Sunspots - Monday October 5th 2020

 Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=0.

6m FT8

At about 1042z I decided to try 6m FT8 with the FT817ND (2.5W) and the V2000 vertical. It is now 1054z and no spots given or received yet.

There was TEP on 6m yesterday in the Americas, although I think we are too far north.

UPDATE 1443z: 1 spot of me 2 hours ago by a Spanish station EA5ISZ (1573km) who was worked too and 5 stations spotted on RX including 1 in central France.  Even well outside the Es season DX to be worked on 6m with QRP and a simple antenna.

UPDATE 1950z: QRT. 

Noise issues

At the moment I am fortunate in that I am not plagued by too much HF noise. It is high on 160m, 80m, 60m, 40m and 30m, but I have not had problems with FT8. Others have been less fortunate with a worsening HF, and sometimes VHF, noise floor. As time goes by, this could get worse.  In the end, the only noise-free bands may be 70cm and higher.

One person who cured his problem is G4SWX, who had problems from the neighbour's LEDs on his patio. Many problems are due to substandard parts that don't meet EU regulations. Companies cut corners to save a few pence and get away with it as there seems little OFCOM enforcement. If I am wrong, please accept my apologies.

See https://groups.io/g/RSGB-Workshop/message/4797

BREXIT - NOT amateur radio

With Covid-19, people have rather lost track of the trade deal negotiations between the EU and UK. Any trade deal has to be agreed before the year end. At the moment we seem some way from agreement with both sides hanging out for the best deal for them.

In the end, I am sure both sides want a trade deal. It is a case of who blinks first! 

I hope in the end both sides accept compromise and both are able to feel it is fair. The EU does a lot of trade with the UK and vice versa.

2m FT8 - 2.5W to the big-wheel omni antenna

Since 0830z I have been on 2m FT8 again.  7 Gs have spotted me so far and I have spotted just one station F4EMG (193km) in northern France. 

UPDATE 1040z:  11 stations, all G apart from EI2FG (565km), have spotted me so far and 4 stations spotted on RX with best DX F0EYI (465km) in Brittany.

Duet - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows one of our grandchildren singing a duet with her dad yesterday at our home. He is a professional jazz pianist, facing hard times.

Sunspots - Sunday October 4th 2020

 Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 0, A=6 and K=2.

Skateboarding - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows one of our grandchildren enjoying his skateboard outside our house this afternoon. 

The FT7 HF transceiver

The first HF transceiver I ever owned was a 10W FT7 by Yaesu. With this, with low wire dipoles, I worked DXCC on SSB including a station in New Zealand. From memory, this was mostly on 10m.  I sold it years later to a friend. It was VFO controlled, no memories, no synthesisers. It was a great radio - very quiet and a joy to use. It was one of the very best transceivers I have ever used.

For about 20 years we have had 5W multi-band, multimode, transceivers (including VHF and UHF) in the form of the FT817 and FT818 handhelds.  These are about a tenth of the size of the FT7, but with the battery.

Later Yaesu made a higher power version, the FT7B (50W) which is shown in the video below.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/ft7

Medieval graves - NOT amateur radio

Earlier this week we went to Peterborough Cathedral. Around the back were several medieval graves as the photo shows. These were unearthed when some restoration work was being carried out.