Sunspots - Saturday February 26th 2022

Solar flux is 96 and the SSN 22.  A=8 and K=0.

40m FT8 RX

 

Since yesterday afternoon, 1018 stations have been spotted on 40m FT8 RX. I am still on 40m FT8 RX today.

Breakfast - NOT amateur radio

This photo shows my breakfast yesterday. 

It was fried banana skins (edible and rich in potassium) with onions, garlic, cheese and chutney on a toasted roll.  

Delicious.

Graffiti - NOT amateur radio

Usually I am not a fan of graffiti. Just occasionally, on temporary pieces of wood it is so good that it seems more like real art. Take for example this seen in Ipswich earlier this week. It is rather good. I still dislike graffiti on permanent structures which to me looks more like vandalism. 

Sunspots - Friday February 25th 2022

 Solar flux is 92 and the SSN 23.  A=7 and K=2.

10m antennas

One of the beauties of 10m is antennas are small. A half wave dipole is only about 5m long. A halo is even smaller. 27MHz CB verticals can work very well too. 

Some years ago I wanted a simple antenna for the band and the Homebase-10 was born.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/antennas/homebase10-10m-halo.

Cartoon - NOT amateur radio

This cartoon appeared on Facebook earlier. 

I have no idea where it originated. 

40m FT8 RX

It is now 1648z.  About an hour ago I QSYed to 40m FT8 RX using the untuned 10m antenna. I guess the untuned 10m antenna is just like sticking an attenuator in, which is no bad thing on 40m. So far, 206 stations already spotted on 40m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2202z:  684 stations spotted on 40m FT8 RX with the furthermost WP3R (6851km).

Train - NOT amateur radio

As some of you will be aware, we went by train to Ipswich yesterday. The photo shows our train back. On time, smooth and 1 hour.

10m sideband

Before my 2013 stroke, I had every intention for designing and making a very simple rig for 10m sideband. Several ideas were already on the table, but I never had time to do this. Since my stroke I have found it almost impossible to design and make things.

Times have moved on and a synthesised VFO is probably the way to go nowadays. Also, for a single band like 10m, a phasing SSB rig would probably be fine, even if the LSB suppression was not perfect.

In my view, 10m will be a great DX band for many years. I hope somebody else (not me) will take my ideas and design a simple, low cost 10m sideband rig. I can imagine a nice, simple and easily reproduced sideband rig for £20-40 being possible. Imagine, working the world on a simple sideband rig you made.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/10m-simple-sideband .