RSGB Convention

13-15 OCTOBER 2017 : RSGB CONVENTION
Kent's Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, Swallow House, Timbold Drive, Kent's Hill Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK7 6BZ. The Convention programme of lectures for all interests will be available on the website. Principal sponsor Martin Lynch & Sons. www.rsgbevents.org.

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

Sunspots - Wednesday October 11th 2017

Solar flux is 71 today and the sunspot number remains zero. A=4 and K=5.

630m WSPR TX

As mentioned yesterday, I managed to mend my 630m transverter and was on 630m WSPR TX last evening and overnight. This s the first time this autumn. My antenna is rubbish! It is the coax to my 2m big-wheel tuned with a ferrite rod ATU. Quite a bit of the run is les than 1m over the ground. For the earth side I am using the mains plug earth.

Much to my surprise (I thought I'd be lucky to get any spots!) I was spotted in Norway by LA3EQ (769km) amongst others. If I can get such reports then anyone can! It is a fun band and there are starting to be some FT8 contacts, which of course are 2-way.

10m FT8

Although I have been on 10m FT8 receive since breakfast, the only spot, so far, is of EA8NL (2986km) in the Canary Is. at lunch time.  I assume this was F2 propagation.

630m WSPR TX (20%) - reports please

Having fixed my little transverter, I am back on 630m TX (and RX). All reports would be much appreciated as my ERP will be very low.

UPDATE 1942z: LA8AV (1035km) has been spotted 6 times so far, but no spots yet of my own QRPP signal, but I keep trying! Earlier, there was a strong station on 630m FT8. I presume this was G3KEV.

UPDATE 2115z: G4MEM (230km) in IO94 square was my first report on 630m TX this season. And this was on a very poor antenna and ground. ERP was low millliwatts - not yet accurately calculated. My work on the transverter worked!

70cm UKAC tonight

A reminder than being the second Tuesday of the month, tonight is the 70cm RSGB activity contest (UKAC). This runs from 1900z (8pm UK clock time) for 2.5 hours, although I manage far less!

Real 10m DX again

So far, there have been 10 South Americans and 2 South Africans on 10m FT8 RX spotted here. TEP I suspect as the sunspot number is zero.

Out with the soldering iron

Well, it was harder than it used to be and I got tired easily, but this morning I mended my 630m transverter using my soldering iron.  Assuming the mod worked, I'll try 630m TX this evening.

My antenna will have to be the coax up to my 2m big-wheel via an ATU and a mains earth as my brother managed to cut through my earth-electrode "antenna" when gardening earlier in the year! I could mend this later.

Optimism in the future of our hobby

Southgate News has a very positive video on the future of our hobby. This was a video made at a recent YOTA event.

The secret seems to be to embrace future technology.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2017/october/the-future-of-amateur-radio-video.htm#.WdyVOrpFzIU

OFCOM and Inmarsat

Today OFCOM announced it is granting Inmarsat a licence.

See http://ofcom.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/i/87725B5F14AB5C622540EF23F30FEDED/59D1BD3EA2F08127C67FD2F38AC4859C