70cm - a much under-used band

70cm can be very quiet with little activity outside of contests and I am as guilty as anyone! This is a pity as tropo lifts can be more frequent than on 2m and ranges almost as good. In monthly activity contests I usually work over 100km with 5W SSB and a 2m halo! Maybe I should install a 70cm big-wheel above my 2m one?

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/70cm_op .

Baby snake found in amber - NOT amateur radio

Scientists in China have found a 99 million year old baby snake in a piece of amber. This is incredibly rare. To think this snake was wriggling around when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Amber freezes things in a time capsule. Usual finds are bits of flies.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44872148 .

Solar minimum?

We are approaching the next solar minimum. Such periods are characterised by very low sunspot numbers for a long time. We have already had many weeks without sunspots. We can expect more "quiet sun" weeks until we climb on the upward slopes towards the peak of cycle 25. At the moment we are looking at 2020 for the next minimum.

See http://spaceweather.com/ .

Younger people - NOT amateur radio

All is not bad with young people as these charts show. Trends show they take fewer drugs, commit less crime, smoke less, have fewer teen pregnancies and drink less.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/44880278 .

Grumpy old man? - NOT amateur radio

This is a rant.

Have you noticed that younger people tend to go up at the end of sentences? This is certainly true in the UK. It is almost as if a question is being asked. This, along with the over-use of "like", is mainly a phenomenon of the under 25 year olds.

Listening to the radio, you can often tell the age of an interviewee by how a sentence ends. Personally, I find this intonation annoying. Then, I am a grumpy old man!

10m FT8

For the second morning in a row I decided to try 10m FT8. There is already Es about with the Canaries and southern Europe spotted and it is only 0902z. I was briefly on TX before breakfast but received no spots. I have been on FT8 RX since.

UPDATE 1138z: 31 different stations in 11 countries spotted on 10m FT8 RX today. They spread from Finland to the Canaries.

UPDATE 2114z: Now QRT as our visitors have arrived. No South Americans spotted today here.

Career politicians - NOT amateur radio

At the moment, we seem to be ruled by megalomaniac career politicians who seem more interested in themselves than what is best for their countries.

Think of Russia, the USA and the UK to name but a few. As soon as the BREXIT referendum was held in the UK the then Prime Minister left office and politics. Tony Blair who was once Labour Prime Minister now, allegedly, gets hundreds of thousands for after-dinner speeches. True Labour values? In the USA think of Trump and in Russia think of Putin.

Now, I am not saying there is no good in any of these leaders. I am sure they all have good points.  But are they really connecting with us?

What I am saying is we lack politicians who are in high office because they really wish to better the lot of the common man or woman. We lack real leaders with guts and charisma. In time, they will emerge. At the moment we seem to be run by people with big egos sadly.

Sunspots - Thursday July 19th 2018

Solar flux is 71 today and the sun remains spotless. A=4 and K=1.

10m FT8 tomorrow

Having now gone QRT for the night, I am thinking about tomorrow. Having had some success with 10m FT8 today, I may try this band again tomorrow.

As well as very similar results on Es to 6m FT8, 10m has the added bonus of "real DX" deep into South America. I cannot stay on 10m too late tomorrow as we have visitors, but I shall be monitoring as late as I can.

Today was my first experience of 10m FT8 in the summertime. It does not surprise me that South Americans were spotted. FT8 is a great weak signal mode (better than SSB and CW) and just 15 seconds of "opening" are needed for a decode. For a QSO a few overs are needed.

PTT over cellular radio - NOT amateur radio

With 446 radios at ridiculously low prices and PTT over cellular radios available, I am wondering how "traditional" private mobile radio companies survive. On the face of it, PTT over cellular (i.e. network radio) offers international coverage or very local coverage.  For example, lorries could be tracked internationally, and drivers contacted as if they were in the next village.

446 or similar radios offer basic communications well suited to pop-up events or occasional use.

Between the 2, most PMR use is covered at sensible prices. PTT over cellular often has GPS, photos and big data capacity too.