Very tiny VLF TX antenna?

Just possibly this research could lead to compact (inches only length) VLF transmitting antennae. This link was sent to me by Jay W5OLF, who designed my 10m WSPR beacon, which is still working fine.

See https://phys.org/news/2019-04-slac-compact-antenna-radios.html

Breakfast - NOT amateur radio

Our son cooked breakfast on his recent visit. Very enjoyable.

Captain Lapthorn - NOT amateur radio

On Thursday my wife took one of our sons and grandsons to the air museum at Duxford. The photo shows our grandson on (I think) Concorde.

Interesting blog - EI7GL

John EI7GL in southern Eire has a very interesting blog and he usually posts the DX he is copying there on 10m. This is lots of other stuff too.

Judging by his results, I suspect my antenna is several dB down on his, at least in some directions.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/

6m FT8 RX today

After yesterday's success, I am again on 6m FT8 RX. As someone said, some of the signals copied here may have been aircraft reflections. Some may have been ordinary "flat band" tropo. As yet, no spots received here today on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1315z: So far, 7 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX with best DX OH0Z (1498km) in the Aland Islands.

UPDATE 1652z: So far today 18 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX. Mostly G plus a couple of EU stations, probably Es but just possibly aircraft reflections.

Stations spotted here today on 6m FT8 RX 

with the V2000 vertical omni antenna.

UPDATE 2140z:  In all, 26 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Saturday April 13th 2019

Solar flux is 77 today and the sunspot number 14. A=8 and K=3.

If we really are on the way down still, these are still pretty respectable numbers at this part of the cycle. Are the experts really correct?

New amateur ULF distance record

Paul Nicholson posted this on a Facebook group earlier:

"After much computing effort by Jacek Lipkowski SQ5BPF, Stefan's 2970.1 Hz message sent on 6th April was successfully decoded from well beneath the noise in Warsaw, 975km away - a new amateur radio distance record at ULF. Eb/N0 was -0.4dB."

Stefan DK7FC is in Germany and is a great VLF/ULF experimenter.

Wow! - NOT amateur radio

Today my wife took one of our our sons and one of our grandsons to the Zoology Museum in Cambridge. As you can see he was blown away!

This museum was recently refurbished. It is very child-friendly with free entry.

G3RJV - special SPRAT

As you may recall, the Rev George Dobbs, one of the founders of the GQRP club died recently. To many of us he was an inspiration. Certainly I owe him a lot.

This morning I received a very special SPRAT, the magazine of the GQRP club. This special edition was filled with tributes to this great radio amateur. As the years roll on, I hope we can continue to work QRP in his honour.

See http://www.gqrp.com/

Slowly creeping up?

Every few days I take a look at narrowband activity on the geostationary Oscar 100 satellite using the web SDR at Goonhilly in Cornwall. Although activity seems to be slowly creeping up, activity levels are much lower than I expected.

A few minutes ago I counted 8 SSB transmissions. Some were CQ calls and some QSOs. OK, at first it is bound to be microwave enthusiasts and it will be some time before traditional HF types wake up to it.

I suspect some will never join the fun unless there are commercial offerings equivalent to a "shack in a box" starting to appear. After all, if you can afford several thousands for a rig, a tower, beam, rotator and linear, then an Oscar 100 set up with 1 or 2 small fixed dishes with no noise or neighbour issues is a bargain. Don't forget DX from South America to SE Asia is available at any time without QSB. A few watts and a small satellite dish are all that are needed.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/  .