Solar flux is 89 and the SSN 35. A=13 and K=5.
12 Oct 2021
11 Oct 2021
University of the Third Age - NOT amateur radio
One of the joys of being retired is learning purely for the sake of learning. No exams!
We are lucky in Cambridge having a huge range of courses on all sorts of subjects. Some are in Cambridge and some are on Zoom. Often they are given by ex-university people and are excellent.
Today, I had my first lecture. It was on Zoom and called "The Pale Blue Dot" about all aspects of the Earth. It was good to have this from an ex-university lecturer whilst drinking coffee at home.
On Friday I go on the bus into Cambridge for my course on Medieval History. As an engineer, this is a subject I know little about! Learning can be fun.
See https://www.u3ac.org.uk/ .
10m FT8 RX
Since about 0910z, I have been on 10m FT8 RX. So far, 39 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost ZS1J (9744km) in the Western Cape, South Africa.
UPDATE 1809z: 124 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX. Interestingly, nothing from North America. Furthermost was VP8LP (12773km) in the Falkland Is.
More King's College - NOT amateur radio
Years ago I went to a weekly meeting in room X6.
The river is the Cam.
Antennas for 10m
One of the great things about this band is antennas are small and even a short distance above ground is significant in terms of wavelengths. CB half wave verticals can work well on 10m and a dipole is very small.
In the past I used a small wire halo which I called the Homebase-10 as most parts could be got from the local hardware shop. It has been on the blog before but with 10m "waking up" now might be a great time to have a go.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/antennas/homebase10-10m-halo .
Intelligent life "out there" - NOT amateur radio
What seems probable, but not certain, is that "out there" somewhere intelligent life does exist. Even with pessimistic estimates there are 10s of intelligent civilisations in our galaxy. There are trillions of galaxies in the observable universe, so the probability of intelligent life existing somewhere goes up. They may be so far away that we cannot interact with them, but with time we may detect some of them.
All this makes me puzzled. All religions seem too small and too human-centric. Life is a total mystery.
10 Oct 2021
Simple radio project
My original post was banned by the censors as it violated blogger guidelines, probably as the algorithm saw certain words. Talk about nanny state!! In the gaps, insert letters!
With my own ch***n, I totally failed to get them interested in amateur radio! In 2 weeks time my gran###n is here. His d*d has asked me to work with him on a radio project.
I have ordered a TA-7642 (ZN414) TRF chip from GQRP club sales, but realise I shall also need a small slab ferrite rod, a high impedance crystal earpiece and a 1.5V battery holder. My building skills are really poor compared with before my stroke: what would have been really easy is now hard.
If I cannot find these parts, I shall have to build an LED signaller instead.
It would be good to see another novice operator. Oh look, there's another flying pig. 😉
10m FT8 RX
At about 1350z, I QSYed to 10m FT8 RX as 6m seemed so dire. So far, 7 stations have been spotted with the furthermost CO8RH (7231km) in Cuba.
10m seems to be reliably opening to the USA and Canada again via F2.
UPDATE 1526z: So far this afternoon, 83 stations have been spotted on 10m FT8 RX, mostly in the USA.
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