RSPB Birdwatch 2018 - NOT amateur radio

Every January, I take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch organised by the RSPB here in the UK. You watch the birds in your garden for any 1 hour and note the maximum number of each sort seen in the hour.

This year there were no blackbirds, no tits, no collared doves. In fact there was a real shortage of small birds. I may just have been unlucky or maybe it was the fact that we have had more frosts which have killed off smaller birds? Anyway this year I saw 2 robins, 2 starlings, 3 jackdaws and 4 black headed gulls and nothing else.

10m FT8 RX - all quiet?

For about 20 minutes I have been on 10m FT8 RX. As yet, no spots. It is on 1055z, so things could change.

UPDATE 1254z: 4 stations in 3 EU countries spotted so far. Most of these were quite recent. Es?

UPDATE 1655z: G4AWP (19km) spotted. Real DX today! No further spots since G4AWP.

Grandchildren - NOT amateur radio

Last night we had one of our sons and his children staying. They have now gone home. This is them outside "our" windmill.

Sunspots - Sunday January 28th 2018

Solar flux is 69 and the sunspot number zero. A=6 and K=0.

Not on 630m WSPR RX overnight

Overnight I did not go on 630m WSPR.  Instead, I remained on the band during yesterday afternoon and evening. One reason was we had grandchildren staying, so access to my shack was limited. I am now on 10m FT8 RX.

FT8

There is little doubt that FT8 digital mode has taken the world by storm. Bandwidth is much less than JT65 and QSOs are faster although I think it needs stronger (weak) signals to work. One thing it does is concentrate operations in a small part of the band, so fleeting openings are more likely to be noticed.

As many know, I keep a watchful eye on 10m FT8 RX. Although openings are now much rarer than at the peak of the sunspot cycle, they do occur. Rarely does a day pass when 10m does not open to somewhere overseas. In the last few weeks it has opened to South America. Even the very briefest openings get noticed. At one time a quick CQ on SSB would have led to 10m being given up as a "dead" band.

Try FT8 on a higher band: you may be surprised.

WSJT-X, which is the software needed, is totally free.

See https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html.

Cheese rolling - NOT amateur radio

This saddens me. A cheese rolling contest has been cancelled this year. They hope to do it in 2019. We English like doing odd things and it would be sad if this tradition died out.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-42788965 .

Fake speed camera - NOT amateur radio

All I can say is well done that lady.

I certainly hope it makes some drivers slow down. The next thing we'll hear is this is causing a health and safety hazard and has to be removed.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-berkshire-42775070/berkshire-mum-fakes-road-camera-to-tackle-speeding-cars

Amateur files - useful link

My friend Steve G1KQH has sent me an interesting link. These are amateur radio related files in pdf format.

See http://www.n5dux.com/ham/files/pdf/ .

Giddiness - NOT amateur radio

This morning, in the drizzle, we did a short walk at Wicken Fen. I find walking along the board walk there very hard nowadays. Perhaps it is the water on either side, but I always feel giddy there since my 2013 stroke. I find having to concentrate so hard exhausts me these days. Pathetic. Today, it was wet too, which made it even harder. On the positive side, there were few people!