Fungus - NOT amateur radio

On our walk earlier we saw this fungus growing on some wooden railings. 

Anyone for pizza? 

Royal blood? - NOT amateur radio

Many years ago, my brother and I traced our family tree on my dad's side continuously back to the 1500s. We have an isolated record from 1428.

Now, each of us has 2 parents, 4 grand-parents, 8 great-grand-parents and so on.  Going back to the 1500s I would have had about 8000 ancestors. Going back a few more generations and I would have had more ancestors than the whole population of England at that time! So, in all probability I am related to royalty, as are most in England!

If just one of these had not had children, I would not be here today. Sobering and humbling thought.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/history-1

Sunspots - Friday November 13th 2020

 Solar flux is 85 and the SSN 27. A=3 and K=1.

OFCOM and short range radar

OFCOM has announced that some short range 24GHz radar for cars is to be made licence free. See the OFCOM website for more details.

Another cancelled rally

The West London Radio and Electronics show, that should have been at Kempton Park Racecourse this Sunday, November 15th, has been cancelled. Let's hope things are better next year.

Anglesey Abbey - NOT amateur radio

As it was sunny, we did a walk around Anglesey Abbey this afternoon. The photo of the mill leat is probably one of the most popular views in the whole place.  I love the reflections in the water.

2m FT8 QRP

It is now 1007z. For about 10 minutes I have been on 2m FT8 using 2.5W and the big-wheel omni antenna. So far, I have been spotted by 4 stations.

UPDATE 1036z:  Spotted by 6 stations in 2 countries.  What amazes me about FT8 is that even with QRP the signal actually gets to where it is going. Every day I get spotted by stations at great range on 2m FT8 with 2.5W and the simplest of stations. 

UPDATE 1055z:  On 2m FT8 RX so far today 5 stations in 3 countries spotted. the grabber at http://82.71.9.63:8080/cap/ run by G0LRD is useful.

UPDATE 1844z:  30 stations in 5 countries have spotted my 2m FT8 QRP today.

Stations spotting
me today

UPDATE 2240z:   32 stations have spotted me today on 2m FT8 QRP with 1 QSO. Now QRT.

Amateur television

One of the aspects of our hobby I have never tried is ATV apart from SSTV reception. My SSTV reception was with some free software using a smartphone on the desk. It worked surprisingly well. 

There used to be some interest in narrow band TV (30 or 32 lines) that used ordinary speech bandwidths much like the very early days of TV. 

These days there is quite a bit of interest in digital TV as the bandwidths are narrower and we have some experimental frequencies near 70 and 144MHz. One local has been building the Portsdown 4 transceiver based on the Raspberry Pi.

See https://wiki.batc.org.uk/Portsdown_4

Sunspots - Thursday November 12th 2020

 Solar flux is 85 and the SSN 25.  A=4 and K=1.

2m FT8 QRP

At 1935z I QSYed to 2m FT8 with 2.5W and the big-wheel omni antenna. Already 3 stations have spotted me with the furthermost being G8TIC (170km). No stations yet spotted on RX.

UPDATE 1905z:  6 stations have spotted me so far today on 2m FT8.  GI6ATZ (479km) is the furthermost station spotting my QRP on 2m FT8 TX. 3 stations spotted so far on 2m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2250z:  QRT. Several German stations spotted on RX.