UK post office scandal - NOT amateur radio

This is an unbelievable scandal. Back in the early 2000s several hundreds of UK sub-postmasters were audited.  Apparently many were accused of fraud and were even put in jail. Some even committed suicide.

It turns out the software was at fault! These people were totally wronged.

The person that was allegedly in charge at the time is now an ordained church minister! I cannot believe this person has not been put in jail and the keys thrown away. This is a total injustice!  This person and whoever else was in charge back then should carry the can for this injustice.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60335109 .

10m FT8 QRP (Sunday)

After a brief period on QRP TX (2.5W and spotted well in Israel) I am now RX only. At 1315z 52 stations spotted. I have been in for about 20 minutes.

UPDATE 1358z:   91 stations spotted today.

UPDATE 1415z:  117 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX so far.

UPDATE 2011z:   Now QRT.  287 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX today.

Yippee - GQ3XBM in June

Well, I for one will not be applying for this NoV which allows me to add Q to celebrate the queen's platinum jubilee in June 2022. If OFCOM's speed is any guide, I might get it in 2024!!

See https://rsgb.org/main/operating/licensing-novs-visitors/online-nov-application/hmq-platinum-jubilee-nov/

Farm shop breakfast - NOT amateur radio

We treated our son and grandson to breakfast at our local farmshop cafe. 

King's Lynn minster - NOT amateur radio

This is a photo of the entrance to the minster. 

10FT8R 10m FT8 RX

Once again 10m is good. On FT8 RX most days, most continents can be received on simple low wire antennas. 

When 10m is like this, it is quite useful to have a RX that does not tie up the "big rig". One such simple RX is the 10FT8R, which I designed and made about a year ago. It was in RSGB RadCom and is on my website where a clearer schematic may be found.  The crystal needed was low cost. If a 14.037MHz crystal can be found then the inductor is series with the crystal can be removed and the connection just shorted.

Despite its low cost and simplicity, it works really well. For "one offs" simple dead big construction is fine. As a club project a PCB would be useful.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/10ft8r-rx

Sunspots - Sunday February 13th 2022

 Solar flux is 111 and the SSN 54.  A=13 and K=3.

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 .