A united Ireland? - NOT amateur radio

Politics in Ireland has been complex for a very long time. 

Every person I have ever met from Northern Ireland or Eire has been delightful. I had no idea whether they were Protestant or Catholic! To me, it does not matter.

What may change shortly, following May elections, is the First Minister in Northern Ireland may be in favour of rejoining Eire. The unionists, who identify as British, would hate this. Whatever happens in the future is complicated. BREXIT made matter worse.

I do not have answers.

There is some logic in becoming part of Eire, but I can understand the fears of the Unionists. Hopefully a solution can eventually be found that keeps everyone happy.

Will this happen in my lifetime? I doubt it.

Gmail - NOT amateur radio

For almost 20 years now, I have had a free Gmail email address. Overall, it  does a good job. 

All emails I want to keep I can store in folders and the SPAM folder does a pretty good job of filtering out stuff that is obviously junk.  Very, very, rarely it puts stuff in SPAM that isn't, so I always do a quick check before deleting. I usually empty my bin and SPAM folders most days. 

Even after all this time, I still have plenty of space. You get 15GB free, which is quite enough for most. Additional space can be bought for a very modest monthly fee.

If need be, one can block certain types of emails by applying filters. Overall, pretty good, especially as one's emails can be checked on any PC or tablet anywhere in the world.

8m licence

Electronically, I have submitted my 8m permit application to OFCOM.  They will be sent a paper copy in the post tomorrow.

15m FT8 RX

At about 1300z, I turned on 15m FT8 RX. So far, at 1320z, 70 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1402z:   141 stations spotted today on 15m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1627z:  Have been QRT for a while now on 15m FT8 RX.

Lavenham - NOT amateur radio

Lavenham in Suffolk, UK is a lovely village with lots of timber framed houses. It became rich centuries ago on the back of the wool trade. The photo shows the village church. 

Sunspots - Sunday February 20th 2022

 Solar flux is 96 and the SSN 51. A=9 and K=3.

472kHz (630m)

This winter I have been on 472kHz less often and only RX. 

With my homebrew transverter (measured ERP 10mW) it was regularly copied in Norway on WSPR. It has been copied in Finland several times. 

In every case the antenna was the earth-electrode in the ground. The transverter was in QST some years ago and produces about 10W into 50 ohms. It was designed by me. Several people have made copies.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/630m-472khz-transverter .

Frustration

Since my 2013 stroke, I have not really been able to do field work. I used to enjoy tests at VLF and 481THz "in the field".  Instead, I concentrate on what I can do. Our hobby has many faces and there is so much to enjoy. My main interests are WSPR and FT8, which don't tax my voice.

I still enjoy 2m and 70cm activity contests and go on our club net most weeks on 2m FM.

Building things was one of my pleasures, but sadly my eyesight and fine motor skills make this very hard. I won't say impossible, but it is now far from easy.

15m FT8 RX (Saturday)

At the moment I am monitoring 15m FT8 RX with the 10m antenna.  After about 5 minutes, at 1147z, 38 stations already spotted. 15m is a great band!

UPDATE 1208z:  87 stations spotted including 2 in South America.

UPDATE 2205z:   882 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX. Now QRT.

Innovations and Trials Licence 8m application

Thanks to the generosity of total strangers (thank you all) I now have covered the costs of my application to OFCOM. 

My fund raiser is now closed. 

Every penny over the licence costs (a few pounds) is going to charity (any suggestions?) and I do not profit at all from this. To do so would have been totally wrong and was never my intention. If OFCOM had just granted me a simple NoV, none of this would have been necessary.

The application is going in today.

UPDATE 1445z:  Apparently an Innovation and Trial licence is £50 per month, which is stupid!! I shall apply for an Innovation and Research Licence that is £50 annually. 

UPDATE 2140z:  A couple of really nasty comments have been received which I have marked as SPAM and I shall not publish. For the record, (1) nobody had to contribute, (2) not a single penny goes to me, (3) my only reason for doing this is to further radio propagation research, (4) in the future I hope all radio amateurs can gain access to this most interesting part of the spectrum.