Windmill at sunset - NOT amateur radio

As I have said many times, we live next door to a 200 year old, fully restored, 4 sail windmill. It always looks good, but last night it was spectacular bathed in the dying rays of the sun. The scene was darker than the photo suggests.

Shield bug - NOT amateur radio

When the frosts and winds come we'll soon forget that it is mid-October and it was so warm that we had a cup of tea in the garden in our shirt sleeves.

This weekend some places in the UK could reach 24 deg C, which is very high for mid-October. Strangely, many trees are losing their leaves, which is early.

Whilst cutting the grass I came across this beetle. I think it is a shield bug. It was about 1cm long and mainly green. It flew off shortly after this photo.

See https://www.britishbugs.org.uk/gallery/heteroptera/Pentatomoidea/pentatomoidea.html

630m WSPR again overnight

Last evening and overnight I was on 630m WSPR again, transmitting 20% of the time. Yet again my unbelievably poor set-up got spots in several Western European nations with the best again being LA3EQ (769km) up in Norway. I will repair my earth-electrode "antenna" and try this as an extra ground in the hope of raising my ERP. At present my ERP is about 10mW.

10m FT8 RX

Having been on 10m FT8 RX since breakfast, I have spotted 3 countries (4 stations) so far, namely G, DL and SP. Best DX is currently SP6BPY (1159km).

UPDATE 1625z: Quite a few South Americans being spotted here now on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 1704z: Even more South Americans spotted  on 10m FT8 including VP8LP (12720km) in the Falkland Islands.

Rallies this weekend

15 OCTOBER 2017 : HOLSWORTHY ARC RALLY
Holsworthy ARC Holsworthy Community College, Victoria Hill, Holsworthy, Devon EX22 6JD Free car parking on site with disabled access. there will be trade stands and a Bring & Buy.
Catering is available on site. Howard, M0MYB by email to holsworthyarc@gmail.com

15 OCTOBER 2017 : HORNSEA AMATEUR RADIO RALLY
Floral Hall, 7 The Esplanade, Hornsea HU18 1NQ There is car parking at the venue. Doors open at 10am and admission is £2 with under 14s free. There will be trade stands, a Bring & Buy, special interest groups and an RSGB bookstand. A raffle will take place. There is catering on site. Details from Rick, M0CZR, 01964 533712 or by email to R106221@aol.com


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

Sunspots - Friday October 13th 2017

Solar flux is 69 today and the sunspot number still zero. A=29 and K=5.

630m WSPR TX

Well, it helps TX if you enable TX!! I did not have this enabled, so was wondering why I was getting no spots!

First 630m WSPR spot was by PA0EHG (296km). I'll leave the TX at 20% through the night. ERP is around 10mW.

Quite a few of the regulars spotted on 630m WSPR RX.

MLS blunder?

The latest RadCom has an MLS advert for a 5W HF SDR transceiver from MyDel. If you read the ad (scroll down) it looks like MLS may have made a booby! The price looked very good. I suspect this was a Chinese transceiver judging by the price. It looks like the Chinese copied the design, which was not copyrighted, allegedly. I hope this ends in a good outcome for all parties.

See https://www.hamradio.co.uk/sdr-mydel/mydel/mydel-rs-918-compact-sdr-transceiver-pd-8208.php

10m FT8 RX

Spots of stations in England, Italy and Solvenia so far on 10m FT8. This is still with the rc1 WSJT-x software.

UPDATE 1120z: So far this morning I have spotted 15 different stations, right across Europe plus Israel on 10m FT8. This is making me wonder. Are there lots of short 10m openings that we'd miss on SSB or CW? Certainly FT8 seems to find them. It is mid-October, yet there is plenty on 10m FT8. And the sunspot number has been zero for days! All this goes to prove that 10m is often much better than a casual look might lead you to believe. FT8 does seem to be magic, and just what we need!

UPDATE 1555z: 10m FT8 RX has been good today.

UPDATE 2115z: Well I have just got in and switched to 630m WSPR transceive. 10m FT8 was good today with 4 continents spotted and the sunspot number is still zero!

Sunspots - Thursday October 12th 2017

Solar flux is 70 today and the sunspot number is still zero. A=30 and K=4.