New Zealand elections - NOT amateur radio

New Zealand has led the way in fighting Covid-19. Essentially it has been largely free of the pandemic that has crippled much if the world. 

They have just had a general election and Jacinda Ardern's (the NZ PM) Labour Party is in line for a massive majority. We may differ over political policies, but we have to agree she did a good job in the fight against Covid-19.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-54519628

20m FT8 (2.5W and the indoor loop)

A few moments ago I turned on 20m FT8 QRP using 2.5W to the tiny indoor loop. It is 0840z. 

Yet again, I had a problem with decoding signals and the waterfall being smeary. After turning WSJT-X and the SignaLink interface off and on, it is now decoding. I am running Windows 10.

No spots of me yet and 4 stations spotted so far today.

UPDATE 1258z:  So far today, 3 stations have spotted my QRP 20m FT8 signal. On RX 84 stations have been spotted in 3 continents.

UPDATE 1412z:  5 stations have spotted me so far and I have spotted 108 stations in 4 continents.

UPDATE 1710z:  5 stations have spotted me today on 20m FT8 QRP and I have spotted 157.

RSGB Convention online

Southgate News reports that the RSGB Convention talks are available online.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2020/october/rsgb-convention-videos-on-youtube.htm#.X4qS7LfTVkw

Rear garden 2015 - NOT amateur radio

 

The photo shows our rear garden in 2015,

Fungi - NOT amateur radio

It must be all the rain we have had, but we saw several patches of fungi on our walk yesterday at Anglesey Abbey. 

OFCOM and spectrum trading

OFCOM is talking about spectrum trading at 2.6GHz. See the OFCOM website for more information. 

Sunspots - Saturday October 17th 2020

Solar flux is 75 and the SSN 14. A=4 and K=1.

20m FT8

For about 30 minutes I have been on 20m FT8 running 2.5W to the indoor loop antenna. 

WSJT-X oddity

Sometimes when I use WSJT-X even on RX the signals on the waterfall appear smeared and I get no decodes. I have selected the default audio device. Most times this is fine and I see many decodes. When I select USB Codec all is fine. The photo shows the effect. 

I use a SignaLink USB interface with the FT817ND as I have done for many years. I am using the latest fully released version on FT8. I was not aware of issues with earlier versions. 

Autumn - NOT amateur radio

Autumn is here and the colours are changing.