Daddy Long Legs - NOT amateur radio

This is the season for daddy long legs (crane flies). The photo shows one seen a few years ago. It was a Facebook memory from 2015.

 I like the way they bumble into things. They are harmless and appear stupid! 

At our old house we counted 15 in our bedroom one night. I have not seen any yet this year.

Yesterday on 10m FT8 RX

There was a good opening to South America on 10m FT8 yesterday as the map shows. 10m FT8 Es still occurs, but is less frequent. 

Sunspots - Saturday August 28th 2021

Solar flux is 90 and the SSN is 73.  A=19 and K=3.

Anglesey Abbey dahlias - NOT amateur radio

These dahlias, in the dahlia border at nearby Anglesey Abbey, are usually stunning, but they were very late this year. 

I think they held them back, but there were also late frosts and a lot of wet weather.

10m FT8 QRP (Friday)

In a few moments I hope to go on 10m FT8 with 2.5W QRP. My usual pattern is to CQ for a few minutes then go mostly on RX. Very little happened yesterday until late. 

UPDATE 0812z:  One local spot of me  on TX by G4KPX (13km) and just 1 G spotted on RX - 2E1RDX (139km).

UPDATE 1130z:  34 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX. Lots more Es than yesterday! 

UPDATE 1252z:  35 stations spotted. It looks like the Es has stopped for now. 👎

Yesterday on 10m FT8

After a very slow start, 10m opened up with Es in the evening. In all, 15 stations were spotted across Europe. FT8 is a good mode as there are plenty of monitors and it works with weak signals. 

Kitten sitting - NOT amateur radio

As one of our sons is on holiday, we are calling in to his home to look after his kitten which is very playful. 

Here he is about to chase and pounce on a toy.

XBM80-2

 

Yesterday, I posted the 10m Lesser Chirpy. This was based on the 80m XBM80-2 QRP CW transceiver which is shown here. 

You would be hard pressed to make this transceiver much simpler! Do not be afraid to experiment - I am sure you can do better. 

S1 provides offset between RX and TX by shifting the crystal frequency, how much will depend on C1. You could always make C1 adjustable so the offset is what you want.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/80m-xbm80-2 .

SPAM - NOT amateur radio

Usually the SPAM filter on my Gmail works well. Just occasionally it thinks a genuine email is SPAM, but this rare. I'd guess this is less than 1 in 1000. 

Recently I have been getting SPAM emails in my inbox about my subscription for Norton antivirus. The spelling and grammar are appalling. Usually I just report this as SPAM, I guess they are using many email addresses so this gets through SPAM filters. I do not use Norton!

Sunspots - Friday August 27th 2021

 Solar flux is 89 and the SSN 47.  A=6 and K=3.