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.

6m WSPR and 10m WSPR soon

Very shortly I shall be turning on the WSPR station. I plan to be on 10m (TX 100%, randomised TX frequency, 500mW) and on 6m WSPR (1W ERP 20%, 80% RX, V2000 vertical). With the Es season here, there is a chance of catching some European short skip on both bands.

UPDATE 0918z:  Now active on 6m WSPR and 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 0942z:  No spots yet on 10m WSPR, but G8VDQ (93km) spotted on 6m WSPR at -16dB S/N.

UPDATE 1530z: On 6m WSPR just G8VDQ (93km) spotted many times. On 10m WSPR my  500mW WSPR beacon has been spotted in Germany and Italy with the best DX I4ZTO (1185km). Not a bad Es day.

QSYed

Since about 1830z I have been on 472kHz WSPR. No spots yet. Tomorrow, during the day, I shall probably be on 6m and 10m WSPR. What I do in the evening tomorrow is still to be decided. I really should try a different band.  472kHz is now past its best this season I think. For the last few nights my best DX on TX (5mW ERP, earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground) has been Holland. Best 472kHz WSPR TX DX this season remains Norway.

Stroke update - NOT amateur radio

Not a lot of change really.

My biggest issues are not being able to speak easily, drinking liquids and feeling so profoundly tired so often, even though I sleep well. The fact that I feel wobbly when on my feet I have learned to live with. The tiredness is debilitating.  I feel as if I have drunk 8 pints of beer most of my waking life. I can assure you it is no fun. Sitting down is OK. No-one, and I do mean no-one,  seems to understand what a struggle it is. The comment I get is, "you do look well". If only they understood just how difficult life really is on the inside.