14 Feb 2022
More farmshop breakfast - NOT amateur radio
13 Feb 2022
VHF/UHF FT8
As recent activity sessions have shown, FT8 on 2m and 70cm can be very effective. Although many QSOs are due to tropo, I am convinced that some sort of scatter is often involved.
This maybe aircraft scatter or troposcatter. With FT8, scatter is possible with far smaller stations. It would not surprise me if scatter was more likely as the frequency is increased. It might be very effective at 23cm or higher with FT8, although I have no evidence.
If I had 23cm FT8, I might try some tests.
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.
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 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!!
Farm shop breakfast - NOT amateur radio
We treated our son and grandson to breakfast at our local farmshop cafe.
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
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