Moan time: cookies - NOT amateur radio

In recent months every website I visit asks me to OK cookies. I think this must be some new EU directive.

As with most such things, it is counter-productive. If you read the terms and conditions they can be pages of legal mumbo-jumbo, so most people will just "accept" without reading the terms. In fact this pop-up about accepting cookies becomes a real pain.

Surely I am not alone.

Return to 2m FT8

A short while ago I returned to 2m FT8. Initially I called CQ (2.5W to the big wheel) and now I am RX only. Although my CQ got no QSOs, I received 8 spots with the best again being N. Ireland GI6ATZ (479km). On RX 10 spots in 5 countries.

UPDATE 1708z: So far today on 2m FT8 RX 49 stations in 8 countries spotted. Best DX spotted on 2m FT8 today is DL3TW (655km).

472kHz WSPR overnight

My 10mW ERP was spotted by more stations overnight than ever before. In all, my tiny signal was spotted by 20 receiving stations including Norway, weakly, just once. Quite decent results. The table shows the stations that spotted me in distance order.

On 472kHz WSPR RX, just 10 stations were spotted.

Sunspots - Sunday October 27th 2019

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN 0.  A=18 and K=3.

UK Election and BREXIT - NOT amateur radio

This could be a momentous week in UK politics. Firstly on Monday, only if passed with a two-thirds majority, we could have a General Election on December 12th. On October 31st we are meant to be leaving the EU.

Somehow, I suspect neither will happen.

630m WSPR after a break

As 2m FT8 is a waste of time overnight, I have decided to go on 472kHz (630m) WSPR  overnight tonight. My first 2 minute 10mW ERP transmission was spotted by 4 stations. So far, after about 30 minutes I have spotted 3 stations including 2 Germans.  Will I be spotted in Norway overnight? Sadly there are only two stations on 472kHz WSPR TX this evening. One is the huge signal of G3KEV and the other is mine!

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).