16 Mar 2020

20m FT8 with the tiny (45cm diameter) indoor loop

After sorting out the WSJT-X issue, 35 stations have spotted me so far. Best DX was a spot by N4DJT (4213 miles). 312 stations spotted on 20m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1424z: 451 stations have now spotted my 10W with UA9MA (4630km) being the furthermost to the east. On 20m FT8 RX 420 stations spotted so far.

Stations spotting my 10W FT8
to the tiny loop on 20m today
UPDATE 1904z: Now 103 stations in 4 continents have spotted my 10W today. See map to see who spotted me. On 20m FT8 RX 701 stations have been spotted on FT8 today.

WSJT-X issue

Just now I switched from 2m FT8 to 20m FT8. I was very puzzled that none of my spots were appearing on PSKreporter. I checked on the "all bands" tab and they were there!  For some reason PSKreporter was reporting me as still being on 2m!

After a restart, all was well with plenty of 20m RX and TX spots.

It seems that if you change bands you have to restart the programme or even restart the PC.

If you see rare DX stations reported on 2m, blame me!

Rally cancellations and postponements

Understandably in the current situation quite a few rallies are being cancelled or postponed until later in the year. 

See https://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/ for the very latest news.

Oscar 100 QRPP experiment with FT8

Southgate News reports on a QRPP FT8 experiment from Brazil on the geosynchronous Oscar 100 satellite. The aim is to get people experimenting with real QRP via the satellite.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/march/amsat-brazil-qo-100-experiment.htm#.Xm9HIMiTK00

President Trump (allegedly) - NOT amateur radio

Sorry that the quotes may not be clear because of the white background.

These were sent to me. I assume they are true, but I have no way of verifying them. They are all supposed to be said by President Trump.

January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”

February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”

February 25: “I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”

February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”

February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”

February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”

March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”

March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”

March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”

March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”

March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”

March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”

March 6: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”

March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”

March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”

March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”

March 9: “This blindsided the world.”


March 13: "I am declaring a state of emergency"

ARRL HQ

According to Southgate News the ARRL is trying to minimise the risks to its staff by stopping visitors. Someone had better tell the US President.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/march/announcement-from-american-radio-relay-league-headquarters.htm#.Xm6O1MiTK00

Sunspots - Monday March 16th 2020

Solar flux is only 70 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=1.

15 Mar 2020

Lighter evenings - NOT amateur radio

The seasons are wonderful.

Mid-winter it is dark by 4pm.  At the moment it is light to about 6.30pm. In mid summer it is light until about 10.45pm.

This photo shows our windmill right next door shortly before dark.

2m FT8

At about 1730z I QSYed to 2m FT8 from 20m FT8. Still using about 10W to the big-wheel omni.

UPDATE 1744z:  So far, 22 stations in 5 countries have already spotted me. I am convinced this is some sort of scatter, not aircraft scatter, as it is so consistent. Polarisation seems less important as I get nearly as many spots with the vertical omni.  Best DX is a spot by DF6PW (562km).

UPDATE 1822:  Well that was odd!  After about 40 minutes I was seeing stations but these were not appearing on PSKreporter. In the end, I restarted the PC and all now seems well. I can only conclude this was some sort of software issue that was cleared by resetting the PC. On RX 2 spots so far in 2 countries with the best DX being GW8ASA (301km). 26 spots of me so far today.

UPDATE 2229z: Now spotted by 31 stations in 5 countries. Going QRT shortly.

Coronavirus step change - NOT amateur radio

In the last week we have seen a step change in the UK over coronavirus. A week ago we were hardly affected, whereas now we seem to be on a war footing.  People seem to have changed.