2m VHF NFD

Last weekend was the UK's VHF NFD. I have not taken part for years. They changed the rules this year because of the lockdown regulations. I entered the low power section on 2m SSB mainly to give some points away, knowing I have absolutely no chance! I restricted operating to 2 brief sessions. The stations worked are shown on the map. All fairly close, with no real DX.

Reach Port - NOT amateur radio

Reach is a sleepy village these days. At one time it was a busy port with a waterway built by the Romans. The photo shows a boat on Reach Lode today.

National Trust seat - NOT amateur radio

After years working for the local water board, my dad ran a job creation scheme for the National Trust in Devon mending coastal footpaths. He loved it. When he died in 1987 they erected two seats in his honour. This was me on one a few years ago.

East Anglian skies - NOT amateur radio

In this area of the UK (East Anglia) we have few hills. The compensation is the big skies. The photo was taken on our walk earlier.

6m FT8

It is now 1002z. After returning from our walk earlier I have turned on my 6m FT8 gear using 10W and the V2000 vertical omni antenna. 14 spots of me today so far.

UPDATE 1258z: 58 stations have spotted me and I have had a few QSOs. I notice that K1TOL (5083km) has spotted me on 6m FT8 TX. On 6m FT8 RX 89 stations spotted with 4 in the USA.

UPDATE 1424z: Spotted by 67 unique stations today so far on 6m FT8 with 10W and the V2000 vertical omni with the best being FG5GH (6691km).

Stations spotting
my 10W to 1550z

UPDATE 1550z:  78 spots of me today so far.

UPDATE 1714z:  131 spots of me so far today including 3 transatlantic ones. All the QSOs have been Europeans.

UPDATE 1810z:  172 stations spotted here today on 6m FT8 RX including 20 transatlantic stations (17 in the USA and 3 in the Caribbean).

6m FT8 stations
spotted here today

UPDATE 2020z:  Now QRT on 6m.  In all, I was spotted by 175 unique stations today. On RX 210 stations spotted here. In terms of "real DX" i.e. DX outside Europe, today was probably the best for me this season.

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.