The early medieval period - NOT amateur radio

One of the joys of retirement is learning for fun. One of my blanks is early medieval history, so I am doing a University of the Third Age course on Medieval History. 

We are now well through the autumn term, so I thought it would be a good thing to make a note of the main things that I have recently been made aware of. Not all relate to Medieval History.

• In the early Christian church there were lots of different beliefs
• What was actually included in what we now know as the bible was a distillation done many centuries later.
• In many ways early Islam was more tolerant than early Christianity.
• The modern state of Israel was not what the UK 1917 Balfour Declaration expected. Jewish homeland yes, Jewish state, no.
• Many of the Jews in modern Israel may not be descended from the Jews of old!
• Many Arabs hate the West as our track record is poor.
• Religions have a lot to answer for over the centuries.

30m FT8 RX (Saturday) with the Wellgood active loop

As 10m was poor here, I QSYed 30m FT8 RX, which I had not yet tried on the Wellgood active loop. I QSYed at about 1527z. So far, 18 stations spotted (all EU) at 1520z.

UPDATE 1803z:  77 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1952z:  92 stations spotted.

UPDATE 2137z:   110 stations spotted today.

10m

 At about 1230z, I QSYed to 10m FT8 RX with the indoor Wellgood active loop.  No stations spotted as yet.

UPDATE 1510z:  Still no spots on the Wellgood active loop.   Now QRT on 10m. Not sure if this is conditions or the loop NF being too high.

Sunspots Zoom lecture

 Last night the Cambridge Radio Club (CDARC) has another very successful Zoom talk. This time it was about sunspots and given by Martin G3ZAY who has written the HF column in RadCom for some years. Being on Zoom we were joined by a member in Canada. I am a great fan of Zoom lectures, which are far better than I ever expected.

Round Church, Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

There are very few round churches in the UK. 

Cambridge has one.  I think it is now a brass rubbing centre.

St John's College Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

This photo was taken yesterday in Cambridge.  It was taken from outside the Round Church.

15m FT8 RX with the Wellgood active loop RX antenna

For about 2 hours I have been on 15m FT8 RX with the Wellgood active loop RX antenna on the shack window.

So far today, 276 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost VK4ZC (16530km) in Australia. 

Even as high as 15m (21MHz), the Wellgood loop on the shack window works really well and I have made no attempt whatsoever to optimise it. It is just stuck on with Blutak! I shall have to try it on 10m!

UPDATE 1225z:  359 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Saturday November 27th 2021

 Solar flux is 92 and the SSN 52. A=4 and K=1.

160m FT8 RX (Friday)

Since about 1935z, I have been on 160m FT8 RX with the Wellgood active loop on the shack window.  Furthermost is UX0KR (1795km). So far, 37 stations have been spotted. It is now 1944z.

The Wellgood active RX loop

As you can see, I have used this quite a bit in the last week. It was designed by George Smart M1GEO after he accidentally cooked his Wellbrook active loop! 

Overall, it works very well, but I wonder if it is less good with weak signals on the higher HF bands. Mostly, EU stations are copied, but where the RX noise figure dominates, maybe it is less effective?

See https://www.george-smart.co.uk/projects/wellgood_loop/ .