Miracle Antennas

The other day, I tried to find my Miracle Whip. I have not used this for many years. With a decent earth or counterpoise it is not that bad on the higher HF bands. It certainly is convenient and easy to match on all bands from 40m to the VHF bands. It fits on the back of the rig.

Years ago I even managed an 80m SSB QSO with it using the auto ATU in the ICOM IC-703 to help match the whip.

I searched high and low and failed to find the miracle whip. It is probably in the loft.

Originally these were made in Canada, but the designer has been dead for several years. Several people are offering similar antennas.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/mwhip

OFCOM interim chief executive

OFCOM has announced the appointment of Jonathan Oxley as interim chief executive. What thrilling, earth shattering, news. See their website, if you can contain your excitement.

10m FT8

I have QSYed to 10m FT8, mostly RX, for the day. When I switched on I called CQ on FT8 (2.5W) but no spots resulted. For the first time, I am seeing interference on 10m. I get vertical lines every few 10s of Hertz. I have no idea  if this is local or not.

UPDATE 1231z: Still no spots. A very recent 2.5W FT8 CQ was spotted by, you guessed, no-one. At the moment, 10m is looking dire.

UPDATE 1530z: Just one spot of F5PBG (548km) on 10m FT8 RX all day, well at least so far.

472kHz WSPR TX overnight (10mW ERP) again

Yet again I was on 472kHz WSPR TX overnight and last evening. As usual I was running 10mW ERP from my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground as described in a recent RadCom. Best DX spot was by LA9IY (1374km). 16 spots in all including 2 from Norway and 3 from Germany and EI0CF.

Stations that spotted my 472kHz 

WSPR (10mW ERP) overnight

472kHz (630m) is so much more productive than 28MHz FT8. At night 28MHz is a dead loss at this part of the cycle and outside of the Es season. In the summer months 28MHz QRP SSB often brings EU QSOs at good strength.

OFCOM Communications Monthly

As usual, OFCOM has updated its Communications Monthly with its latest data. See the OFCOM website.

Barclays Bank - NOT amateur radio

Apparently in the UK, Barclays Bank has had a change of heart and decided, after all, to continue to allow people to get cash from their local post office. This was due to end at the end of the year.

Unless I am mistaken Barclays usually makes billions each year in profits.  Our local branch of Barclays closed over a year ago and getting cash from the Post Office has been a real help. The Barclays Banks in nearby Newmarket and Cambridge are huge. We know about one disabled lady who would have to walk twice as far for cash if the Post Office stopped its link with Barclays. I suspect Barclays go lots of complaints.

Barclays - you must have been stupid!! My personal opinion and others are free to disagree.

Sunspots - Wednesday November 6th 2019

Solar flux is 70 and the sunspot number 0 . A=5 and K=1.

UPDATE 1400z: After a very brief blip with the SSN peaking 13 at the start of the month SSN has returned to 0 again. If we are to climb out of this minimum any time soon, I would expect to see sunspot numbers starting to rise a bit. At the moment we still seem to be bouncing along the minimum.

472kHz WSPR TX (10mW ERP) again

As I have done on several evenings recently, I have QSYed to 472kHz WSPR TX for the evening and overnight.  Already 8 stations have spotted me.

2m UKAC (activity contest) tonight at 2000z

As usual, there is an SSB (mainly) contest this evening. I usually run QRP and stop on for under a hour, although the contest lasts for 2.5 hours. Although I usually submit a log, I really come on just for the fun. This is a friendly contest and activity levels are normally high.

UPDATE 2125z: 8 QSOs with 10W SSB and the big-wheel with best DX Isle of Man. I only stayed on for 35 minutes because of my poor voice.

Stations worked this evening with 

2m QRP and the big-wheel omni antenna.

OFCOM decision on mobile phone repeaters

OFCOM has made the rules for in-car mobile phone repeaters easier.