10m WSPR TX

Again I am on 10m WSPR TX using 500mW to the tiny indoor loop antenna. Local G4KPX does not seem to be on. No spots of me yet today.

UPDATE 1310z : G4KPX is monitoring and has spotted me several times No DX spots of me though.

UPDATE 1336z: What is needed now is a stand alone 10m FT8 beacon instead of WSPR!

UPDATE 1910z:  QRT. No DX stations spotted me.

2m FT8 (10W)

As usual, I am on 2m FT8 using 10W and the big-wheel omni antenna. So far today 29 stations have spotted me with the best DX being GI6ATZ (479km).

UPDATE 1305z: 41 stations in 4 countries have spotted me in the last 24 hours on 2m FT8 using 10W.

UPDATE 1932z: Now QRT. In all, 46 stations in 5 countries spotted my 10W in the last 12 hours on 2m FT8 TX. It's hard to think that this is 2m with 10W and an omni antenna! These sort of distances seem to be possible at any time and in any conditions. Also polarisation seems to make little or no difference.

Home - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows our home and front garden a few days ago. The photo was taken on April 2nd.

Ornamental cherry - NOT amateur radio

In our back garden is an ornamental cherry tree. We had this trimmed last year.

At the moment the leaves and blossom are just appearing.

When out, it is a very attractive tree with red fruit, sadly inedible.

Heathkit HW8

Many years ago I owned an HW8 transceiver from Heathkit. This had a direct conversion receiver and a QRP HF CW transmitter. With simple wire dipoles it worked some remarkable DX.

I think it was sold back to its original owner when I bought an FT7 in 1979. In its day it was a fine rig.

Mine was totally unmodified, but there are plenty of "improvements" on the net. In my experience, this was a great transceiver as it is. I am not sure how easy they are to find nowadays.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8

Sunspots- Sunday April 5th 2020

Solar flux is 70 and the sunspot number 11. A=5 and K=1.

At the moment we seem to have a few days with sunspots then several days without. At some point we will have sunspots on most days.

Zoom - NOT amateur radio

It was good to see all the grandchildren today thanks to Zoom. The photo is a screen shot during the video chat.

Cutting the lawns - NOT amateur radio

As the weather was sunny, we had lunch in the garden and I cut the lawns as the photo shows. This is the fourth time this year.

Apple iPad software change?

My wife has had an Apple iPad for some years, but just recently the battery life has suddenly got dramatically worse. It was always very good. Now it seems to flatten the battery far more quickly.  I am pretty sure this is not the cells. Also, she could always send photos from her gallery by Gmail. She has plenty of room in her account on Gmail.

It is almost as if the latest software has somehow been "doctored" so the battery runs down faster and some Gmail things don't work any longer, so you are tempted to buy a new one! I am not saying this is so, just that this is how it appears.

Any whistle blowers know the facts?

New life - NOT amateur radio

New life continues. This is a photo of a new born chick at my son's school. He looks after the chickens.