Spring promises - NOT amateur radio

Everywhere we look now there are signs of spring. New buds on trees, blossom and, of course, as the photo shows, daffodils. According to the UK Met Office it is already spring.

15m FT8

About 5 minutes ago I went on 15m FT8 again. Guess what antenna? The tiny loop! No spots given or received yet. Using the FT817ND at 2.5W as yesterday.

UPDATE 1148z: No spots of me yet. 2 spots on RX so far with best DX OD5ZZ (3438km).

UPDATE 1403z: 14 stations spotted on RX so far. No TX spots.

UPDATE 1610z: 34 stations spotted and one European spotting my 2.5W.

UPDATE 2230z: Now QRT. Just a single TX spot. On 15m FT8 RX 48 stations spotted with best DX spotted being LU2DAJ (11212km).

My tiny indoor loop

As I have been asked about this, here are some details.

It has been used for 20m,17m and 15m. with powers up to just over 10W. It should work even better on 12m and 10m. This was a gift many years ago from the people who designed the Whizz Whip.  I have to admit that it works far better than I expected. As you know, it is tiny and just sits on the windowsill of the shack.

My main issue is getting a good match on the FT991A: if the SWR is too high the auto ATU just gives up, so my technique is to connect it first to the FT817ND on AM, tune initially for maximum noise, then tune the loop for lowest SWR then connect to the FT991A and engage auto-ATU. This seems to work just fine. Of course, with the FT817ND I just tune for lowest SWR. When tuned, the SWR is very low.

It looks like the match is made with a tapped toroid which is part of a tuned circuit. Being a loop, it is narrow band. With a thicker loop it could be even better, but even more sharply tuned.

Solar forecast page updated

My favourite website for solar forecasts was updated yesterday.

See https://www.solen.info/solar/

Sunspots - Monday March 2nd 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the sunspot number 0. A=8 and K=1. This is the first time solar flux has dipped below 70 in some time.

What is the best HF band at the moment?

Some people ask what is the best HF band currently? I guess this depends on what you are after. In terms of the best daylight band I guess 20m or 17m. Later in the day, lower frequencies are better. 17m has the advantage of being less busy than 20m and the antennas are smaller. However, it will close to DX sooner than 20m.

If you have time and patience, 15m, 12m and 10m can open for DX far more often than people think, especially on N-S paths. Es can liven up 10m and 6m at any part of the solar cycle in May, June, July and August. Es openings can occur at any time but tend to be best in these months.

Update on Chromebooks - NOT amateur radio

It is about 3 months now since I bought an Asus C213N Chromebook.

So far, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this was a wise decision. So far everything I want to do I can do. It boots up almost instantly, the battery lasts all day. It is truly stunning.

For most things you can leave Windose way behind. I have still never used the Linux apps! No, this was a first class buy. Oh, and you can use it as a tablet, it has a touch screen and came with a 3 year "at home" guarantee!

Quantum entanglement - NOT amateur radio

It is a fact (I think) that Einstein had problems with quantum physics. Experiments have been done that prove quantum physics is real, if counter-intuitive. Very many years ago, I did a course in quantum theory at university. It was very mathematical and I struggled!

One thing I remembered (I think correctly) was that according to quantum mechanics everything can be described as a wave function that exists in all space and all time. What we experience as the "here and now" can be thought of as a wave that is most probable here and now. Indeed, tunnel diodes only work because of quantum mechanical tunnelling.

All this brings me to quantum entanglement in which entangled particles even at other ends of the universe instantly have a kind of affinity. Look up some videos on YouTube. On the face of it, this breaks the laws of relativity that says nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.

Does this mean teleportation might be possible? Apparently the Chinese have already done this with fundamental particles. In the future, who knows? One thing is certain: we really know and understand very little.

15m FT8

At the moment I am on 15m FT8 using the FT817ND at 2.5W with the tiny indoor loop antenna. This is TX and RX as I get no feedback issues with this rig. Of course running just 2.5W must help. So far no spots.

UPDATE 1050z: 35 stations spotted on RX and 1 QSO with a G station so far today on 15m FT8. No spots of my 15m 2.5W FT8 yet on PSKreporter.

UPDATE  1354z: 76 spots on 15m FT8 RX and a couple of European spots on TX, despite running 6dB less than on 17m FT8 yesterday. I guess the loop is more efficient as you go up in frequency.

UPDATE 2215z:  Now QRT. I went QRT about an hour ago.

Daffodils - NOT amateur radio

March 1st is the first day of spring according to the UK Met Office. The photo shows the daffodils on the way to the village church. Some parts of the church are over 1000 years old.