Rallies

28 & 29 SEPTEMBER : 10th NATIONAL HAMFEST

Newark & Nottinghamshire Showground, Lincoln Road, Winthorpe, Newark, Nottinghamshire NG24 2NY. Brought to you by the RSGB in association with the Lincoln Short Wave Club. The venue has free car parking and has disabled facilities. There will be trade stands, a Bring & Buy, car boot area, flea market, special interest groups and RSGB bookstall. There will also be representatives from the RSGB Services and committees. Morse proficiency test will be available. The venue has catering outlets and a seating area. www.nationalhamfest.org.uk.

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

Electric cars - NOT amateur radio

At the moment, people are pushing electric cars (Tesla, Nissan, etc). To me, who would be keen to buy one, they are expensive, limited range and a technology that is not quite there yet.

My main gripe is range. Other than local journeys a charge (or more than one) is required. Published range figures probably assume summer, no lights on, no air con, fresh batteries etc. i.e. not realistic conditions. As the batteries age, capacity is likely to decrease. I could do without the stress of finding a charging point that is available.

When batteries get cheaper and the range is much better on a single charge they will take off. Until then, they will remain a niche product.

I suspect they are like digital cameras and flat screen TVs: at some point they will be the ubiquitous mode of transport. We are not there yet.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car

FCC gets tough

Not sure if this is all part of President Trump getting tough on China, but Southgate News reports that the FCC in the USA is getting tougher on cheap Chinese transceivers entering the USA. I also heard this from Steve G1KQH.

At this stage I am not sure what effect this will have on rigs like the uBITX,  Baofengs,  Pixies and the like.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/september/fcc-enforcement-advisory-on-two-way-vhf-uhf-radios.htm#.W6tCqfZFzIU

10m FT8

For a change, I decided to try 10m FT8.

Earlier I called CQ, but got no spots. So far today after a couple of  hours no spots at all on RX or TX. Dire.

UPDATE 0910z: No spots still.

Sunspots - Wednesday September 26tht 2018

Solar flux is 68 today and the SSN still zero. A=11 and K=1

472kHz WSPR

At 1950z I went QRT on 2m and 10m and switched to 630m (472kHz) WSPR. As previously, I am using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground with 10mW ERP.

On RX first spot was F6GEX (590km) in IN97 square. I'll probably stay on overnight.

Swedish changes to amateur licences

According to Southgate News some new regulations come into force for amateurs in Sweden on November 1st. Apparently the free licence will drop the maximum power from 1000W to 200W, although higher power permits are possible, presumably for money!

As a confirmed QRPer who sees 200W as an awful lot of power, this seems fine to me. If you cannot work the world with 200W you should give up amateur radio and play golf or go fishing instead.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/september/swedish-amateur-radio-regulation-changes.htm#.W6pMUPZFzIU

Beluga whale in River Thames - NOT amateur radio

Photo by Greg Hume from Wikipedia

According to the BBC, there has been a beluga whale spotted feeding off Gravesend.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-45642590 .
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beluga_whale .

The photo is from Wikipedia and is by Greg Hume.

10m WSPR TX (500mW)

About 30 minutes ago, I turned on my 10m WSPR beacon. No spots of me yet.

Everything needed is here. No PC needed and it is about the size of a pack of cards yet has been spotted in every continent including Australasia and Antarctica on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 1458z: Still no 10m WSPR spots today.

UPDATE 1938z: No spots all day!

How do they do it?

Today, in the post, I received this package from China containing all these capacitive "pens" for tablets. 

The price? £1.10 total including airmail delivery!! This price is unbelievable and they make a profit!

UPDATE 1326z: I have tried these on a couple of tablets and they work well. I have yet to try these with my Inrico network radio. This has a small touch screen, so they should prove very useful.