This ham gathering is perhaps one of the biggest in the world and a place, traditionally, where the big manufacturers launch new products, often long before they are actually available. You can just imagine the engineers rushing to meet Dayton deadlines: you must meet these dates!
I am expecting several SDR based offerings. It would be nice to see a real FT817 replacement. The FT818 was a great disappointment. It was clearly aimed at keeping Yaesu factories going and not offering the features many expected.
Dayton dates are May 17-19th 2019.
See https://hamvention.org/
9 May 2019
Crystal replacements
It is a very long time since I was fit enough to do serious project building work, but I know that buying crystals, unless you are buying very common frequencies, is expensive. Many now use synthesised sources instead as this can be much less expensive. Sadly, health issues have precluded me doing my own experiments. At one time, synthesised sources could be noisy, although I expect things have improved in the last 10 years. If you have used synthesised "crystal replacements" I'd be interested to hear what good solutions there are now.
Many years ago, I had ideas for a low cost 10m DSB rig. With the sunspot count likely to soon be on the up, perhaps it is time to dust this off.
Many years ago, I had ideas for a low cost 10m DSB rig. With the sunspot count likely to soon be on the up, perhaps it is time to dust this off.
8 May 2019
DX VHF FM QSO
The IARU VHF/UHF Region 1 Newsletter has details of the FM 2m QSO between ZS3 and ZD7,
See https://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php/vhfuhsshf
See https://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php/vhfuhsshf
Southgate News
Southgate News is a good source of information about amateur radio, Today includes news of a big solar flare amongst other snippets.
Swifts - NOT amateur radio
Today, I saw my first swifts (birds) this year. They migrate up from Africa, returning in August. The only problem was these were in northern Portugal! What is amazing is these could be the very same ones we see in our village stopping for a "pits stop" to re-feed before flying on northwards. When I see swifts I think summer.
Sunspots - Wednesday May 8th 2019
Solar flux is 78 today and the sunspot number 27 (quite decent for this part of the cycle). A=5 and K=0. It looks to me as of we have passed through the minimum, although this could be just a blip. At the last minimum we went months without spots.
7 May 2019
2m activity contest this evening
As this is the first Tuesday in the month, it is the RSGB's UKAC activity contest starting at 1900z for 2.5 hours. Activity levels are usually high on SSB. This is a fun contest.
OFCOM - Communications Monthly Update - April 2019
OFCOM has produced its monthly update of this. See their website.
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