Sliding UK pound - NOT amateur radio

Perhaps it is not too surprising with a no-deal BREXIT possible with the Conservative right wing government led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the UK pound is sliding against major currencies.

In my view (others are free to disagree) we are being run by a bunch of total idiots. The sooner there is a General Election and a second referendum on leaving the EU the better.

Although I voted to remain in the EU in 2016, I can see a lot wrong with that institution. In my view, the EU needs reforming or it will fragment. The EU is doing itself no favours by carrying on as it does. This could turn even more people against the EU, which it can ill afford to do.

The UK has always (at least in my day) wanted free trade, but ultimate control of our laws and who lives and works here. Personally, I can see nothing wrong with that. No-one wants a hard border in Ireland, ever. We have never sought political union. Yes, we should come together for defence and good trade deals.

In my view, the EU needs to be more flexible. Sour grapes?

Coming back from York on the train - NOT amateur radio

On Saturday we returned from York by train. It was cheaper to come back first class than second! On LNER we had nice seats, free food and free drinks.

Amateur satellites

In all my time in amateur radio I have only had 1 QSO through a satellite and that was many years ago from 10m to 15m. I have rarely used low orbit satellites. In my early days I had fun listening to the download frequencies of Oscar 6 and 7. I recall hearing North Americans on 2m on late passes.

Sunspots - Monday July 29th 2019

Solar flux is 65 and the SSN 0.  A=4 and K=2.  Basically rubbish.

6m propagation from Europe to Australia

When I first heard of this I was sceptical, but the more I read the more I think this is true.

Apparently several stations were worked, so this very unlikely to be pirates. This appears to be E layer propagation, but multi-hop Es seems to be very unlikely. I am sure some of these long "real DX" paths are not multi-hop Es. As this was at the same time as a 6m opening to Japan on 6m, there is some speculation that this is whatever E layer propagation gets to Japan plus some TEP.

See southgatearc.org/news/2019/july/unusual-opening-from-europe-to-australia-on-50-mhz.htm

See also https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2019/07/unusual-50-mhz-opening-from-australia.html

Oscar 100 - geosynchronous amateur satellite

As many will recall, I take the occasional peek at the Goonhilly web SDR, which monitors the narrowband transponder on Es'hail satellite, also known as Oscar 100.

In my view activity seems lower than a month ago. Certainly activity is not great and has definitely not increased as I once expected. Looking just now on a Saturday afternoon, the most I saw were 5 stations active on SSB at one time. By now I was quite expecting the main issue to be too many stations, possibly overloading the transponder.

It seems people have fun getting a signal through the satellite, then lose interest.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Scrabble - NOT amateur radio

It was a dull, wet day today, so we played Scrabble with the grandchildren. Our younger granddaughter kept score. She is better this time! The last time she played she forgot to record some scores.

Where I come from - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows where I come from in South Devon. It is a very beautiful and unspoilt part of the UK.

Pye PF8 transceiver

In its day, this was a "state of the art" transceiver made by Pye Telecom. One of my early jobs was being part of the design team for this. We had all sorts of issues with the DC-DC converter noise. On my website is a PDF of the manual which may help some who convert these to 70cm amateur use.

They are quite rare and hard to find. Before you ask, I do not have one and do not know where to find one! Your best chance is on eBay I guess.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf8

6m FT8

So far this morning, 11 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX in the last 6 hours. As I write it is 0848z. So, early Es on 6m.

UPDATE 1413z: Now 54 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX today.

UPDATE 2000z: Now 71 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX today. All European and just one Moroccan spotted.

UPDATE 2040z: Although it is unlikely I shall spot much overnight, I am still on 6m FT8 RX, in the (slim) hope of a late opening or very early Es tomorrow.