Rear garden in August - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows our rear garden in August.

We get most colour in Spring and about now. Our grass is suffering in the heat. They used to say, "don't water the grass as it will recover".

Until recently, I followed this advice. Then in 2018 a third of my front lawn just died and never recovered. Since then, I have watering particularly dry patches for almost an hour most dry nights. Hopefully my lawns will recover in the autumn when the dew returns.

More damselflies - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday, I showed a photo of two damselflies. Today, here are two mating. This was again at Cavenham Heath yesterday.

Amateur VLF

There is a myth that VLF antennas are big. For RX they can be very very small!! So, for RX only, amateur VLF is remarkably accessible.

For TX high power and big antennas certainly help.   DK7FC has had some excellent results with long distances using earth probe antennas. These don't require very huge loading coils.

VLF amateur work requires dedication, although VLF earth-mode can give good results with quite simple kit. This is certainly one of the frontiers ripe for experiments.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vlf

Stone curlews - NOT amateur radio

Stone curlews (see the poor photo) are rare in the UK. Cavenham Heath where we walked yesterday is one of the best places to see them. Most migrate in October. We saw 12 yesterday.

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/stone-curlew/

10m FT8

It is now 0811z. A few moments ago my 4W to the indoor 10m loop was turned on in the hope of some Es. 2 Es spots on RX but no spots of me yet.

UPDATE 0917z:  Now 9 Es spots of me already and 16 spots on 10m FT8 RX. Promising.

UPDATE 1235z:  23 spots of my 4W 10m FT8 to the indoor loop.

UPDATE 1807z:  24 stations spotted me today. On 10m FT8 RX the best DX spotted was PU5BOY (9961km). In all, 67 stations were spotted today.

Yesterday evening on 10m FT8

Yesterday evening I swapped from 6m FT8 to 10m FT8 with about 4W to the tiny indoor loop antenna. Quite a few Es spots of me and many southern European stations spotted on RX as well as a QSO via Es

IC-705 on the ICOM Japan website

The ICOM Japan website has more on the IC-705. Under "Optional Accessories" it mentions an antenna tuner at a later date (see yesterday's post).

See https://www.icomjapan.com/lineup/products/IC-705_eur/

Sunspots - Monday August 10th 2020

Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 13. A=3 and K=1.

IC-705 auto ATU?

According to the IC-705 Facebook page, ICOM is working on an auto-ATU to match the IC-705. They hope to release it this year. This is a stand alone external unit covering 1.8 to 50MHz.

Inter S51 QSO on 8m

Apparently the first QSO between stations in Slovenia has taken place on 8m. I hope we can all join in on 8m in the near future.