Sunspots - Tuesday October 15th 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=1.

472kHz WSPR

Although I have spotted several stations, including multiple spots of LA8AV (1035km), not a single spot of my 10mW ERP so far. This seems a little odd. By now, I would have expected some spots.

UPDATE 2043z: I restarted WSJT-X and resynced the clock and was spotted by 2E0ILY (209km). Was this just coincidence?

2m FT8

As 6m was not showing much promise, I have moved up to 2m FT8 using the FT817ND and the big-wheel. I am getting suspicious of PSKreporter maps today as no spots (of my 2m FT8 CQ) appeared and neither were several calls by G0GGG on 6m which were copied here locally.

Stations that spotted my 2m FT8 CQ 

(2.5W to big-wheel) this afternoon

UPDATE 1456z: Now getting my usual spots from Cornwall and Northern Ireland on 2m FT8 despite just running 2.5W to the big-wheel. I suspect there was a short problem with PSK reporter. Also seeing 2m FT8 stations in Belgium and The Netherlands.

UPDATE 1639z: So far today, 17 stations in 7 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX here.

6m FT8

Laziness again!

Using the FT817ND at 2.5W to the V2000 vertical antenna, I am again on 6m FT8. G0GGG in IO81 square (Warminster) was calling an SM in Sweden. My own CQ calls were spotted by no-one.

UPDATE 1410z: No spots.

Pagers: SO dated now! - NOT amateur radio

About 20 years ago I was in charge of the RF development for the Cobalt FLEX pager for the USA, that was manufactured in Mexico.

We had an excellent bunch of developers who could probably have designed anything in RF. Instead, Philips got out of paging and made a hash of mobile phones.

The photo shows the team at a dinner after the development was completed.

472kHz WSPR (10mW ERP)

Overnight I was spotted by 15 different receiving stations, although a few were the same stations running different systems. This was the first time this season when my signal was not decoded in Norway. So far this autumn I have received spots from 28 different receiving stations as the table shows. As usual, I am using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

472kHz WSPR TX (10mW ERP) so far this autumn

On 472kHz WSPR receive I have so far copied 22 stations here. I think this is the first time my TX results have bettered my RX results. My noise floor is low, so I guess there must be fewer active TX stations in range.

World Cup rugby - NOT amateur radio

Although not a great rugby fan, I see that Japan beat Scotland yesterday 28-21. The game was in doubt because of the typhoon. At least the match took place and the host nation goes on.

BREXIT deal coming? - NOT amateur radio

Although it is hard to tell, I get the feeling that the UK and EU are struggling to reach a last minute deal.

The UK leaving the EU without a deal would be messy and almost certainly not good for the UK or the EU. No doubt we will find out more this week. Likewise, further delay cannot be good.

UPDATE 1244z:  The UK pound has been falling all morning. I guess the markets are scared of a no-deal this week.

Optical communications

G4HJW's over the horizon 

(9km disatan) optical signal

Before my 2013 stroke, I really enjoyed my experiments out in the field with homebrew optical kit. Everything was home made: the electronics, the optics and even some of the test gear. This really is an area that is ideal for simple homebrewing. Sadly, I am too wobbly to do field work these days.  Truthfully, all the gear can be made in the "back of the garage" (mine was!) and it is easier than microwaves as all you need is a scope, multimeter and a weak LED source.

My "specialisation" was over the horizon weak optical signals. I managed to reach 8.1km non line-of-sight using a 481THz red LED with QRSS3. Nothing at all could be seen in the sky, yet there was perfect decoding on the PC. Had I been fit, I am sure much further would have been possible. As there were no clouds, I think this was clear air scattering.

What was needed was a much better tripod which was more stable and could be repeatably set in the right direction. My cheap tripod was wobbly and far from suitable. Accurate alignment is important. Once aligned there was the signal.

G4HJW's signal was way above the noise at 9km non line-of-sight (see photo above).

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/optical

Iceland church - NOT amateur radio

We went to Iceland for a holiday in 2011, not knowing what to expect. We thought it would be barren, but instead it was green mostly with lots of lupins to be seen. We very much liked it.

Several churches were seen, often heated geothermally, including the one in the photo.

If you get a chance, do go there. When we went in August, it was not cold. In fact in one of the towns in the north people took off their shirts!