Sunspots - Sunday January 9th 2022

Solar flux is 102 and the SSN 31.  A=14 and K=3.

472kHz WSPR RX (Saturday)

As my transverter is broken on TX, I am on 472kHz WSPR RX with the coax to the 144MHz big-wheel tuned via the ferrite rod ATU for a change. 

The RX was turned on at about 1900z.  So far, no spots.

UPDATE 2024z:  7 spots so far with the furthermost LA8AV/1 (1035km).

King's Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

Back in the early 1970's I went to a weekly meeting in King's room X6, visible in this photo taken in the autumn I think. 

Happy days long ago.

8m NoV application

This was first submitted mid October to OFCOM, so I chased today and got an immediate acknowledgement saying, along with other stuff:

Dear Customer,

We have received your request and a member of the Licensing team will be processing your enquiry in due course. Your Case Reference number is provided above, and we would ask you to ensure this is quoted on all future communications.

Planned system maintenance Thursday 25th November to Monday 13th December

Ofcom are in the process of upgrading their Finance systems and as such licensing services will be significantly reduced between Thursday 25th November to Monday 13th December. 

They cannot even update their own acknowledgements!! I presume this is 2021.  Let us hope they wake up next week and manage to give a meaningful response. Miracles do happen. 

In the meantime boys and girls carry on playtime...

Early 481THz experiments

This photo popped up as a Facebook memory today. 

It shows my early trials trying to receive my 481THz optical CW beacon in daylight along the road. As I recall, signals were very strong. Much much further was achieved later including over the horizon (NLOS). 

I guess this was 2012? The gear still exists and still works. It has not been used much since before my stroke.

Amaryllis - NOT amateur radio

We usually have a couple of these on the go at this time of year. They grow from bulbs at a tremendous rate. It is great fun seeing them shoot up and flower. Later we put them outside and sometimes they flower again in the next winter. This one is very tall and fell over! We have now added some more soil and stakes, hoping it will stay upright.

Original 10m Chirpy?

This photo was (re)discovered yesterday. I think it was the original Chirpy transceiver that was replaced by the Lesser Chirpy as this had far less chirp.

I think this dates from 2011 or 2012.

10m FT8 QRP (Saturday)

The 10m FT8 gear was turned on at 0920z. So far nobody has spotted my 2.5W QRP and just one station has been spotted on RX - DO1DU (533km) at 0940z.

UPDATE 1520z:  With just 17 stations spotted, I was beginning to suspect something was wrong at my end.  A quick check indicated all here was well. On RX the furthermost is ZS4JAN (9393km). I did a brief TX with 2.5W at about 1510z, but nobody spotted me.

472kHz ATU

When running a long wire (actually a short wire, HI) on 472kHz TX with my 12W output transverter, I used a simple ferrite rod ATU on the shack table.

As long as ferrites don't saturate, they are perfectly fine in this application. With 10mW ERP, I have been spotted in Finland  with this arrangement many times on 472kHz WSPR.

Sunspots - Saturday January 8th 2022

Solar flux is 107 and the SSN 38.  A=2 and K=1.