Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness - NOT amateur radio

Autumn is the season when leaves fall and the fruit trees are filled with ripe fruit. Our next door neighbour has well laden apple and plum trees. My own crab apple tree has more fruit than ever. A friend makes crab apple jelly, which is delicious with some meats. The photo shows a conker still in its shell.

It never fails! - 2m FT8

As the risk of storms has disappeared until lunchtime on 2 forecasts I use, I have reconnected the rig, PSU, antenna and PC for now.

Although it is raining heavily (the first decent rain here for months) I still get spotted in Eire, Cornwall and Germany with a 10W CQ call on 2m FT8 TX, even with the big-wheel omni antenna. In all, 8 stations spotted me, although no QSOs resulted.

Yesterday G4BAO (8km) was +18dB S/N despite running 20mW. I am sure we would have worked each other if he had run 100uW. On 2m FT8 RX no stations spotted here yet, but I expect this will change.

UPDATE 0854z: Just 1 spot on 2m FT8 RX so far G4VQZ (175km).

Spots from my latest 
2m FT8 CQ as of 1027z 

(10W to the big-wheel omni antenna)

UPDATE 0830z: Just a couple of Gs spotted so far on 2m FT8 RX. A very recent 10W FT8 2m CQ was spotted by 9 stations as shown in the map.

UPDATE 1027z:  Now 4 stations spotted this morning on 2m FT8 RX with best DX PE1ISS (409km).

UPDATE 1402z: A recent 10W FT8 2m CQ was spotted by 12 stations with the best DX being a spot by DF6PW (562km). On 2m FT8 RX I have spotted 15 stations in 4 countries so far.

UPDATE 1840z:  A 10W 2m FT8 CQ was spotted by 10 stations with a QSO with DL6YBF (471km). He called me!

UPDATE 2031z:  In the last few hours 20 stations in 4 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX. On 2m FT8 TX (10W CQ) I received 8 spots in 3 countries.

Alibris sale - NOT amateur radio

At one time I used to get emails telling me about Alibris sales every week. Yesterday I had one offering £20 off for one day only. It was deleted. I have a filter to get rid of these.

Honest to God - NOT amateur radio

This was the title of a book that I read when I was younger. At the time it caused quite a stir, but I quite liked it. By many traditionalists it was considered heresy.

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

4m transverter

Although this has been on the blog before, it is worth repeating it as it may spark ideas in some people. I have to confess it is some years since I tried this in a 4m contest with a hastily erected wire dipole.

Before that, my last 4m operation was working ZB2VHF from the shack of G3OUL (Liverpool University club station) with 4W AM on 70.26MHz. I think that was 1969, so quite a while ago!

The transverter certainly works, although I am sure it can be improved. These days I am too feeble and wobbly to try to make it better. It appeared in GQRP SPRAT, although I cannot remember which one. I guess it would have been in a 2012 or 2013 edition.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/4m_tvtr

Sunspots - Tuesday September 24th 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the sunspot number still 0. A=3 and K=3.

Storm risk?

At the moment we have some heavy, thundery, downpours forecast for Tuesday. As a precaution, I have disconnected all antennas, the PSU and the PC. Only if things improve will I reconnect things tomorrow. Tomorrow might be a quiet radio day!

See https://www.lightningmaps.org/blitzortung/europe/index.php?lang=en

2m FT8

Stations spotted so far today on 2m FT8 RX 

with the big-wheel omni antenna (to 1350z)

All day I have been on 2m FT8. On RX, 30 stations in 6 countries spotted so far.

A recent 10W FT8 CQ with the big-wheel omni was spotted by 11 stations in 4 countries with DG1KDD (472km) as the best DX spotting me. Sadly, no QSOs resulted. I did call a French station without success.

ICOM IC-9700 book

Southgate News reports that there is a new book out about this popular VHF/UHF transceiver that covers 2m, 70cm and 23cm. In many ways it is similar to the IC-7300.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/september/new-book-on-the-icom-ic-9700.htm

Rather them than me! - NOT amateur radio

Today, "our" windmill next door looks rather different.

In the photo you may be able to see someone who has climbed the ladder and a sail to do some work where the sails meet. At one point there were 2 people up there. All I can say is, "rather them than me".