Anglesey Abbey walk - NOT amateur radio

We are lucky to live just a few miles away from Anglesey Abbey, which is a great place for a walk. We went there after lunch with one of our grandchildren. 

Even though it was meant to be cold we actually felt quite warm. It was very sunny with clear blues sky.

Pedestrian portable?

With the better weather and the easing of UK lockdowns, you may want to think about pedestrian portable operations once again. 

Especially in the Es season, lots of Europe may be worked from the UK with just a whip, a counterpoise and low power on the higher HF bands and 6m SSB. 

One advantage of pedestrian portable operation is the angle of the antenna may be easily adjusted to get the strongest signal.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/pedestrian .

Bishop's Palace, Ely - NOT amateur radio

Right next to Ely Cathedral is the Bishop's Palace, used as such until the early 1940s. For a while it was a hospital (my dad who was a Pathfinder in Lancasters had his appendix removed here as a precaution). Later it was a Sue Ryder home. Now it is the 6th form centre for the King's School, Ely. It was built in the 1400s.

40m FT8 RX overnight with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground

Overnight I was on 40m FT8 RX. So far, 942 stations have been spotted in 5 continents. It is now 0700z. 

UPDATE 1154z: 1060 stations spotted on 40m FT8 RX. At one point last evening I counted 42 stations in 2.7kHz!!

UPDATE 1435z: 1107 stations spotted so far in the last 24 hours on 40m FT8 RX with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

UPDATE 1848z: 1346 stations spotted on 40m FT8 RX in the last day with an antenna that nobody realises is even there!

N. Devon cottage - NOT amateur radio

This delightful cottage is where we stayed in N. Devon some years ago. 

Sunspots - Tuesday April 13th 2021

 Solar flux is 83 and the SSN 16.  A=5 and K=2. Sunspots return. 

40m FT8 RX with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground

 Even though the SWR was too high to TX, I decided to take a look at 40m FT8 with the earth-electrode "antenna" on RX. It is now 1849z and already 117 stations have been spotted with the furthermost UA9MA (4598km) in Omsk. This was after just a few minutes.

UPDATE 1930z: 276 stations have been spotted so far on 40m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2107z:   505 stations spotted so far on 40m.

20m FT8 RX

At 1450z, I QSYed to 20m FT8 RX with the indoor loop. So far, after a few minutes, 41 stations spotted. There is little doubt that most daytime FT8 DX is to be found on 20m.

UPDATE 1517z:  94 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1825z:  317 stations spotted in 5 continents on 20m FT8 with the indoor loop.

1.095kHz earth-mode 10 years ago

One of my Facebook memories today was this photo of my VLF experiments with earth-mode communications. I was using a 5W beacon and was a very solid signal at 4.5km as the photo shows. As I recall signals tended to be better as frequency was reduced. 

17m FT8 RX

At 1335z I QSYed to 17m FT8 RX using the FT817ND and the improved indoor loop.

UPDATE 1431z:  23 stations in 4 continents spotted so far.