Es) in recent days. Yet again, I am not expecting great F2 propagation on 10m today.

481THz experiment - abject failure

Well, I am sorry to report that my 481THz lightbeam experiment was a total failure.

Although I could detect my QRSS3 signal strongly across the house bouncing off the windmill I was unable to detect any sign of the signal at my remote site. I had problems with aiming which did not help, but I was not expecting the total exhaustion this test brought on. In days gone by this would have been easy, but even soldering a headphone jack tired me. Doing the actual test left me totally "done in".  I really should repeat the test with better aiming, but I am not ready in my body.

If one thing this has taught me it is that I am still too feeble for field work. It was a great disappointment, but there will be other opportunities.

In past years I loved doing this sort of experiment. Sadly, my body is telling me, "not yet".

Fewer swallows? - NOT amateur radio

Usually by this time I have seen quite a few swallows here in East Anglia, UK. They migrate from deep in Africa (often South Africa) and I usually see them here in East Anglia, UK from April 7th. In South Devon they are usually arriving by the beginning of April. Sand Martins arrive sooner. I remember my dad telling me when he first saw them. He died in 1987 and many is the time since when I have missed talking with him.

I know there are swallows around in Devon - they appear every day in the reports - but I am surprised not to have seen any up here yet. I may have seen one last week at Felixstowe Ferry but I was not certain. I definitely saw a house martin.

So, I am beginning to wonder if there are fewer swallows about this year, as by now I would be seeing them quite commonly on telegraph wires. Of course, it could just be that I have been unlucky. It is not as if I have not been looking.

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

All India Radio going?

Southgate News reports that All India Radio's external service may close due to high costs. Soon HF will sound quite different as more and more broadcasters cut back or close services.

Noise levels are creeping up.  More space for amateur bands?

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2016/april/air_short_wave_may_shut_down.htm .

BBC accents - NOT amateur radio

At 1200-1215pm local time BBC Radio 4 has a series looking back 100 years to ordinary people in WW1. Call me a grumpy old man, but I get appalled by the BBC's weak attempts at local accents. It is not just the BBC. Why can't they get rural accents right? You can always tell a BBC Radio 4 drama a mile off!

I watched the film "Warhorse" . It was appalling: a Dartmoor, Devon village was actually filmed in Wiltshire I think. It looked nothing like Devon. The Devon accents were very very bad. No excuses: they spend millions making these films and need to get the basics right. 

No, get the accents right please!

481THz test

The wind is soon to be light and from the north and east. This means our windmill sails will be out of the way if I manage to do some optical tests in the next few evenings. I want to see if I can detect my 481THz red light reflected off the windmill using QRSS3 at a moderate distance.

To do this test I shall need to aim my QRSS3 optical beacon at the windmill and use a PC with Spectran software and sensitive detector and optics at the remote site. I have tripods but they are not the world's best.

As it is some time since I used the gear, I need to do some local tests first to check all is well.

Optical work is fun as all the gear is homemade and test gear is simple. In my view this is more fun than microwaves. It is accessible to all. All you need are a weak light source, a scope, free software and a multimeter.

In my healthier days I had a lot of fun detecting my QRSS3 optícal signal over the horizon  There was no sign of the signal visible by eye, but on the PC screen it was very clearly visible.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/optical/481thz-nlos .

Sunspots and 10m - Tues April 19th 2016

Solar flux has dropped to 95. Sunspot number is 28, which is lower. K=1. The forecast for 10m propagation remains "poor". We can hope that Es livens up this band and 6m, as the chances of real long distance DX are not good. Both 10m and 6m often surprise, so South Ameríca is not out of the question, especially on 10m.