Schrodinger's cat

 

This photo was shared on Facebook earlier. Some will understand the humour.

Sunspots - Sunday June 6th 2021

 Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 30. A=4 and K=1. 

10m FT8 TX (for a change!) - Saturday

For a change, I am on 10m FT8 transmit with the FT817ND and the tiny indoor loop with the wire inductor. This is less good than the copper central heating pipe inductor, but I was concerned with RF voltages on the higher Q loop on TX. In RX, of course, this does not matter So far, nobody has spotted me on TX today.

UPDATE 1324z:  As nobody spotted me on TX, so I am on RX only at present with the FT817ND and the loop. Perhaps I should put the higher Q inductor back on the loop?

UPDATE 14303z: K5YCM (7275km) spotted amongst 83 stations so far copied. At first I thought he was a pirate, but he seems to have been spotted by many in the USA and Europe so may well be genuine.

10m FT8 RX today (Saturday)

Since about 0800z, I have been on 10m FT8 RX with the 4 transistor 10FT8R direct conversion RX and the tiny indoor loop again. So far (at 0812z) just one German station spotted.

UPDATE 0845z:  7 stations spotted so far on 10m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 0942z: 14 stations spotted on RX. 

10m FT8 RX yesterday

Yesterday I was on 10m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop antenna and the 10FT8R RX. As well as Europeans, stations were spotted in the USA and Caribbean. It was a good day with 314 stations spotted on RX. 

Growing fast - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows our grandchildren growing fast. 

Sunspots - Saturday June 5th 2021

Solar flux is 77 and the SSN 30. A=40 and K=0.

Website issues?

 Although I have tried successfully with Chrome and Windows 10, I have had a report that the drop-down menus cannot be seen. In the past I have had some issues where I can see things OK but others cannot.

On the www.g3xbm.co.uk new webpages (please make sure your browser cache is empty so you see the new pages) can you see the drop-down menus OK? If not, please  tell me.

24GHz wideband FM

Quite a few people have got active on 10GHz WBFM using very low cost HB100 Doppler radar modules. 

I see that similar units are available for 24GHz. although I am not sure if these are suitable for WBFM or how they can be moved in frequency, if necessary.  

They are available from Amazon, but suspect they would be  even lower cost on eBay.

See https://www.amazon.co.uk/CDM324-Induction-Channel-Microwave-Intelligent/dp/B07G152FDC/ref=psdc_1338197031_t3_B075QCPNBP .

E layer openings

We are familiar with the spring and summer Es (sporadic E) openings, especially on bands like 10m and 6m. These are usually about 1500km. Occasionally multi-hop openings occur. Some of the long distance contacts may be multi-hop. 

However, I have long suspected that some very long paths are due to some other form of E layer propagation. Every June 6m opens up to Japan, which is a very long way. This regular propagation seems to be linked with mesospheric clouds that seem to form at this time of year. 

EI7GL reports on his blog that there have been at least 2 openings from Australia to Europe on 6m this spring. The probability of this being multi-hop Es seems extremely low. My theory (totally unproved) is this is due to some sort of chordal hop E layer propagation. This could also account for some of the transatlantic openings.

We have a lot to learn about E layer propagation. This is one reason 6m is called the "magic band".

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/50-mhz.html .