160m FT8 RX last night

Not a bad night again with 30 North Americans and 1 Caribbean stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX with the best DX again on the west coast of the USA - KC6AWX (8553km).

Sunspots - Friday December 28th 2018

Solar flux is 69 and the sunspot number 0. A=4 and K=1.

NHS Hospital parking - NOT amateur radio

In England, you have to pay to park at hospitals run by the National Health Service. Some of these fees have gone up. Whilst many plough money back into the NHS, this is yet another "kick in the teeth" for people visiting friends or loved-ones in hospital. This is cruel.

I think parking is free in Scotland and Wales. We are lucky in that we can park for free at a nearby "park and ride" site and with a bus pass busses are free after 0930z.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46687272 .

Oh I forgot, "we are all in this together", said with lots of sarcasm! Sounds like yet another tax on the poor to me.

10m FT8

Well, I have been on 10m FT8 for about 10 minutes. At first I called CQ (2.5W). As yet, no spots either RX or TX. Now I am RX only on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 1315z:  Just a couple of G spots so far today. Best DX is G0NGL (222km). Poor!

UPDATE 1406z: PA8MC (404km) in Limburg spotted on 10m FT8. Aircraft reflection?

Anglesey Abbey - NOT amateur radio

We visit this National Trust property most months. Although it is in the top ten National Trust places in England and often busy, the grounds are so big you can often find yourself alone and far from crowds.

160m FT8 RX last night

In all, 40 North Americans and 1 Caribbean spotted here overnight on 160m FT8 RX as well as loads of Europeans again. Without doubt, the very best night this season! Best DX was K7RL (7605km) on the west of the USA. The earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground works fine.

Stations spotted overnight 

on 160m FT8 RX. Best yet!

Joule thief

If you have partially drained batteries, you may be interested in this idea. It can power LEDs from almost drained batteries, although with a bit of thought I am sure you can think of other uses.

This photo is on Wikipedia. The basic schematic is simple.

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

Reconnecting Korea - NOT amateur radio

Nearly my entire life Korea has been divided.  Years ago I went to South Korea for work, but never to the north.

I gather there are holidays in North Korea to include visits to potato farms and processing factories - not exactly my "cup of tea".  😉

Now there is a project to join north and south by rail and road. I really hope people divided by war can move freely and see long lost relatives.

North and South Korea are very different places these days. Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is a capitalist city, oozing wealth. The northern state capital, Pyongyang, is very communist and controlled.  Let the people of Korea decide how to move forward.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-46686428/north-and-south-korea-ceremony-held-for-transport-re-connection .

Sunspots - Thursday December 27th 2018

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN 0. A=3 and K=2.

Pye PF1 UHF handhelds

If you can find these, they can be converted to the 70cm amateur band, but they are hard to get hold of these days. TX power was 50mW. Perhaps they appear at rallies from time-to-time or on eBay?

My first project at work was converting these to 12.5kHz channel spacing. This was a task set by the late Mike Gotch, M0IMG. 

At the time I had no idea Mike was a keen amateur. Years before he had been a pirate and lost his licence I believe. In later years he was a keen 6m man. He retired early to care of his partner, who had cancer. Mike died as a result of the after-effects of a stroke.

The 12.5kHz version was never introduced commercially, but the exercise was a good one for me. The PF1, a product of the 1960s, transformed communications for the UK police. It was in 2 units, one for RX and one for TX. Even now, it still looks good.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf1 .