Sunspots - Tuesday May 11th 2021

 Solar flux is 77 and the SSN 36. A=6 and K=2.

Californian lilac - NOT amateur radio

This comes into flower about now and looks great against the sky. 

Changing times

When I was in my 20s I wanted an Eddystone EC10 receiver. In the end I got one via a friend whose dad worked there. 

Mechanically, they were lovely with a great case and a dial with silky smooth tuning. 

Electrically, they were dreadful. As I recall, the whole 10m band occupied about 1.5cm of dial. With a low IF the image rejection on 10m was appalling. It used OC171 germanium transistors. 

By comparison with modern receivers it was bad, really bad. It is some time since I looked, but at one time the second hand price was about twice the retail price when they were first launched, which was £48. I have no idea why I wanted one looking back.

There is a page about these receivers on my website. See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/ec10 .  Please be aware this will change when the "new" site is released. If in doubt use www.g3xbm.co.uk as this will always point to the right pages.

The photo shows the Mk II version with an S meter. I had the Mk I version.

UPDATE 0845z:  A quick look on eBay showed a Mk II at £78. No doubt the transistors would have become leaky and in need of replacement, unless this has been done. I suspect most are bought as collectors items these days.

Odds and bobs shop - NOT amateur radio

We have a shop in the village called "Tina's" that seems to sell everything. It also does dry cleaning. 

They always manage to have an interesting window display as the photo shows. 

10m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop antenna

Since before breakfast I have been on 10m FT8 RX with the IC-705 and the tiny indoor loop on the shack windowsill. It is now 0815z. No spots yet.

UPDATE 1540z:  No spots so far today. On the local WSJT-X screen there are a few stations showing, but these were not loaded to PSKreporter maps. This could be problem at their end or the internet was off here. I have restarted WSJT-X "just in case".

UPDATE 1630z: 2 stations spotted. I am suspicious that when I restarted WSJT-X I started to see my spots on PSKreporter. G0LRD has had 155 spots today on his dipole. Even assuming my loop is several dB poorer than David's dipole, I would still have expected better here.

UPDATE 1655z: Now 9 stations spotted, most in the last hour. Odd. Must try to get my dipole up this week!

First swifts seen - NOT amateur radio

 On a walk about the village yesterday we saw 4 swifts. These are migrant birds back from Africa. These were the first seen this year. Usually these are heard before seen. Not this time. 

IC-705 goals this week

 This week, I have 2 main aims:

1.  To get D-star (DV) working;
2.  To get WiFi working.

Well, that is the aim!

Sunspots - Monday May 10th 2021

 Solar flux is 76 and the SSN 18. A=4 and K=2.

160m FT8

This evening, I am on 160m FT8 with QRP and the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. 12 stations have spotted me with the furthermost  IZ2QPP (956km). On RX 11 stations spotted with the furthermost UA3GT (2630km).

UPDATE 2130z: 13 stations have spotted me on 160m FT8 this evening with the IC-705 and the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground as the map shows. Now QRT.

Oscar 100 (geosynchronous) activity

Every few weeks I take an unscientific look at the narrowband transponder on this satellite. There is still plenty of space! 

My last look was on a Sunday afternoon in Europe, when you might expect activity to be probably quite high, not that it was!

My impression is you could easily double the number of stations at least.

Quite low activity really

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .