Burwell at Large - NOT amateur radio

This is an exhibition in which local societies and groups put on a stall to attract new people. It is also a chance to chat with people not seen in a while. 

10m FT8 RX

 At about 0918z, I turned on 10m FT8 RX.  So far (at 0922z), no reports on PSKreporter, but stations all over the world spotted.

UPDATE 1056z:  136 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX this morning.

UPDATE 1735z:   877 stations spotted.

UPDATE 2003z:  1031 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX today. 10m is now regularly open worldwide.

UPDATE 2042z: 1056 stations spotted. As there are still South Americans coming in, I shall stay on for a little while.

UPDATE 2140z:  1058 stations spotted. QRT soon.

Wymondham Abbey - NOT amateur radio

Wymondham in Norfolk has a fine abbey. It was far bigger before King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in the 1500s.

The approach to King's - NOT amateur radio

This photo was taken 3 years ago. It shows the approach to King's College in Cambridge. 

 

160m FT8 RX overnight

Overnight I was on 160m FT8 RX with the untuned 10m antenna. 232 stations spotted on RX including a few in the USA. 

TETRA decoder

In my days of work, I ran the hardware teams designing TETRA hand portables. I actually knew quite little about TETRA as most was implemented in software. What I knew I have forgotten!

These days, you can get freely available software that can decode modes like P25, DMR and TETRA.

TETRA was very popular with security systems as it was hard to intercept. Not any longer.

See https://www.rtl-sdr.com/tag/tetra/ .

Sunspots - Sunday March 20th 2022

Solar flux is 94 and the SSN 29. A=5 and K=3. 

160m FT8 RX (Saturday)

Even though 10m is still wide open, I have QSYed to 160m FT8 RX with the untuned 10m antenna. So far this evening 30 stations have been spotted. 

UPDATE 2136z:   133 stations spotted. I think I shall remain on overnight.

OFCOM updates

Every month OFCOM updates the data it holds. See the OFCOM website for more details.

Pye PF8 - NOT amateur radio

Back in the 1970s, I was on the design team for this revolutionary product. In its day, it was "ahead of the curve". 

It had an internal antenna, 1.2V rechargeable batteries and a multilayer PCB. From bitter experience we found that the things that got broken were things like antennas, rotary controls etc. So we avoided these in this design. In its day, it was iconic. Some went on 70cm. These days, they are very hard to find.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/vhfuhf-commercial-rigs/pye-pf8 . There is a PDF copy of the handbook linked on the site. Any issues, contact me and I shall send it to you.

The DC-DC converter it used was a nightmare.