Infilling - NOT amateur radio

We first came to this village in 1975 when the population was about 4000. Now it is around 7000. A lot of spare land in gardens and waste ground has been in filled with developers hoping to make a quick buck. 

There seems to be a lack of houses that "real" people need. I guess they make far more profit from selling big houses to those that can afford them. I think the law states that for a certain number of houses on a site, a certain number have to be "social houses", so usually the developers just manage to avoid this.

70cm scatter?

Yesterday evening there an FT8 contest on 70cm. What amazed me was the very distant signals spotted on RX with just the vertical omni antenna. In all 30 stations were spotted in 5 countries.

I am wondering if some kind of scatter was possible? Activity levels probably are too low to see this in normal times, but in an FT8 contest such propagation may be noticeable. Aircraft reflection could be better and troposcatter is also possible.

I am tempted to leave my 70cm FT8 system on this evening to see what happens outside of contests. The combination of FT8 and 70cm could be potent.

The photo shows the activity on 70cm last evening. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Our University of the 3rd Age lecture yesterday (by Zoom - 148 participants) was about AI. Few of us realise just what an impact this could make on our lives in years to come. 

We have the potential to make artificial intelligence that could be smarter than us and perform tasks that we could not do with our small brains.  

AI has positive and negative impacts. We cannot be Luddites, but we need to look to the future with our eyes wide open. There could be profound changes in the years ahead.

Sunspots - Thursday November 11th 2021

 Solar flux is 88 and the SSN 37.  A=8 and K=0.

70cm FT8 contest

This evening there is a contest on 70cm FT8. 12 stations have been spotted with the furthermost PF1B (305km). 

I am using the V2000 vertical omni antenna. Although I had 1 QSO and have been spotted by 3 stations, I am mostly RX only.

UPDATE 1850z: 15 stations spotted with the furthermost EI8KN (518km).

UPDATE 1950z:  20 stations spotted. This is with the vertical antenna!

UPDATE 2053z:  29 stations spotted on RX and 5 stations have spotted me with the furthermost F5RZC (208km). This is by far the most stations I have spotted at one time on 70cms. My power is 2.5W. See map for the stations spotted at 2035z.

UPDATE 2200z: 30 stations spotted.

10m AM

 One of the pleasures of the last solar peak was hearing the USA AM signals just above 29MHz. One of the beauties of 10m is its size. With 1.7MHz of bandwidth all modes can be accommodated without issues including FM and AM.

10m (28MHz) operation

10m (28MHz) is probably my favourite band. Antennas are modest and some remarkable DX can be worked with low power. I am sure beams might help when conditions are marginal, but I obtained 10m QRP SSB DXCC about 30 years ago with simple wire antennas. I have even heard USA AM stations with a super-regen and a base loaded whip in the car.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/10m-operation .

70cms (432MHz) band

In the past I have had a lot of fun on this band, which is shared with other services. It seems to experience more localised tropo openings than 2m. Antennas are small. They look like UHF TV antennas.

A reminder that there is a 70cm FT8 contest this evening from 1700z to 2100z on 432.174MHz. Many PAs use vertical polarisation, so I shall be using my V2000 vertical.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/70cm-operation .

10m FT8 RX

In a few moments, I intend to go on 10m FT8 RX. It is now 1006z.

UPDATE 1105: So far today, 139 stations already spotted with the furthermost VK6DW (14466km). The band seems busy. See photo.

UPDATE 1208z:  197 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1357z:  284 stations spotted in the last day on 10m FT8 RX.  10m is a good DX band again! I must soon listen just above 29MHz for USA AM stations.

80m FT8 RX

In all, 932 stations spotted last evening and overnight on 80m FT8 RX on what must be one of the most stupid antenna and ground systems on the planet, proving that for FT8 RX almost anything can be used. In my case this was the coax to my 2m big-wheel, and a mains plug ground, resonated via a ferrite rod ATU on the bench.