Cyclamens - NOT amateur radio

Every autumn, my wife grows cyclamens as house plants. They add colour through the dark days. 

Batson - NOT amateur radio

Batson is a village near Salcombe in Devon where I come from. As you can see there are lots of thatched cottages. At one time these were hovels, but I expect many are now second homes and very expensive! 

Mostly gone - NOT amateur radio

In our garden, most trees were in leaf a week ago.  All has changed in the last week with most leaves fallen apart from a few hangers on. 

10m QRP WSPR TX (Tuesday)

At the moment I am on 10m WSPR TX using 500mW from my stand-alone W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon. So far,  (at 0930z) 3 spots only from local G4KPX (14km).

UPDATE 0955z:  15 spots so far of me with the furthermost EA8BFK (2880km).

UPDATE 1024z:  36 spots of me so far today. EA8BFK has been getting me as strong as -3dB S/N.

UPDATE 1926z:   QRT.  3 unique spots today.

15m FT8 RX (Tuesday)

As a complete change I am on 15m FT8 RX using the coax up to my 2m big-wheel antenna. The SWR looks quite low without any additional ATU. So far, 28 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1131z: 158 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX with this daft antenna! 

UPDATE 1213z: 207 stations spotted so far.

UPDATE 1435z:  Doh!! Guess who forgot to turn on the PC charger? The laptop went flat, so I had to turn it on again and check time was synced. 315 stations spotted with lots of USA stations.

UPDATE 1557z: So far today, 373 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX with the improvised antenna.

UPDATE 1835z:  403 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1929z:  QRT.

Oscar 100 activity

Every few weeks I try to give an update on activity levels on the narrowband transponder on geosynchronous Oscar 100. I last looked yesterday at activity and I can report that there is still plenty of space and activity looked low. The web SDR at Goonhilly is a useful resource.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .

Sunspots - Tuesday November 16th 2021

 Solar flux is 79 and the SSN 23.  A=9 and K=4.

Sowing - NOT amateur radio

This was a week ago. The fields are being sowed ready for next year. The seagulls behind the tractors are having a field day!

Sound powered TX

Looking back on my emails I see some correspondence from Michael Rainey AA1TJ about a sound powered CW TX he built. I think Michael's TX involved converting sound from his voice into CW RF. I have seen other circuits that convert the action of pressing the Morse key into RF. In theory, this would also work with speech. Of course, physics dictates that low milliwatts only can be achieved.

If you know of ideas, please let me know.

Getting thinner?

Through the post today I got my monthly copy of Practical Wireless. It seems a lot thinner. To my mind this says one thing: they are in trouble and are trying to save money. 

Not looked inside yet. It may be fewer adverts or fewer articles or both.  I have been a faithful subscriber for many years, but may stop.

In Rob Mannion's day I wrote articles for PW.

How much longer will it continue?

UPDATE 1700z: I am puzzled. Several issues have had a similar number of pages, yet it feels noticeably thinner to me. Is it thinner paper?

UPDATE 2156z:  It has been this thin for several months, although this is the first time I have noticed.