Sunspots - Sunday July 19th 2020

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=0. Still poor.

Party - NOT amateur radio

As it was someone's special birthday we had a socially distanced party on our green as the photo shows.

10m FT8 (500mW and the indoor loop)

Until about 1130z, I am on 10m WSPR. Using the indoor loop, I shall turn things off to prevent the risk of RF burns to the grandchildren who are arriving this afternoon.  As yet, no spots received. It has been on for about an hour. It is now 1037z.

New ICOM IC-705 video

Southgate News has a piece linking to the new ICOM video about the SDR based ICOM IC-705 QRP rig.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/july/introducing-the-ic-705-qrp-sdr-transceiver.htm#.XxK49YjYq00

See also https://icomuk.co.uk/IC-705-HF-VHF-UHF-Mobile-Transceiver/3977/1338/14/

Wireless charging

In the last few years things appear to have moved on with wireless charging now available at very competitive prices. I assume the device has to have a way of receiving the inductive field. Is that what they mean by "QI compatible"?

I expect some amateur radio manufacturer will catch on so that some 2m and 70cm handhelds can be charged by simply placing the rig on a charging pad. I would expect this to be a flexible PCB coil within the battery. They could even reduce bill of material (BOM) costs by building the cells within the radio body and not even selling a charger. I expect either a Chinese manufacturer or ICOM will be first. You can imagine the Yaesu engineers saying "that's a good idea, why didn't we think of that?".

See https://www.7dayshop.com/products/esr-tidal-universal-wireless-fast-usb-c-adaptive-charging-pad-10w-charger-black-x000udd0e3

Dog - NOT amateur radio

In the next road is a dog that wails whenever a police siren sounds: we hear the police car, wait a few moments, then we hear the dog! It must think it is a mate.

6m FT8

Since about 0750z, I have been active on 6m FT8 with 10W and the V2000 vertical omni antenna. 16 European spots of me already. Just a single G spotted on RX and no QSOs. It is now 0801z.

UPDATE 0837z: 5 stations now spotted on RX and 24 stations have spotted me. No QSOs yet today.

Cornfield walk - NOT amateur radio

One of our favourite walks takes us across this cornfield. At the moment the corn is ripening.

Sunspots - Saturday July 18th 2020

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

Sunflower - NOT amateur radio

On our walk this morning we saw our first sunflower out. Ideal today with sunshine all day. It was a nice day all day - the best this month.