Help?

This photo was taken in 2012 and shows one of our grandchildren "helping" me in the lab. 

He is now 13.

Muntjac deer - NOT amateur radio

These are small, introduced, deer. They get in gardens and eat plants. Imagine my wife's face when she saw this one at the door the other day!

365project - NOT amateur radio

As some of you may know, I have taken part in 365project since 2013. This has no connection at all with Microsoft's 365. 365project is absolutely free unless you want more albums and privacy. 

I love it and it is great to look back over the years.  Some use it to show off their talent. Mine are definitely not in this category! I use it as more a visual diary.

The following shots of mine have been popular: https://alexisbirkill.com/365project/popularpage/getuserdetails.php?username=g3xbm

10m FT8 RX (Saturday)

Since before breakfast, I have been on 10m FT8 RX with the homemade 10FT8R RX and 50cm indoor loop. No spots yet at 0754z.

UPDATE 0835z: No spots.

UPDATE 1645z: No spots.

At first, I just thought this was a bad day. Then I looked at G0LRD's spots. He has a better antenna, but he had 333 spots, whereas I have none at all!! I have closed the program and restarted it and re-synchronised the time. If it is not this, I am puzzled. I did a Windows update yesterday. Just going to retune the loop in case someone knocked it off tune.

UPDATE 1650z:  Just swapped to the FT817ND RX.

Sunspots - Saturday May 29th 2021

Solar flux is  77 and the SSN 28.  A=3 and K=1.

Shack yesterday

The photo shows the shack yesterday. 

I was monitoring 10m FT8 with the homemade 10FT8R RX on the left connected to the indoor loop which is about 50cm across and sits on the windowsill.

8m beacons

As I have mentioned before, I expect we will see this band (or small part of it) allocated to the amateur service eventually. For several years, I expect certain amateurs in certain countries to apply for limited access, possibly with spot frequencies and low power for limited time e.g. just for the Es season. 

My prediction is that 10 years from now the 8m band will be widely available.

An interesting recent posting on a Facebook page mentioned this is an ISM allocation. The question is there a legal way to get on the band very soon?

There is a new beacon in the west of Eire EI1CAH on 40.016MHz. This is the second Irish beacon. There is also a beacon in Slovenia S55ZMS (40.670MHz) and the South African 8m beacon ZS6WAB (40.675MHz) has been copied in Europe more than once.

A dipole for 40MHz is easy to make.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html .

Kings - NOT amateur radio

This photo was on this blog some years ago. It shows the famous King's College Chapel in the sun with people punting on the Cam in the foreground. 

Hopefully it will be like this again next year. Cambridge misses its overseas visitors, but is as beautiful as ever.

Oscar 100 - quiet

 A few moments ago I did my usual peek at the activity on the narrowband transponder of this geosynchronous satellite. It was Friday lunchtime in Europe. 

Activity? Very quiet. In fact there was just one QSO when I looked! It appears this sort of amateur radio does not appeal. After 2 years there seems to be even less activity!

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .

Outdoor fun - NOT amateur radio

This photo is of the park in Cambridge just behind Drummer Street bus station. It is good to see the table tennis tables out and the cafe spilling onto the grass. Even with restrictions (until quite recently) banning inside meetings in England, people still find ways to have fun.

Yesterday, I had my first indoor coffee in Cambridge for a very long time. Slowly, things are becoming more normal again.