Sunspots and 10m - Saturday March 4th 2017

Solar flux is today 77.  Sunspot number is 36. A=22 and K= 3.

6m JT65

For a change this morning, I am on 6m JT65 transceiver in beacon mode sending "B G3XBM JO02". Last night, overnight, I was not on the air.

UPDATE 1226z: No spots, so time to QSY, probably to 10m JT65.

49 not out - NOT amateur radio

49 years ago today, my wife and I first met. Each year we celebrate this day more than Valentine's Day as it means more to us. Today we went for lunch at The Old Fire Engine House in Ely. This serves unpretentious English food at sensible prices. The food was good, although it was a shame that outside it rained.

New HF low cost radio design

My thanks again to Steve G1KQH for finding this:

Ashhar Farhan the designer of the BITX has now come up with the ubitx Multiband HF

http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/ubitx/ubitx.html

See the Bitx20 group for more details here:

https://groups.io/g/BITX20

There is a video here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-yLof4sTtE

QSY to 10m JT65

After an extended time monitoring 6m MSK144, I have now QSYed to 10m JT65 (2W). As conditions were not looking hopeful, it will be interesting to see if any DX appears on 10m today.

UPDATE 1612z: No spots (well yet today) on 10m JT65.

Another UK rally

MARCH 5th 2017 : EXETER RADIO & ELECTRONICS RALLY

America Hall, De La Rue Way, Pinhoe, Exeter EX4 8PW
Doors open at 10.30am with disabled visitors gaining access 15 minutes earlier. Bring & Buy book-in starts at 10.15am. Admission is £2 and there will be trade stands. Catering is available on site. Details from Pete, G3ZVI on 0771 419 8374 or by email to g3zvi@yahoo.co.uk.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

Sunspots and 10m - Friday March 3rd 2017

Solar flux is 79 today and the sunspot number 52.  A=32 and K=5 so conditions look disturbed.

6m MSK144 RX continued

At the moment I am still monitoring 6m MSK144 RX. The last 24 hours have been decent with many countries spotted (see photo).

Northern Ireland Elections - NOT amateur radio

One thing is certain - I am no politician. Also, I have not been closely following what led to the breakdown of the power sharing alliance in Northern Ireland.

As an "outsider" looking in I think far more things unite its people than divide. It is a staggeringly beautiful place - better than Eire in my view - and I just hope that after the elections today, the parties can find a way to work together for the common good. Sectarianism is so yesterday. Break down the old barriers and work hard for all the people. If you fall back to sectarianism, you have only yourselves to blame.

Catholic? Protestant? Who cares? What matters is the best for Northern Ireland and all its people.

4m in the USA

Although the prospects of an amateur 4m band in the USA remains a distant dream - the FCC seem very very slow allocating 137kHz and 472kHz - Southgate News reports that the 3kW ERP 4m beacon in the USA, in FM07 square, has been granted clearance to continue for another 2 years. 6m openings to the USA occur by Es most summers, but 4m is much harder. This is a useful propagation indicator.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2017/march/4-metres-and-wg2xpn.htm#.WLgpUoXXJMs

4m is a band I have hardly tried. I do recall working ZB2VHF with a few watts of AM by Es back in my university days as G3OUL from Liverpool - 1969? These days there are lots of European countries on the band and I would think it a decent band for inter-G QSOs. I recall doing one 4m contest in my early days at Pye Telecom. It was April 1971 and we were in the back of a Land Rover. It was freezing! We used a converted Pye AM Cambridge and a 3 el I seem to recall.