Sixbox 6m AM QRP transceiver

This was missing from my main website. It has now been added. I did not realise it was missing!

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/homebrew/sixbox

Laurel hedge cutting - NOT amateur radio

We have a laurel hedge at the front (about 30m long), that we planted 8 years ago. Usually I trim it twice a year. It has grown a lot! 

Whereas I could do it all in one go, I now have several goes over several days. I am getting older and get tired more quickly. After about 10 minutes, I need a rest.

The laurel hedge provides a good screen from the path by the windmill, but it is hard work! 

Sunspots - Sunday June 20th 2021

 Solar flux is 77 and the SSN 25. A=4 and K=1. 

Pasties - NOT amateur radio

A few weeks ago I tried my hand at making my own pasties. They turned out well. Just a pity I am on a diet and cannot have them at the moment.

As a Westcountryman, I like my pasties! The ones shown in the photo are vegetarian, but I also tried meat ones.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/non-amateur-radio/pasties.

"Over the horizon" optical experiments

Since 2013, my health has precluded proper field experiments at 481THz or thereabouts (optical). I am just too wobbly. I tried once, but I just could not manage it sadly.

One of the things I enjoyed was experimenting with weak signal optical signalling over the horizon. My own tests used QRSS (slow CW) received on a PC . There was absolutely no sign of the optical signal in the sky, yet there was a clear trace visible on the PC. 

Had I been well, these experiments would have continued and far greater ranges would have been possible.

 See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/optical-nanowaves/over-the-horizon  .

Watery - NOT amateur radio

East Anglia is famous for being flat.  Actually, there are hills, especially in Norfolk and Suffolk.

However, we get some great skies and there is a unique beauty as the photo collage shows. 

These are the various waterways near where we live.

10m FT8 RX yesterday with the tiny indoor loop antenna

In all, 380 stations spotted yesterday. Not too bad. 

I am still not sure how far down the loop is compared with a reasonable outside antenna. 

Dealer profits

For a long time I have thought dealers aimed to make excessive profits. We all know that they have costs such as wages, premises etc.

Maybe I am being unfair? 

I am all for fair profits (after all, this is their business), but I object to excessive profits. In my opinion many dealers and magazines will go out of business in the coming years as most amateurs get old and buy fewer radios. Magazines will suffer as there will be fewer dealers and less revenue.

Maybe the strategy is to make as much money as possible whilst they can? 

Sunspots - Saturday June 19th 2021

 Solar flux is 77 and the SSN 24. A=7 and K=1.

How far down is my loop?

As you may know, I have no external antenna for 10m at present. Instead I use the 50cm loop on the shack windowsill. 

It is extremely hard to measure the difference in performance of, say, a dipole and my loop. Even over quite small distances signal levels can vary greatly. There are many factors: location, time, directivity, polarisation, radiation angle etc. 

The best I could do is compare signal levels at similar times in the best and worst directions of the loop with that received by others locally. The best I can work out is that the loop is up to 6dB down. There are quite wide errors bars on this.

Overall, the loop is performing better than I expected.

If there is F2 DX from the USA or South America later, I shall try again. With lower angle signals the differences might be greater.

G0LRD (26km from me) copies far more, although if he can copy signals that are 6dB weaker, I would expect this to make a considerable difference on FT8.

It will be interesting to see my results later with an external antenna. The impression I get is that the small loop is not too bad on Es signals from Europe, but it performs less well with low angle DX signals.

UPDATE 1915z: Well there's a surprise!  CX2CC (11128km) was coming through just now. I was getting him 5dB S/N better than G0LRD (26km). This may just be the momentary polarisation being optimum. Still it proves the loop cannot be too bad.

UPDATE 2101z:  At the moment I am confused: many times G0LRD is copying better than me and he certainly is spotting far more stations than me. Nonetheless the loop is not at all bad considering its small size and being indoors!