That royal interview - NOT amateur radio

Today, people are talking about 2 things in England. Firstly, all school children are returning to schools. Secondly, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Meghan and Harry, who now live in California.

Views on the royal family are very wide. My personal view is that they have to change. Wealth and privilege as a result of who your parents are or were has no place today. I am not a republican, but feel change has to occur or the UK monarchy will end in the next 50 years.

Why do we need to spend millions doing up a cottage in Windsor Great Park? 

Yes, our royal family and palaces are probably worth millions in tourism each year. We can still have this without the silliness that goes with it. Get real royals!

Maltings - NOT amateur radio

Many years ago maltings were places where hops were dried to make beer. 

We have a maltings building in our village, but these days it houses offices.

17m FT8 QRP (Monday)

It is now 0907z. Shortly, I intend to go on 17m FT8 again with 2.5W and the indoor loop. 17m seems a good daytime band. Even with my QRP and tiny indoor loop, I was spotted in the USA on that band again yesterday.

UPDATE 1139z: 43 stations spotted on RX, and 1 spot of me on TX by UA3PRS (2481km).

UPDATE 1200z: 60 stations spotted here today on RX.

UPDATE 1425z: 115 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1607z:  2 stations have spotted my 2.5W to the indoor loop on TX. 131 stations spotted on RX. No South Americans today so far.

sBITX?

Steve G1KQH sent me an email yesterday in which he mentioned that the inventor of the uBITX, Ashar Farhan VU2ESE, is working on an SDR version. I have no details of when this will be available, but can imagine it being low cost and very interesting.

The original uBITX is available from India, with most of the hardware built (he uses a woman's co-operative to build and test the main assembly).  It is a very inexpensive way to get on the HF bands.

See https://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx-v6/
See https:ex//qrparci.org/fdim

Sunspots - Monday March 8th 2021

Solar flux is 78 and the SSN 14. A=10 and K=1.

2m FT8 RX (Sunday)

Earlier this evening, I decided to go on 2m FT8 RX with the big-wheel omni antenna. So far (2140z) 19 stations in 4 countries spotted. The furthermost is DL6BF (479km).

UPDATE 2217z: No further stations spotted this evening. QRT soon.

10FT8R 10m FT8 RX

As mentioned before, my aim, despite my "brain fog", is to build a full FT8 transceiver for 10m.  This will be done in stages, starting with the RX. 

This photo shows the original WISPY 10m WSPR RX, which I want to base the design on, although I am still looking for the actual thing. I am not sure I still have it even! At least the photo will help with pad placement. 

IC-705 and FT8

One of the things many ICOM IC-705 owners will want to do is run FT8. As I understand it, you can use the single USB cable for both audio and CAT rig control. I see there is a YouTube video about this.

Schools in England - NOT amateur radio

March 8th sees the return to school of all children in England. 

The person in charge of education at ministerial level was interviewed on the BBC and Sky earlier. One option reported as being considered is longer school days and shorter holidays. 

One of my sons is a teacher and he has had to do online teaching as well as classroom teaching. I hope they discuss proposals with teachers first! 

Yes, school children must catch up, but in most cases teachers are near burn out. Imagine being told you have shorter holidays and longer days. I can see even more early retirements and people leaving the profession. Government in the UK - open your eyes!!!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56311723 . 

Ailunce HS2

This radio, the Ailunce HS2, costs just under £650. The adverts don't mention the power (at least I couldn't find it), which I assume is 5W.  It is available from Radioworld in the UK Midlands. 

At this price, it must be Chinese. I would be concerned about quality control and warranty, although on paper it looks good. As this is preliminary data, perhaps they are testing interest?

As I have said many times before, once the Chinese get interested in this market (will they?) the Japanese will really notice.

It is much smaller than it looks. At a guess I'd say it looks FT817 sized.