Sunspots - Wednesday December 8th 2021

 Solar flux is 79 and the SSN 13. A=5 and K=1.

Active RX loops

Some months ago I swapped my little used X80 multi-band vertical for a Wellgood RX active loop. This is essentially the same as the Wellbrook RX active loop.

I just use mine stuck to the shack window. It cannot even be turned! It has been used from 2200m to 15m. It may even work at 10m, but I have not tried it. The convenience of not having to swap or tune antennas is great. As far as I can tell it is every bit as good as my alternative antennas.

Christmas cards earlier? - NOT amateur radio

Perhaps as we all need cheering up, it seems Christmas cards are arriving earlier this year. I don't think this is my imagination. 

15m FT8 RX (Tuesday)

At about 0950z, I turned on my 15m RX using the Wellgood active loop on the shack window. At 0954z,  27 stations already spotted with the furthermost ZS6AF (9156km).

UPDATE 1434z:  334 stations spotted so far today on 15m FT8 RX (see map).

UPDATE 1727z:  446 stations spotted.

10m QRP WSPR (Tuesday)

I keep forgetting that if I an RXing using the Wellgood active loop, my 10m antenna is free and I can go on 10m WSPR TX with the W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon! This puts out 500mW 100% of the time, but randomly moves the TX in the 200Hz WSPR window on every TX period to avoid being clobbered by a strong station. It was turned on about 0950z.

UPDATE 1816z: 3 unique stations have spotted me. I still have some doubts about the authenticity of FY5KE (7110km).

Start them young

This photo may have been on a few months ago. I post in several places and forget! 

It shows one of our grandsons building a radio. He loved it and was good at soldering very quickly. I had forgotten the thrill of hearing stations on something you had built.

10m Tenbox

With 10m again becoming a good DX band, it does not seem right talking about a simple cross-town natterer for 10m!  Mind you 10m is often a daylight DX band and there are plenty of times when it is dark when the band is totally unused.

Derivatives of this simple radio might make an ideal 10m cross-town natterer. Just above 29MHz would be an ideal spot with plenty of space and very low chances of causing anyone else problems. This receiver has heard USA AM stations with just a base loaded whip on the car, although I would not recommend it for serious DX work.

In my mind I see a rig a bit like a tiny Heathkit Twoer (remember these?) with a tunable RX and crystal controlled TX. On a suitable PCB it could make a nice club project. Improvements would include an AF amplifier to drive a loudspeaker and maybe a very simple linear to bring the power up to a few watts of RF.

I cannot imagine the rig costing much more than £10-20. Put it another way, how many cups of coffee or beers will that be?

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

40m FT8 overnight

Gradually yesterday I went to lower bands ending up on 40m FT8.  In all cases I was using the Wellgood active antenna on the shack window.

In all, 389 stations spotted on 40m FT8 RX with the furthermost YC9FZ (12452km) on Java.

Sunspots - Tuesday December 7th 2021

Solar flux is 80 and the SSN 14.  A=7 and K=1. 

40m FT8 RX (Monday)

Since 1844z, I have been on 40m FT8 RX using the Wellgood active loop. At 1931z, 12 stations had been spotted.

UPDATE 2158z:  62 stations spotted on 40m FT8 RX this evening.