Sunspots - Wednesday February 23rd 2022

Solar flux is 95 and the SSN 38  A=16 and K=0.

Independent shops - NOT amateur radio

Sadly, walking down many UK high streets and you see shops that could be anywhere. 

Independent shops seem rarer. This one in Cambridge is there and I hope it stays. It is not far from St John's College. 

OFCOM - thank you

It is not often I say nice things about OFCOM. 

However, since submitting my application form for an Innovation and Research licence, I have nothing but praise. The person at the other end of my emails responds quickly and he seems to be genuinely as helpful as possible. Thank you. 

70cm activity contest results

The RSGB has just published the latest update to the results of the 70cm activity contest (UKAC). Even though I only made a small handful of contacts, my position is up!

See https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/vhfresults.pl?Contest=432MHz%20UKAC&Date=&year=2022 .

Quantum mechanics - NOT amateur radio

My 6 week course on an aspect of quantum mechanics as part of my University of The Third Age in Cambridge (U3AC) has ended. It was very hard!  It was given by a very well qualified Cambridge University physicist. He is a good presenter.

The takeaway comment at the end of the course was "spooky actions at a distance", Einstein's comment, really do occur. This means that at far ends of the universe things can influence each other instantly. This action occurs instantly and does not depend on the speed of light. This has been proved conclusively by experiments.  Einstiein did not want to believe this and did all sorts of things to try and disprove this. He failed.

This suggests what we think of as reality is not. This is totally counter intuitive.  All we can say really is there is very much we do not know.

10m WSPR 500mW TX (Tuesday)

As the 10m antenna is not being used, I am again on 10m QRP WSPR with 500mW from the stand alone W5OLF beacon. So far, at 0940z, just 2 local spots of me from G4KPX (14km).

UPDATE 1000z:  12 spots of me by G4KPX. No DX spots of me.

UPDATE 1400z: 3 unique stations have spotted me today on 10m QRP WSPR (see chart).

6m FT8 QRP (Tuesday)

 At the moment (0935z) I am on 6m FT8 with 2.5W to the V2000 vertical omni antenna. So far, my QRP has been spotted by a couple of Gs on TX and one G has been spotted on RX.

UPDATE 1625z:  Just 5 Gs spotted all day. No DX.

Sunspots - Tuesday February 22nd 2022

 Solar flux is 98 and the SSN 48.  A=12 and K=4.

70cm Moxon antenna

Several years ago I had a problem: my rig covered 70cm SSB, but I had no antenna. I found a quick and easy solution in my wife's wardrobe. I think the whole antenna took about 30 minutes to make.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/antennas/70cm-moxon .

6m FT8 QRP (Monday)

At the moment I am on 6m FT8 (initially with 2.5W to the V2000 vertical omni).  I am currently RX only. No spots. 

UPDATE 1600z:  Just a single spot on RX GM4CXM (507km) which could have been a brief MS ping, Es or aircraft scatter.  -18dB S/N was not too strong.

UPDATE 1647z:  One QSO with M0MIZ (124km).

UPDATE 1958z:  QRT.