6m FT8 QRP (Wednesday)

At 0900z, I turned on the 6m FT8 QRP gear with 2.5W to the V2000 vertical omni antenna. Already, after just a few minutes, spotted by 4 G stations. Nobody yet spotted on RX.

UPDATE 1515z:  Certainly up to now, just UK stations spotting me and being spotted with no winter Es.

UPDATE 2202z:   My QRP was spotted later in Portugal and Sardinia, so there was winter Es later.  Not as good today as yesterday. Now QRT.

Astronomical Numbers - NOT amateur radio

According to Google there are 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in the visible universe. This is a huge huge number.  

Only some of these planets may have intelligent life, but even if this is just a tiny fraction of the number of planets, this is still a huge number.   

I find it mind blowing that I am here at all. One of the greatest puzzles is human consciousness.  On Earth we have about 8000,000,000 people. In such a vast universe, you would think kindness and love would have no meaning, yet nearly every human knows this is not the case.

Although we have being trying for about 50 years via project SETI, we have still not found any signs of interstellar intelligent life as far as I am aware.

Covid-19 vaccine approvals - NOT amateur radio

 In the last hour the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved. This can be stored at normal fridge temperatures and is low cost. 

Sunspots - Wednesday December 30th 2020

 Solar flux is 86 and the SSN 26. A=7 and K=3.

7 years ago - NOT amateur radio

Seven years ago I spent 3.5 months in hospital following a brain bleed. 

This photo shows me with my younger son and one of our grandchildren in 2013 on a rare visit home. I went in hospital in September and came out in January and lost 1.5 stone. 

Looking back I was so lucky. I could so easily have died or suffered horrendous disabilities. Apart from feeling giddy all the time and my poor voice, I am mostly fine.

Another Covid-19 joke - NOT amateur radio

 

This appeared on Facebook earlier today.  It made me laugh

Zoom - NOT amateur radio

2020 will go down as the year of Zoom. Until earlier this year many of us had not heard of this. Now most of us are familiar with it. Many of us have used it for virtual family meetings. Some have used it for work and some for school lessons.

Whatever, 2020 will go down as the year of virtual meetings, not all of which went to plan as this BBC video shows! 

Overall, I have been impressed by Zoom meetings. When the pandemic is over I quite expect Zoom meetings to still be popular.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-55375825

Backpacker's beach party in Australia - NOT amateur radio

The BBC news is carrying photos of a backpacker beach party in Australia. People are understandably appalled by such stupid people flouting the rules. Many were from the UK. 

Some may get deported. Quite right. So they should for such crass stupidity. 

At the moment there have been new outbreaks in Sydney which the authorities are trying to contain.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55471235 .

15m QRP CW

It seems amazing that I designed and built my Pipit 15m CW QRP transceiver so long ago!  For a long time this was my main rig and gave me lots of fun. These days FT8 is ousting SSB and CW, but you would be hard pressed to find something as simple as this that really works so well.

6m FT8 (QRP) Tuesday

After a really good day yesterday, I am again on 6m FT8 with 2.5W (FT817ND) and the V2000 vertical omni antenna. It is now 0940z and I have been on for about 3 minutes.  Already spotted by G0PQO (50km), with just G0DYW (77km) spotted on RX.

UPDATE 1149z:  4 spots of my QRP TX in 2 countries and 17 spots in 4 countries on 6m FT8 RX today. Definitely winter Es about on 6m FT8.

UPDATE 1435z:  27 stations in 6 countries spotted so far on RX, and I have been spotted by 8 stations in 3 countries on 6m FT8 QRP TX.