Ephemeral - NOT amateur radio

The blossom on the ornamental cherry in our back garden is just coming out. It will be glorious for a week or so and then gone until next spring. Ephemeral beauty. 

Sunspots - Sunday April 25th 2021

Solar flux is 79 and the SSN 62. A=10 and K=4.

Ickworth - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday, we did a nice walk at Ickworth, which is a National Trust property near Bury St Edmunds. 

It is famous for its rotunda. The grounds are extensive.

Getting the 10FT8R on the right frequency

Earlier posts show the 10FT8R 10m FT8 RX works as expected. It is spotting a similar number of stations to those spotted on my FT817ND with the tiny indoor loop. With a "proper" 10m antenna outside, I am sure many more would be copied. At a guess I would say my loop is at least 6dB worse than a dipole outside. It is also quite directional.  As soon as my son can help, I shall get a wire dipole erected.

One issue I had was how do I net it without a frequency counter? This is the method I used. I set up the "big rig" on 10m FT8 with WSJT-X but set the frequency to 28.073MHz rather than 28.074MHz. I then adjusted the oscillator frequency until I spotted a faint signal at 1kHz audio. Voila!

Simple. Lots of stations spotted today.

Modulation sounds

Sometimes you may wonder what various sorts of modulation actually sound like. This website may help you identify some.

See https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/amateurRadioNoiseGenerator.php

Morning walk - NOT amateur radio

As usual, when it is sunny, we did a walk around the village.  This is one of our favourites. We saw several Muntjac deer. The boats (see photo) were on the banks of Burwell Lode.

More on the 10FT8R 10m FT8 RX

A few moments ago UA2FBW (1365km) was spotted on the 10FT8R RX with the indoor loop. The RX is on all day. It certainly works! His signal was strong.

UPDATE 1205z:  18 stations spotted on RX so far. The 10FT8R is obviously working on the small indoor loop antenna! 

UPDATE 1340z:  21 stations so far spotted on RX with the 10FT8R and the tiny indoor loop antenna. As far as I can tell, it is very similar to the FT817ND on RX. All spots so far look like Es.

UPDATE 2008z: 24 stations spotted today using the tiny indoor loop antenna with the 10FT8R RX . This antenna seems very directional too. 

UPDATE 2045z:  QRT.  All gear off.

SPlan circuit diagram alternatives?

Years ago I was given a free copy of SPlan to enable me to draw circuit diagrams for GQRP SPRAT. I have no idea where this is! Buying SPlan 7.0 costs 49 Euros. which I do not want to pay.

Does anyone know of a free circuit diagram program that is easy to use please? 

At the moment I have only one schematic to do (the 10FT8R).

I thought SPlan was on a CD.

Sunspots - Saturday April 24th 2021

Solar flux is 77 and the SSN 29. A=15 and 3.

10FT8R RX working!

My DSB RX for 10m FT8 is complete and working. 

I had a few problems getting the crystal pulled down enough, but a small inductor in series with the crystal did the trick. I shall tell you how I netted the crystal in another post.

So far, ES2AJ (1716km) has been spotted using just the indoor loop at -12dB S/N, which is strong. This means the "big rig" does not have to be tied up when monitoring 10m FT8. 

In the end I started with my WISPY RX which I found. The sharp eyed may notice an unused oscillator buffer which can be removed from the board. A simple PCB could be made if this was ever a club project.

All being well, I shall publish the circuit over the weekend.