World Cup Rugby - NOT amateur radio

I am not a great rugby fan, but to beat the NZ all-blacks is a big deal, that much I do know. In the end England won 19-7, which is quite a margin, so they now play in the final. At the end of the day it is just a game, but the English team must be very pleased. Wales play tomorrow. It would be good if they won too.

The Pixie and Micro-80 transceivers

Many years ago I wrote about these simple 80m CW transceivers. In recent years 40m versions have been available from China at very low prices. My website is very old now (at least 6 years old in the main).

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/pixie

Laser information

In the past, I only tried 481THz (red light) transmissions with LEDs, but Peter Thornton G6NGR kindly sent me a useful link. There is lots of other interesting stuff on that website too.

See http://maxmcarter.com/lasrstuf/concentrator2.html

Daytime 2m FT8

2m FT8 (2.5W to the big-wheel omni antenna) was turned on just before 0900z. A CQ call was spotted by 3 stations with the best being GI6ATZ (479km). On 2m FT8 RX nothing yet spotted.

UPDATE 1148z: On 2m FT8 RX 22 stations in 7 countries spotted so far today.

2m FT8 RX spots here to 1725z

UPDATE 1725z: On 2m FT8 RX 50 stations in 8 countries spotted today so far with best DX being DL3TX (655km).

Night off

Overnight all my radios were off. For several nights I have tried 2m FT8 but most activity starts at breakfast so being on overnight seems pointless. I may try 630m WSPR again tonight.

Sunspots - Saturday October 26th 2019

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=29 and K=3.

Very old - NOT amateur radio

Snailwell church is one of 2 in Cambridgeshire with round towers. This one was built in 1070 just 4 years after the Norman conquest so is almost 1000 years old.

Getting older - NOT amateur radio

Whilst clearing boxes in the loft we came upon this photo, which is about 35 years old. We have aged! This is my wife with her brothers.

Farm shop lunch - NOT amateur radio

As we have one of our grandsons with us at the moment we went out for lunch at our local farm shop. As might be expected, they had lots of Halloween stuff on sale. Here is our elder grandson with a toy spider on his arm.

Old magazines online

In an email received earlier today an old colleague reminded me of this amazing online resource. It contains pdf versions of many magazines and publications of interest to amateurs. I can highly recommend it. If you are looking for it, it is probably here. Despite its title there are magazines from across the world here.

See https://www.americanradiohistory.com/index.htm