15m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop

At  0830z, 15m FT8 RX was turned on. Apart from a few unstable carriers (local SMPUs?) nothing yet spotted.

UPDATE 0930z:  17 spots on RX so far today, all European.

UPDATE 1432z:  53 stations spotted here so far on 15m FT8. All are in Europe with best DX spotted SV1QN (2410km) in Greece.

UPDATE 1803z:  Currently 95 stations spotted here on 15m FT8 RX. Best DX spotted here is J68HZ (6860km) in St Lucia.

UPDATE 2110z: Now QRT. 105 stations spotted in last 12 hours on 15m FT8 RX with the indoor loop. Best DX spot was PU2OOC (9598km) in Brazil.

Is PW in trouble?

I am wondering if the UK magazine Practical Wireless is in trouble? Personally I hope not. It has been in existence for a very long time, but I have heard horror stories about major retailers being unable to get copies this month.

If you regularly get copies via a newsagent have you experienced any problems recently? I get copies by post and, so far, I have not had issues.

Sunspots - Saturday September 5th 2020

 Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=8 and K=2.

Yaesu competition for the ICOM IC-705?

Apparently Yaesu has discontinued a couple of their popular transceivers. According to Steve, G1KQH, he thinks Yaesu is about to launch competition to the IC-705, but at lower prices. 

In recent years, I have thought of Yaesu as being followers rather than leaders. In my own experience, it would not have surprised me if Yaesu threw in the towel and left the amateur radio market based on their terrible marketing performance. They totally missed the boat with the FT818, which was pathetic. 

For over 40 years I have been a great Yaesu supporter and have owned many Yaesu transceivers. They have all been good, reliable radios, so I hope Steve is correct. 

20m FT8 RX

A few moments ago (it is now 1718z) I QSYed to 20m FT8 RX.  Already 22 spots on RX in 3 continents.

UPDATE 2150z:  511 stations in 5 continents spotted so far on 20m FT8 RX on the FT817ND and the tiny indoor loop antenna. QRT. 

15m and 17m FT8

For a change, I am trying FT8 with 2.5W and the other small loop on 15m and 17m.  The other loop is far less efficient than the loop used on 10m. Several European stations have spotted me on 15m. 

Currently I am RX only on 17m FT8. 53 stations in 4 continents already spotted on 17m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1650z: Currently 75 stations spotted today on 17m FT8 RX. I may QSY to 20m RX soon.

10m antenna

As many know, I want to erect a new external antenna for 10m soon. Ideally my Homebase-10 antenna would be a good choice, but my skills are not so good these days, so I probably need to rule this out. A vertical might be a good choice although a vertical could be more noisy. In the end it will probably be a dipole or inverted vee. I probably still need help erecting it.

By next year, 10m should be much better.

Dipoles for 10m are quite small. Inverted vees take up even less space.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_vee_antenna

UK pound creeping up? - NOT amateur radio

Although it is hard to be sure, the UK pound has appreciated against the euro, US dollar, and yen in recent weeks. Gains are modest, but they are gains. Time will tell if these are maintained. 

From a very low base, it seems oil prices are rising too.

Reach walk - NOT amateur radio

Since our lockdown in April, we have tried to do walks as often as possible. 

Luckily spring was mainly dry and sunny so we were able to get out often. We have done some lovely local walks, many times on local paths we did not know. It has been great watching the seasons change. Overall, we have had a good lockdown.

There is now an autumn feel in the air and it seems far cooler. This is the blackberry season so we collected some on our walk earlier around Reach along with some apples. It is definitely autumn now. Even though the weather will get cooler and wetter, we hope to continue the walks.

 

6m FT8 (10W and the V2000 omni)

Since about 1025z today, I have been on 6m FT8. So far, no reports on RX, but I have been spotted by 4 G stations.

UPDATE 1430z:  29 spots of me so far today. Some Es in evidence yet again. Although Es is less common than a few months ago, it is still there. On RX just 4 Gs spotted so far.