6m Es

As is usual at this time of year, I am on 6m FT8 RX. So far today, 71 stations in 10 countries spotted, mostly by Es and all European.

UPDATE 1350z: Now 230 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX today with best DX TA8A (3331km).

UPDATE  1520z: Now 232 stations spotted on 6m FT8 today in 22 countries. Plenty of 6m Es!

UPDATE 2034z: Now 244 stations spotted. Unless things suddenly change I suspect this is it for today.

First car - NOT amateur radio

We bought our first car in 1971. It was sold for scrap for £40 in 1978 as I recall. It was a Morris 1000. No radio, no aircon, very basic back then! We were quite sad when it went. It was bought by a local agricultural mechanic who did it up and had 2 more years on the road. The photo shows the day we sold it.

Sunspots - Thursday May 30th 2019

Solar flux is 66 today and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=1.

BREXIT - NOT amateur radio

My dad who died in 1987 had a phrase, "they couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery". In his own colourful language, I think this sums up our attempts to reach a BREXIT deal before we leave the EU. Certainly the Conservative ruling party under Theresa May has made a total disaster of this. I'd like to think the main opposition Labour party would have done better, but somehow I doubt this.

We are now in a leadership contest to elect a new Conservative leader and Prime Minister. Whatever happens next, the UK remains deeply divided both in the country and in parliament.

I wish we had some answers. If anything I suspect we will be even worse after a new leader is elected. If we have a public referendum the outcome is likely to be far from clear cut. What then?

That new radio

Steve G1KQH has been encouraging me to buy a new radio. Any new radio would have to include 160m, 10m and 6m. Bands like 2m and 70cm would be useful. If the radio has a fan, it would have to be quiet.

I was holding back just in case Yaesu announced a real replacement to the FT817 at Dayton.  Neither Yaesu nor ICOM made any great announcements of new products of interest to QRPers like me sadly.

At the moment I am warming to the FT991A. The IC7300 is probably the better radio, and is SDR based, but I gather the fan is always on and some can be noisy. Yes there is a mod, but I am in danger of invalidating any warranty. The rig would be used at 10W most of the time, so a fan that comes on only when the PA is warm would be good. At the moment, there is a 3 year warranty with Yaesu and cash back on some models. Having had many Yaesu rigs over the years, I am pretty happy with this supplier. Knowing me, this rig would have to last for years!

If anyone has any strong opinions against the FT991A I'd like to hear them. As my voice is not too good these days, FT8 and WSPR would probably be the main modes used.

Specific questions about the FT991A. If the answer is in the manual, I cannot find it! Does the fan come on only when the radio is hot? If I run mainly QRP will I hear the fan?

USAF strength - NOT amateur radio

We live close to Lakenheath and Mildenhall airbases. I am not sure what was going on, but a few moments ago there was a big plane being escorted by smaller planes and helicopters. They made quite a noise as they went overhead, so much so that I had to look. I thought Trump was coming to the UK later. Perhaps this was a dress rehearsal.

Waitrose - NOT amateur radio

For some reason, my wife likes shopping at Waitrose, which is a food chain and part of John Lewis and Partners. I have several issues with Waitrose. Firstly I find this chain expensive. Secondly, I think they need to do more work to use recyclable or compostable packaging. Some packets can be recycled and some cannot. As a major UK food retailer, I think they should tell their suppliers or the business will go elsewhere. They have the power and they should use it!

Today when we went shopping there it was very quiet. The low cost free range eggs were, conveniently, out of stock.  Instead if you wanted free range eggs you had to pay far more. I expect the free coffee and paper will soon, quietly, go.

If you ask me I think they are in deep trouble. It would not surprise me if lots of stores were forced to close or John Lewis as a whole goes under. I may be wrong but in Newmarket, where we go, there is competition coming soon from a low cost supplier and that will really hit them.

The next few years will be make or break. At the moment, they depend on customer loyalty, but this is wearing thin. Old ladies die and young people want better value, so they shop around or buy online.

More from Chelsea Flower Show - NOT amateur radio

It seems hard to believe we went to the Chelsea Flower Show a whole week ago. This is the most important flower show in the UK. Although we went on an RHS members' day, it was very busy.

As I mentioned before (at least I think I did!) we had our tickets as a present for our 70th birthdays late last year.

Irish 8m band activity

Although there are a very few beacons operational around 40MHz, very few countries have an amateur band at 8m. I have lobbied the RSGB for a small slot to be negotiated, although, not too surprisingly, nothing has come of this. Being mid way between 10m and 6m it is an ideal band of Es and MS experiments. Even 100kHz and 10W would be useful to advance radio science. OFCOM has managed to find 2MHz for DATV work and I cannot believe they cannot allocate a small slot for serious work around 40MHz! No standard comercial gear is available for this band, so it would only attract serious experimenters, not  "black box" operators. So, the number of people using such a band in the UK would be small.

I quite like the Irish model of allocating wide chunks of under-used spectrum to amateurs. If they were not pen pushers it would be good for OFCOM to allow use of any spectrum on a strictly "non-interference" basis, even if the power was strictly limited. Sadly, I cannot see this happening. It needs people policing this and this costs money rather than generates money! Also, you have to understand RF.  I may be forgiven for thinking few now have this skill.

Meanwhile in Eire, one of the few countries to allocate spectrum at 40MHz to amateurs, work and QSOs continue.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2019/05/inter-ei-activity-begins-on-40-mhz.html

Garden of England - NOT amateur radio

Over the weekend we spent a few days with our "Kent" family and grandkids. We saw some places we'd not been to before with our son. The collage shows a typical Kent oast house (for drying hops) as well as several views of our younger grandson. Kent is known as "the garden of England".