12 Feb 2022

King's Lynn - NOT amateur radio

This is a fine town with lots of old buildings. At the same time it is very working class. I like it. It is worth a visit. 

The photo shows the Custom House and the statue of George Vancouver.

South African 8m beacon widely copied in Europe

The South African 8m beacon ZS6WAB on 40.675MHz CW had been widely copied in Europe in recent days. The propagation mode is unclear.

If these 8m beacons all used FT8 and were within a few kilohertz, monitoring would be so much easier as all could be monitored 24/7 with a single setting of PSKreporter.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ .

Optical experiments


In view of my earlier post, it is probably a good idea to point you to my pages on optical communications. I have not been able to do much in recent years because of my stroke, but there is nothing stopping others!

This is an area where the gear is easy, results can far exceed expectations and anyone can join in. As far as I know, no licence is needed.

All the gear uses low cost parts and can be assembled and tested in the back of the garage. Even test gear can be very simple and low cost. This really is great fun.

Some like to experiment with speech over very long distances. My "thing" was over the horizon. I was totally surprised that even when there was no sign at all of a signal, it could clearly be seen on a PC. The distance records for "over the horizon" are amazing. I think these used "cloud bounce", where signals are reflected off the base of clouds. In my case there were no clouds, so this was by refection off dust in the air I think.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/optical-nanowaves/over-the-horizon .

Travel rules relaxing - NOT amateur radio

Covid-19 is not over, but for most it is like a heavy cold now. 

Fewer people are hospitalised or die with the Omicron variants.  As a consequence travel rules have been relaxed in many places.

The economic consequences of restrictions are such that it is becoming better to treat it a bit like a bad cold: If you feel rough, don't travel or go to work or school. I think this is the right decision in England.

In the UK those asked to stay off work or school are causing harm to society. Of course, if you are unwell you try not to spread it to others like colds and flu. There is no longer any sense in imposing restrictions on the whole society. We have to take responsibility for ourselves.

In the UK the vast major majority of people have built up immunity through vaccines or prior exposure to a corona virus like a cold or even Omicron. Most will be exposed to Omicron. Only some will get ill and even fewer will end up in hospital. Interestingly, most who end up very ill are unvaccinated.

Get vaccinated for your sake as well as others!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60357901 .

481THz optical 10 years ago


The photo shows the tests done 10 years ago on 481THz over the horizon. 

160m FT8 RX last evening

At bedtime I turned off my 160m FT8 RX using the 10m antenna. In all, 237 stations were spotted. 

There would probably have been USA stations later, but I went QRT.

Sunspots - Saturday February 12th 2022

Solar flux is 113 and the SSN 86.  A=20 and K=3. 

11 Feb 2022

OFCOM weekly publications update

If you look on the OFCOM website, it has updated the list of available publications.

It would be nice if OFCOM gave me an update on my 8m NoV, submitted October 2021 and which I have chased for an update several times in the last month. I was hoping to start the experiment in about 2 weeks time!! Needless to say, nothing heard, despite promises of an update.

Hello - is there anybody there at OFCOM?

160m FT8 RX

I QSYed to 160m FT8 RX with the 10m antenna and have been on for about 90 minutes.  So far, 186 stations spotted.

King's Lynn - NOT amateur radio

This is a strange town with some fine old buildings.  We visited there yesterday.

These days, it is a very working class town. 

In years gone by it was a very important trading port quite close to the North Sea.