What a view! - NOT amateur radio

My grandson went up to the very top of the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool today. The view from the top is spectacular. The photo shows the Catholic Cathedral at the far end of Hope Street. 

Grandson - NOT amateur radio

 

A photo of our elder grandson yesterday. 

VLF Earth-mode

 Amateur VLF is different. As antennas for TX are usually large and powers high to get a signal radiated, very stable and long signals are needed that are often integrated over hours or days in very narrow bandwidths. For RX only tiny E-field probe antennas can be very effective. 

On my website www.g3xbm.co.uk you will find links to my earth-mode blog which gives details of my experiments below 10kHz with 5W and simple gear up to 6km. Big antennas are NOT needed for this. Signals are visible on a PC screen in seconds.  This is a very accessible way of getting on amateur VLF. 

Who me? - NOT amateur radio

Red-legged partridges on our lawn. These handsome birds were introduced in the UK in the 1800s and can be quite tame. 

Sunspots - Tuesday August 17th 2021

 Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 14.  A=7 and K=1.

Pye Telecom PF1 on 70cm

Back in the late 1960s these were revolutionary radios bringing communications to beat policemen. 

A few found their way on to 70cm although they were only about 50mW. Years ago I built a 2m super-regen RX in a PF1 RX case.

See the Pye Telecom History website for details. 

2016 - NOT amateur radio

 

This photo shows our back garden 5 years ago. It is similar this year. We have no pears as frost killed the blossom, yet we have a laden crabapple tree and sunflowers yet to come out. The first ones were eaten by the Muntjac Deer! 

Sunspots - Monday August 16th 2021

 Solar flux is 75 and the SSN 23 .  A=10 and K=3.

Almost normal - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday we went to Bury St Edmunds as an earlier post shows. It felt almost normal, which was good to see. 

Bury St Edmunds is a delightful place. If you live in the UK and have never been, I thoroughly recommend it.

10m WSPR TX 500mW (Sunday)

 Transmissions started at about 0840z. No spots yet.

UPDATE 0918z: 3 unique spots already. Promising!

UPDATE 1055z:  4 unique spots of me so far today. 

UPDATE 1355z: 7 unique spots of me today on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW.