Post Office Travel Card - NOT amateur radio

The UK Post Office offers a prepay travel card which appears quite good. As my old card expired last month and I changed my address, they promised to send me a new card, credited with the money left on the old card. No card arrived and I got an email saying they were experiencing very high loads and apologies. Today I got an email asking me to call their customer services number. All I can say is CRAP!! To say I am annoyed is an understatement.

Sunspots - Monday July 10th 2017

Solar flux is 91 today (good) and the sunspot number 31 (respectable). A=28 and K=4.

Gone away? - NOT amateur radio

For the first time in a week, a certain eastern European country seems to have lost interest in this blog and gone away. There are visits from there, but I suspect these are real people rather than trawling bots.

Devon - NOT amateur radio

I am spending a week in South Devon, were I was brought up. The coast is stunningly beautiful. The weather has been good so far, so a coastal path walk each evening has been possible. I know I posted a very similar view a few days ago, but thought readers might enjoy it again too. Where we are staying is just a short walk from this point.

Pixie CW QRP transceiver

Some time ago I bought a Pixie kit from China. It was really bought to test my building skills since my stroke. In years past this would have been trivial. The kit was so low cost that even if it had to be thrown away it would not matter.

As it turned out, it worked first time. A QSO with a local a few miles away proved all was well. The crystal supplied was 7023kHz, but a very kind person sent me a 7030kHz crystal, which is the 40m QRP CW frequency.

I see from Southgate News that the Banbury Club is running a Pixie Challenge.

See http://www.banburyares.co.uk/Documents/Pixie.pdf

QRP and QRP Club

Another weekly report for Oleg:

Dear Club 72 members and friends,

Weekly QRP Rendez-Vous Report (July, 9, 2017)
News! News! News!
Special "rendezvous" discussion group (reflector) created for all QRP
Rendez-Vous round tables visitors. To connect this group send request
to - mr72@club72.su - including your name, call, e-mail, please.

Visitors  of the week: UA1CEG, RV3GM, US5ERQ, RA1M/mm, RU3NJC, UR0ET,
UR5EFD,  G3XJS,  UY1IF,  UA1CEX,  RA7RA,  IU0AHC/IS0,  PA2JJB, HA7SG,
OH6NPV, US3EN, I5/DK1HW, UA0SBQ, R1CAF, LY2BAW, DL6ZB, IT9GAK, G3JFS,
DL9FI,  EA2EFI,  ON6KZ,  R1CAN,  MM0CYR, UA4NU, OM6TC, EA7JUK, R2AJA,
F5UKL/p, F3MB, R4NX
Welcome new Visitors
IU0AHC/IS0, PA2JJB, HA7SG, LY2BAW, DL6ZB, IT9GAK, DL9FI, F5UKL/p
See full Visitors and Frequenters lists on the Club 72 web page
Comments...
... see full version of the WQR Report including a lot of comments and
pictures here - https://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/
Thanks all for comments and activity!
See you on next QRP Rendez-Vous!

72! Oleg RV3GM / KH6OB "Mr. 72"


This is a periodic Newsletter of the Club 72. Don't reply to Newsletter address! Send any requests or news to mr72@club72.su please.

Sunspots - Sunday July 9th 2017

Solar flux is 87 today. The sunspot number is 24. A=3 and K=2.

QRP DXing from the great outdoors

Here in the UK we have enjoyed some great summer weather. Maybe it is time to try your QRP SSB rig out portable. During the summer Es season some stations can be worked with a very modest QRP portable station: no big antennas, just a whip on the rig can be enough. I find a counterpoise can make a lot of difference. Always be mindful of "humans" who may not understand. 😉

F2 DX on the higher HF bands is getting harder, but Es is a different matter.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/pedestrian .

Cornish rally this Sunday

9 JULY 2017 : CORNISH RADIO AMATEUR CLUB RALLY
Penair School, Truro, Cornwall TR1 1TN Car parking is available on site. Doors open 10.30am and admission £2 There will be traders, Bring & Buy and club stalls. Catering is available. Contact Ken, G0FIC 01209 821 073 for more information.

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

2m SSB

Certainly here in the UK, 2m SSB is far less active than 30 years ago. Even FM can be quiet. Apart from contests and big lifts 2m can be very quiet. It was very different back then. I had (and still have) an MX2 2m SSB 200mW handheld. Back in its day it worked some impressive DX handheld.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/mx2 .