Many of us have been pleasantly surprised just how successful radio club meetings and talks have been over Zoom.
It would not surprise me if several radio clubs adopt this as a permanent model to replace club meetings, especially if rooms have to be hired.
Many like the social interaction of a physical meeting especially if they live alone. However, it means people from across the world can join a club for talks or informal meetings.
It would be interesting to hear your views.
One of the complaints about the IC-705 (other than the price and lack of internal auto-ATU!) is the lack of a desk stand. I expect these will soon be available as add-ons from other suppliers. One solution is to make your own with a 3D printer as shown in the video.
Even with my tiny loop indoors, I am spotting plenty of stations in Eastern Europe and the Canaries on 10m FT8. This looks like F2 propagation. In the last few days there has been propagation to the southern USA as well on 10m.
If things continue like this, 10m could again be a really good DX band certainly by next autumn.
If you want to get into this hobby, you may be interested in this online training course.
At the moment, I am on 10m FT8 with 2.5W and the tiny indoor loop on the shack windowsill indoors. So far (1040z) no-one has spotted me on TX, but I have spotted 3 stations already on 10m FT8 RX.
UPDATE 1135z: So far today, 15 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX.
UPDATE 1246z: 16 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost being UA4NF (3257km) and 2 stations in the Canaries have spotted my QRP on TX.
UPDATE 1445z: 17 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX and still just the 2 spots of me on TX.
Solar flux is 106 and the SSN an amazing 60. A=8 and K=3. For this part of the solar cycle, these are incredible numbers.
As 10m FT8 was quiet late afternoon, I have QSYed to 2m with my 2.5W and big-wheel omni antenna. Already spotted by G7RAU (461km) in Cornwall with 6 stations spotting me so far. Nothing yet seen on RX and no QSOs. It is now 1649z.
UPDATE 1706z: 4 stations in 2 countries spotted on RX and 9 stations in 3 countries have spotted me on TX. No QSOs. Monitoring my signal on G0LRD's grabber (http://82.71.9.63:8080/cap/) at 26km, I may be seeing some QSB.
UPDATE 1843z: 11 stations have spotted me on TX and I have spotted 11 stations on RX.
Today, I read that some very big UK retailers have decided not to offer Black Friday deals. I cannot say I blame them.
As I have mentioned before, some may really be bargains, whereas others are not. It is basically about commercialism and extending Christmas sales. To me, it sucks.
It has been pointed out to me that the capital of Greenland is called Nuuk. Of late, the US president-elect has shown an interest in buying ...
