Granddaughter - NOT amateur radio

A photo of our elder granddaughter taken last weekend.

Previous Life - NOT amateur radio

In 2008, after many years in the empire that started as Pye Telecommunications, I retired. Over the years its name changed as did the products we designed and made.

I ended up in Sepura designing world beating Tetra radios that were widely used across the planet.

At one time I worked for Philips Paging where we made vast quantities every day in places like Mexico and Singapore.  For a time I worked in California for Philips Paging. My abiding memory of California is the always blue skies! In Mexico, the factory was very modern, but just outside the gates there was poverty everywhere.

There is a good website on the history of Pye Telecom.

See http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/index.html

Sunspots - Wednesday June 17th 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=2.

20m WSPR RX

An old friend, Ted G4NUA, built a 20m WSPR beacon using a Raspberry Pi. It produces 100mW. He has already had spots from the USA over 5400km. He is about 13km from me. Still not spotted him yet. I am using my indoor loop antenna.

UPDATE 2127z:  Overnight, I shall stay on 20m WSPR. At the moment, just a few Germans being copied. Hoping to copy G4NUA tomorrow early.

10m WSPR (500mW to the tiny indoor loop antenna)

The 10m WSPR beacon was turned on just after 0800z. Already 4 different stations spotting me at 0828z.

UPDATE 1440z: 19 stations across Europe have spotted my 10m WSPR beacon today so far.

Passed the solar minimum?

The indications are that we have passed the minimum at last. I hope this is so.

See https://solen.info/solar/images/Cycles_24_25_minimum.png

Ferrite rods as TX antennas

Something similar has been on before, but I make no apologies for this gentle reminder!

Ferrite rods will work on TX as long as the ferrite does not saturate and the material is fine for the intended frequency.

Low power usually means millwatts or low watts. Some years ago I gave it a try with a random ferrite rod (characteristics unknown) on WSPR with great success. To be honest, it was far better than I expected. I think of ferrites as distorting space with the effective size being proportional to the effective permeability of the ferrite.

I wonder what would happen on 7MHz FT8?

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/ferrite_tx
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_core

UPDATE 1344z: Well I had to try 40m FT8 with the ferrite rod on TX!! With no earths connected and no HF antennas here apart from the highly tuned 10m indoor loop, I have 8 spots already using the FT817ND at 2.5W. Best DX spot was  -7dB S/N from F5NK (936km). Highly impressed! This is the first time at this QTH with this antenna.

UPDATE 2003z:  12 spots of me today so far on 40m FT8 with just the tiny ferrite antenna. I guess the biggest problem is being buried by bigger stations on the same frequency without realising.

Gilbert and Sullivan - NOT amateur radio

Every year a nearby village does a G&S production and we usually go. This year they cannot sadly. The photo shows the production some years ago of the "Pirates of Penzance".

Museum visit (2017) - NOT amateur radio

Most weeks in the summer months our local museum next door gets school visits.

At the moment these are not possible. Hopefully they can happen next year. The photo shows one such visit in 2017.

Another shack view

The photo was taken yesterday and shows the operating position in the shack. The tiny WSPR beacon is on a lower shelf and probably not clear.