U3A Zoom - NOT amateur radio

Every Wednesday, the Cambridge University of the 3rd Age holds a lecture open to members. Because of Covid, this is initially on Zoom this term. Yesterday there were at least 115 people on and next week the speaker is in British Columbia in western Canada! I am a great fan of Zoom talks as speakers and audience members can be anywhere.

Sunspots - Thursday October 21st 2021

 Solar flux is 76 and the SSN 11.  A=6 and K=1.

Earth-mode VLF

In days past, I managed a fair bit of success with VLF earth-mode. This is a form of VLF communication that many can enjoy. Gear can be simple and low power.

See https://sites.google.com/site/sub9khz/vlf-using-earth-mode/g3xbm-earth-mode-blog .

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ytg1yoyiezffsfSqdL2kWZW_Fx3sbru/view?usp=sharing .

10GHz (3cm)

Microwaves have largely passed me by. Apart from making a Gunn oscillator in the 1970s  (I think) in some waveguide and testing it over about 10m indoors, I have done nothing at 10GHz. I did borrow a 1296MHz RX converter and did some tests many years ago.

Some take microwaves very seriously and regularly achieve some remarkable distances, often by rain scatter. Others play at 10GHz with WBFM.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/homebrew/10ghz .

Climate change - NOT amateur radio

There is evidence all around us that the climate is changing. Winter snow in East Anglia is rare now and it is far far wetter.  At some point very soon we have to take this very very seriously. Yet in the UK, we seem to be doing very very little. What we do is usually too little and too late. We seem to be reactive rather than proactive in most things sadly.

Get real!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58971131 .

10m FT8 RX (Wednesday)

As there is no sign at all of thunderstorms anywhere for hundreds of miles, I think I shall turn on my 10m FT8 RX later. According to the thunder map all storms are very distant indeed.

See https://www.lightningmaps.org. 

UPDATE 0847z: The storms appear to have come this way, but tracked north and missed us, so I have turned my system on at 0840z. So far, 5 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1000z:  6 Europeans spotted with the furthermost OE4KSF (1285km). Most of these Europeans I think are E layer rather than F2 backscatter. If it was backscatter I would expect to see some further afield stations such as Israel, European Russia and Ukraine via F2.  I am seeing none of these. Perhaps a brief patch of E layer ionisation forms allowing a very brief opening and then disappears?

UPDATE 1118z: 34 stations spotted today so far. Furthermost is 5T5PA (3791km).

UPDATE 1504z: Because of the thunder I went temporarily QRT, but am on again now. 197 stations spotted so far today.

UPDATE 1725z:  242 stations spotted today. It looks as if the F2 propagation on 10m is now ending as it is getting dark.

UPDATE 2152z: QRT. In the end 243 stations spotted, but I missed some late ones as I had to go out. 

Malborough, Devon, UK 1927 - NOT amateur radio

This is a photo of where my parents lived in the late 20th century. The photo was taken in 1927.

Several ancestors (going back centuries) are buried in the churchyard.

Dalham - NOT amateur radio

Dalham has been on this blog before. It is near Newmarket and is filled with thatched cottages. This just one of many. 

481THz line of sight

For the uninitiated, 481THz is red light. 

My main interest in lightbeam communication was over the horizon beaconing (NLOS), but I did have one speech QSO line-of-sight over about 11km. As mentioned before, all my optical gear was homemade in the back of the garage. Most of the test gear was also homemade. In fact, optical gear is easier than microwaves and there are plenty of sources of ideas on the internet. My own page may trigger some ideas. The circuit above was used in the speech QSO.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/optical-nanowaves/line-of-sight .

Sunspots - Wednesday October 20th 2021

 Solar flux is 76 and the SSN 11. A=14 and K=1.