Early days on VHF SSB

My very first experience of 2m SSB was in the late 1960s when our university club station at Liverpool G3OUL had a sked. As I recall we used 20W from a homebrew transverter designed by Ian Vance G3WMS who later was in charge at STL. He was a modest man, but clearly very clever.

Later, the Liner-2 brought 2m SSB to the masses. For several years SSB 2m DXing was very popular. In the UK this was at the time when G8s were allowed on 2m for the first time. Before that they were only allowed on 70cm and microwave bands.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/liner2

Solar weather forecast videos

Southgate News links to the video solar forecasts by Dr Tamitha Skov.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/space-weather/index.htm#.XlOwvI6TK00

Corona virus fears - NOT amateur radio

This morning, many stock markets have tumbled, probably because of the fear that a coronavirus pandemic could badly impact world trade.

We have yet to see the impact of Chinese lock-downs on their exports. Most goods now say, "made in China", so the impact of goods not being shipped from China could be very disruptive.

As I understand it, the virus can be easily passed on, although the death rate seems less severe than in flu for example. I guess the great fear is that it could mutate into something worse. As you can tell, I am no virologist!

These days, the world is far more interconnected than in the deadly flu pandemic after WW1.

UPDATE 1150z:  I see that oil prices are down over 4% suggesting demand has fallen.

160m FT8 overnight

It is getting less good. Overnight 15 North Americans copied and one Caribbean. In total just 192 stations spotted on 160m FT8 in the last 12 hours.

160m FT8 RX overnight 

South Devon - NOT amateur radio

As many know, I was born and brought up in South Devon. The photo shows where I come from. We owned land near here in 1427 and can trace our family history continuously back to the mid 1500s.

Sunspots - Monday February 24th 2020

Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=2.

160m FT8 RX

A few moments ago I QSYed to 160m FT8 RX from 2m. Once again I am using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.  At the moment 26 stations spotted. So far, the best DX spotted is OX3LX (3317km).

Daft video - NOT amateur radio

It is amazing how tech savvy our 8 year old grandchild is compared with us. This is a video of me that she made yesterday.

Trump and another 4 years - NOT amateur radio

Looking at the USA from a European perspective President Trump seems a disaster. He comes across as inept, stupid, and a poor choice. However, he was elected and the US economy looks quite good. The most likely candidate to stand against him is 78 years old I believe and had a heart attack last year I think.

It seems to me as if President Trump could get another 4 years in office. Personally I cannot understand how he could have been chosen. Maybe the voters who voted for him wanted to be listened to and these people were fed up with their leaders in the past.

Waters and Stanton on YouTube

Waters and Stanton, who seem to have teamed up with Nevada these days, have a YouTube channel with some interesting videos including this one.