Hard times ahead?

For a long time I have expressed my concern about the future of our hobby. One of the first things could be dealers stopping adverts. This may already be happening (see link). 

With fewer adverts, national magazines will struggle. Amateurs will (on average) get older still and buy fewer radios. More dealers will close. Some will leave the amateur market. Magazines will get fewer and those that remain will be smaller.

The very nature of our hobby will change. It has already started.

One thing to be aware of is warranties. If a company ceases trading will warranties still be valid?

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/september/waters-and-stanton-advertising.htm#.X1imeWjYq00

Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

A few days ago we went to Cambridge shopping. Compared with normal there are few foreign visitors. Streets that are normally busy with Far Eastern visitors are quiet. Let's hope this get back to normal in 2021.

North Norfolk Railway - NOT amateur radio

One of my Facebook memories today was this photo of 11 years ago at the North Norfolk Railway in Sheringham. It shows my wife with one of our grandchildren who becomes a teenager in a few weeks. 

Sunspots - Wednesday September 9th 2020

 Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

Decorating - NOT amateur radio

We are having 3 rooms decorated. Our intention is to do a few rooms every year. The worst thing is clearing things away in readiness like all the photo albums shown in the photo.

432MHz activity contest

Every month there is an activity contest on 432MHz (UKAC). Activity is mainly SSB. Running 10W to my 2m big-wheel omni for an hour I managed 6 QSOs as shown on the map.  This is a friendly contest.

After an hour I had enough according to my voice!

137kHz transverter

A few moments ago I found this photo of my 137kHz TX transverter. It must date from 2012.  ERP at the time was 140uW, although the transverter put out about 24W in to 50 ohms. The antenna was not very efficient. Mind you, it proves that even <1mW ERP can span useful ranges.

20m FT8

Overnight I left the 20m FT8 RX on. There were no spots during the night. Since breakfast there had been 10 spots of eastern European stations at 0648z. Still using the indoor loop antenna. 

UPDATE 1245z:  So far today, 110 stations spotted with 2 in the USA.

Sunspots - Tuesday September 8th 2020

 Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

20m FT8

At the moment (1337z) I am on 20m FT8 with 2.5W to the indoor loop, using the FT817ND. Several Europeans spotted on RX, but no spots of me yet and no QSOs.

UPDATE 2023z: RX only on 20m FT8.  258 stations spotted with best DX spotted being PY2KP (9578km). 5 continents spotted today on 20m FT8 with the indoor loop (see photo). The loop is about 0.5m across with quite thin wire.  20m still seems to be open with plenty of Europeans spotted in the last 15 minutes.

UPDATE 2144z: Now 292 stations spotted with the loop and FT817ND on 20m FT8 RX today with the best DX spotted being LU9DCB (11212km). As an experiment I am going to leave the RX on overnight.