Sunspots - Saturday July 11th 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 12. A=3 and K=1.  After a few days without sunspots it is good to see some again. Is this a good sign?

Magnetic loops on HF TX

For the last few months I had been unable to get on 10m as my external antenna was down. In the end I rebuilt my loop antenna which I last used on 10m many years ago. This is just taped to a small table in the shack downstairs in our bungalow. I have no idea of the "gain" of this compared with a dipole or beam at a reasonable height.

Where lots of frequency changes are needed they are far from ideal as they are very sharply tuned if efficient. At 100W or more the voltages at the high impedance points can be very high, so special capacitors are needed. At 10W or less the voltages are nothing like as high. For modes like WSPR, FT8 or PSK31 they can be ideal as frequency movements are small.

I have been very pleasantly surprised how well my loop works. It cannot be more than 1 S point down on a dipole. If you are stuck, I can recommend them.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/magloop

Hollyhocks - NOT amateur radio

Hollyhocks like the sun. We were totally unsuccessful in our back garden, but they thrive in our front where they get plenty of sun. They self seed easily so it is best to cut them right down once they've flowered.

Old QSL cards

Southgate News has a link to a French page that has a collection of old QSL cards.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/july/old-qsl-card-collection.htm m#.XwgnOYjYq00

This reminds me of two things I must do! I badly need to update my eQSL records and I need to subscribe to Logbook of the World. I also have to submit my log for VHF NFD. Although my score will be very poor, I should show my support. I came on for a short while on 2m with 10W and the big-wheel omni antenna.

Crocosmia - NOT amateur radio

We saw this plant on a recent walk. I think it is called crocosmia, although I may have this wrong. It has bright red flowers that only last a few weeks.

10m FT8

The last day on 10m FT8 TX
(5W and indoor loop)

There is no doubt that WSPR works with far weaker signals than FT8. However, there would appear to be far more FT8 activity.

Take for instance 10m. Yesterday I went on 10m WPSR for about 6 hours with 500mW WSPR and got not a single spot. I switched to 10m FT8 with 5W (again using the indoor loop) and was spotted by 57 stations. Even the 10dB more ERP cannot account for this.

This morning (it is now 0819z) I am on 10m FT8 with 5W and the indoor loop. Already, 7 spots of me!

UPDATE 1351z: Stations spotted in 4 continents on 10m FT8 RX.  19 stations have spotted me so far today and 1 QSO had.  Still running 5W to the indoor loop.

Stations spotting me on
10m FT8 today so far

UPDATE 1811z: 49 stations have spotted me today on 10m FT8 with 5W and the indoor loop. On 10m FT8 RX several USA stations spotted. Several QSOs with EU stations too.

UPDATE  2049z:  Now QRT.  67 stations spotted my 5W to the indoor loop. Quite amazing. I am really impressed how well the indoor loop works.

Sunspots - Friday July 10th 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

10m FT8 (5W to the indoor loop)

As I was not having any success with 10m WSPR, I decided to have a go with 10m FT8 (5W) using the indoor loop. It is now 1455z.  19 spots of me already with the furthermost being CU2GI (2575km) in the Azores.  45 stations spotted so far on 10m FT8 RX with furthermost being N4CC (6877km) in Georgia, USA.

UPDATE 1755z:  Now my 5W has been spotted by 47 unique stations.  On 10m FT8 RX 178 stations spotted here so far.

Another cancelled rally

News of another cancelled rally came in earlier. As before, my apologies if this is hard to read on some screens, but this is how I received it.

Sunday 12 JULY : CANCELLED

McMICHAEL RADIO RALLY AND BOOT SALE. Reading Rugby Football Club, Sonning Lane, Sonning on Thames, Reading RG4 6ST Talk-in station on 145.550MHz. Doors open 9.30am (traders can set up from 7.30am), admission £3 with under 16s free. Car boot sale pitches £10 (with two passes). There will be trade stands and exhibition displays. Catering is available on site as well as a bar. More details at https://mcmichaelrally.radarc.org.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

10m WSPR TX (500mW to the indoor loop)

Although active since breakfast, no spots of me yet. It is now 0750z.  Running the W5OLF designed WSPR-AXE, I can be totally independent of the PC.

UPDATE 1128z:  No spots of me yet today.