Sunspots - Tuesday August 3rd 2021

Solar flux is 75 and the SSN 13.  A=17 and K=2.

Newmarket Flowers - NOT amateur radio

Newmarket is the world capital of horseracing. They also have some great flower displays. 

Those in the photo are near the Guineas shopping centre.  The hanging baskets are usually good too.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Monday)

Most of the morning, I have been on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW W5OLF TX WSPR beacon. So far, I have been spotted by 9 unique stations in Europe.

UPDATE 1415z: 17 unique stations have spotted my 500mW 10m WSPR so far today. See table.

UPDATE 1606z:  28 unique spots of me on 10m WSPR today.

6m FT8 RX

 Shortly, I intend to go on 6m FT8 RX with the V2000 vertical omni antenna. On previous mornings, I have preceded with a few minutes on QRP TX (2.5W).

UPDATE 1102z:  My very brief TX period resulted in 5 spots. On RX, 141 stations spotted.

ICOM IC-9700 VHF/UHF transceiver

This is the "sister" of the IC-7300 with very similar ergonomics. It covers 2m, 70cm and 23cm. It is more expensive than the IC-7300.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/vhfuhf-commercial-rigs/ic-9700 .

ICOM IC-7300

Over the last few years this SDR based transceiver from ICOM has led the field and become very popular. It is a 100W transceiver covering from 160m-4m (in Europe) with a built-in auto ATU.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/icom-ic-7300 .

Wicken windmill - NOT amateur radio

The nearby village of Wicken has 2 windmills although 1 is actually a windpump to pump water. The photo shows the one in the village. 

Sunspots - Monday August 2nd 2021

 Solar flux is 75 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

Salcombe 116 years ago! - NOT amateur radio

This photo shows Salcombe where I was a child. It was taken 116 years ago. There were fewer trees and houses. 

This was way before even my dad was born! 

Where I was born - NOT amateur radio

When I was young we lived in a council house. After WW2 Flete House, a very grand place, was a nursing home. It stayed as a nursing home until about 1955 I think. 

These days it has been converted into retirement flats.

It is on a big country estate going down to the River Erme in S.Devon.