8 Feb 2022

160m FT8 QRP (Tuesday)

Using 2.5W and the 10m end fed antenna, I was copied by 4 stations with the furthermost G4MSA (222km). On RX, 101 stations spotted at 2058z, with the furthermost 4X1UF (3513km). 

UPDATE 2140z:  147 stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX this evening.

8m NoV application submitted October 2021

Still waiting any progress update from OFCOM.  No email today, despite 2 emails from me in last 24 hours.

ARRL National Convention

As far as I know, this is still on. It is in Orlando, Florida, USA this Thursday. As always, check with organisers first before travelling far. This may be of interest to people in the USA.  

See http://www.arrl.org/arrl-expo .

Hope - NOT amateur radio


These snowdrops give us the promise of spring to come. 

Quantum mechanics - NOT amateur radio

One advantage of being near Cambridge is we have a vast choice of courses for our University of the Third Age. Often we can tap into the knowledge of some very clever people.

I go into Cambridge to learn about Medieval History on Fridays and attend a course on Quantum Mechanics at home on Zoom on Tuesday mornings. The course on quantum mechanics is given by a Cambridge Ph.D man. He is a very good communicator, but it is hard.

The important things are the "take away" remarks. Repeated experiments seem to prove that quantum mechanics is right and our "conventional" view of reality is flawed. Indeed, our whole beliefs about space and time may be wrong. 

This is as much about philosophy as physics.

10m FT8 QRP (Tuesday)

After a brief period with 2.5W TX, I am RX only. So far today (at 0924z) just G6TUS (18km) spotting me and 15 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost 4I1EBC (10661km).

UPDATE 1217z:  261 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX with the furthermost VK8NSB (13781km). 

UPDATE 1350z:  333 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX from all over the world.

UPDATE 1520z:  387 stations spotted so far today on 10m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1935z: 494 stations spotted. QRT soon.

160m FT8 overnight


307 stations spotted on RX on 160m FT8 overnight. The antenna was the 10m end fed. 

Sunspots - Tuesday February 8th 2022

At the moment the usual site I get my solar data from seems to be offline. I shall add numbers as soon as I can. 

UPDATE 0930z: This site is still not responding. I shall try again later. If it still fails, I shall have to find a new source of data. See https://dx.qsl.net/propagation/index.html . It seems the host site dx.qsl.net is not working at the moment.

UPDATE 0938z:  It looks like the NOAA site (where the data comes from?) is undergoing maintenance.

UPDATE 1214z:  Well, the dx.qsl site is now working, but the best data is 2115z yesterday, not today. This is what follows.

Solar flux is 127 and the SSN 83. A=8 and K=2.  Remember, this is late yesterday, not today.

7 Feb 2022

160m FT8 QRP (Monday)

The 10m antenna turns out to have quite a reasonable SWR on 160m.  

Just for fun, I tried a few CQs on 160m FT8 TX with this antenna and was spotted by 2E0VDS (30km) and G0BNR (37km). 

On 160m FT8 RX 32 stations spotted by 1955z, after about 15 minutes!

UPDATE 2118z:  157 stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX.

Bell hunting - NOT amateur radio

Another shot of our grandson, this time church bell hunting!