Rallies this weekend

Saturday 20 OCTOBER : CARRICKFERGUS AMATEUR RADIO CLUB RALLY

Downshire Secondary School, Downshire Road, Carrickfergus. Doors open at 12 noon - all welcome. For more details, please contact Liz Forde, MI6GHA, Club Secretary, elizabethforde64@yahoo.com.

Sunday 21 OCTOBER : GALASHIELS RADIO RALLY

Volunteer Hall, St Johns Street, Galashiels TD13JX. Doors open at 11.15am with disabled visitors gaining access at 11am. There will be traders a Bring & Buy and refreshments available on site. Admission is £2.50.

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

Grumpy old man! - NOT amateur radio

Yes, don't tell me as I already know - I have definitely become a grumpy old man!

When I was waiting for my Park and Ride bus earlier, it seemed that everyone under 25 was on their smart phone.

Disappointment on 472kHz WSPR

Overnight I was on 472kHz WSPR, but only a couple of stations spotted my 10mW ERP this time. On RX, I again spotted Italy and Norway. Perhaps the rising noise floor is clobbering my little signal? Or is the novelty wearing off and there are fewer stations? Often according to WSPRnet there are very few UK stations on TX on 472kHz.

RadCom article

Much to my amazement, my short article on FT8 has been published in November RadCom. I was hoping to see it in a few months, but this took me totally by surprise!

Sunspots - Thursday October 18th 2018

Solar flux is 69 today and SSN=11. A=3 and K=1.

2m FT8

It never seems to fail! Yet again a CQ (2.5W to the big-wheel omni) was copied by 2 Cornish stations on 2m FT8 at around 460km.

At the moment on 2m FT8 RX 4 stations spotted in 4 countries with best DX DL2PK (448km).

UPDATE 1325z: 27 stations in 7 countries so far on 2m FT8 RX today. Best DX is DJ6GK (607km).

UPDATE 1620z: Another great day. Now QSYed to 10m FT8 RX.

Stations spotted today on 2m FT8 RX with a big-wheel omni antenna

QSY to MF WSPR

Until a little while ago, I had been out of the house. Now back, I have gone onto 472kHz WSPR (20% TX, 10mW ERP). All being well, I shall be on 472kHz until breakfast.

Return to 10m FT8

At about 1535z I went QRT on 2m and returned to 10m FT8. A brief CQ was called (2.5W) but no spots. So far no spots on RX.

UPDATE 1751z: 2 South Americans spotted so far on 10m FT8 RX. This never seems to fail.

UPDATE 2025z: In total 3 South Americans spotted on 10m FT8 RX. Is this conditions worsening?

HF and VHF FT8

Although not a great mode for chats, there is no doubt that FT8 has really taken off. DX that was once unimaginable is possible, even with QRP and small antennas.  I suspect many put their receivers on FT8, maybe endlessly call CQ, and leave it to see what comes through, looking later. Fewer people will just talk in the future, which is sad. There is even an automatic mode, so you can be gardening whilst your PC is having a QSO!

Certainly for me, real 2m DX is possible every day even with QRP.

The danger is people leave modes like FM, SSB and CW and move instead to FT8. Casual listeners will not "find" amateur radio as we did years ago.  How people "find" our hobby is important for the future.

One of my first experiences was accidentally hearing a local amateur on 160m AM. What are the chances of this today?

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hf-ft8

Dead rat? - NOT amateur radio

This was spotted outside our local bakers.

At first I thought it was a dead, shrivelled up, rat that someone had put there to say, "don't use this bakers".

On closer examination, I could see it was ivy!

BTW, the bakery makes excellent soft rolls!