Returning sunspots

Over the last few days we have seen some new sunspots. These may indicate cycle 25 gathering momentum. We are seeing the more active regions swinging into view, but let us all hope we see more over the months to come. When the far side swings into view, it will be interesting to see if we get new sunspots.

More signs of spring - NOT amateur radio

Gradually the soil is warming and there are signs of new life.

Spring springing - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows the spring flowers at the weekend at nearby Anglesey Abbey.

In April the fields will be yellow with rape seed oil. Some hate this, but I actually like it. Until recent years it was far less common in the UK.

Sunspots - Tuesday March 10th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 12. A=5 and K=1.

DXpeditions

Southgate News has a piece on some future DXpeditions to Sable Island (off Canada) and Willis Island (off Australia).

See Southgatearc.org/news/2020/march/willis-island-dxpedition-news.htm#.XmZphY6TK00

mcHF transceiver

Some years ago the mcHF transceiver kit was launched by M0NKA. Since then it has been "cloned" and has been sold as the RS918. Whilst I think the design credit should go to M0NKA, I have some sympathy for those who did not want to buy the kit or were unable to build one.

This video is of the cloned radio. For the price it is good value. It is still sold. The original mcHF is also sold in the USA only as an assembled unit.

IC-705 video

There still seems to be a lot of rumour, but few facts, about the release of this new QRP radio from ICOM.  Many expect it to be on sale at Dayton in May, although I expect it will be released in Japan first. As for UK and EU release dates, I have no idea, although late 2020 is my guess. They have to obtain CE approval first. In the meantime, this video, which I think has been on before, might whet your appetite.

Orchids - NOT amateur radio

My wife seems to have a way with orchids! One on our windowsill has flowered since 2012!

20m FT8

About 20 minutes ago I went on 20m FT8 with the tiny indoor loop on the windowsill. Although plenty of RX spots (30 including Japan), nothing yet on TX. The power was only 6W and I may have landed on a frequency that has a strong carrier I could not see here. I have since increased the power a bit and QSYed about 200Hz HF to see if that does the trick.

UPDATE 1140z: Moving HF did the trick as I now have 16 spots on 20m FT8 TX.

UPDATE 1530z: Now 25 stations have spotted me. 

Amazing!

UPDATE 2133z: In total, 73 spots of my 10W to the tiny indoor loop. The map shows the stations spotting me on 20m FT8 today. Quite amazing.

Conspiracy theories - NOT amateur radio

This latest coronavirus seems to be something that naturally occurred and has worldwide impact but....

Have you thought that a hostile state could use biological warfare against its enemies?

Just imagine if research led to a bacterium or virus that was deadly to certain ethnic groups? A nation could cause an outbreak that could be hard to stop in certain peoples. This could be hard to target (for example there are lots of Chinese people in the USA and Australia).

Just like cyber warfare, such things could be very hard to prove, but could be very damaging.

All I am saying is the world is a very different place from 50 years ago.