BBC weather app NOT amateur radio

This is useless!! At the moment we're meant to have light cloud and no sun. It's sunny!! As a BBC licence payer, I object to them wasting my money. As a joke it is fine, but it is rarely useful as a forecasting aid. OK the UK weather is changeable, but this is terrible even in real time. In the meantime, the best forecast is Windows - just look out of them!! 😁

10m FT8

At 0634z I turned on my 10m FT8 gear. One station spotted (Es?) and my short transmission was spotted by 1 station in England. 

UPDATE 0946z: So far, 155 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX with the furthermost VK6AS (14459km) in Western Australia.

UPDATE 1156z:  260 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX so far today.

Excessive? - NOT amateur radio

 

A householder in a nearby town likes to decorate his house with lights at Christmas. 

It must be a hazard for aircraft flying overhead. I am glad I am not paying for the electricity! 

At the moment, we all need cheering up.

6m MSK144 overnight

Well that was a failure! Absolutely nothing spotted! 

Overnight I was hoping to catch the end of the meteor shower. Either I was too late, I was on the wrong frequency, wrong mode, activity was low, or the antenna was not good enough. I have copied DX on 6m with this antenna via MS in the past. 

Ooh ahh - NOT amateur radio

UK readers will get this. 

The man in the photo is Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister.  He is well known for making promises he does not keep. He has charisma, but is fast losing his party votes. He has become a liability.  

My bet is he will be replaced by the spring. 

Sunspots - Friday December 24th 2021

Solar flux is 130 and the SSN 143. A=4 and K=1. 

6m MSK144 RX

At about 1900z I QSYed to 6m MSK144 RX on 50.280MHz, hoping to catch the tail end of the Ursids meteor shower. For the antenna I only have the V2000 vertical omni. No spots as of 2140z unsurprisingly. 

I shall leave it running overnight, just in case, but I am not too hopeful.

I think this is the correct frequency in Europe.

Yet another Covid-19 joke - NOT amateur radio

This was sent to me yesterday and you may have already seen it. I have no idea where it came from originally.  It amused me! 

OK -  less of the "simple things please simple minds"  in the back row!!

SAQ transmission - tomorrow

The historic 17.2kHz VLF alternator CW TX that is a World Heritage Site and almost 100 years old is on the air tomorrow, December 24th with a special message. They will QSL. 

I am a proud possessor of a rare QSL card from them many years ago. I think this was with my VLF converter and loop antenna. I thought this converter was on my website, but it seems to be missing. I shall add it later. For now, see this page.

There is a very good software RX on my video channel. This with a simple antenna and small preamp connected to the PC sound card is all you need. 

The whole thing is being live streamed on YouTube I believe.

See https://alexander.n.se/en/ .

See also the software VLF receiver by SM6LKM on my video channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDxRhQYg7lQ .

UPDATE 1635z: The VLF up-converter should now be available via my G3XBM website (added today).

73s at 73

Today is my birthday and may I wish all blog readers a very happy Christmas and a good holiday. 

This was a mid-winter holiday way before it was adopted as a Christian festival, so enjoy it whatever your faith or none. 

The important thing is always to treat others as you would like to be treated - kindly and respectfully no matter who you are, your race, colour or gender. In the last analysis we are all the same.