Rally in Northern Ireland

The following rally is due to be held on Sunday May 8th. As always in these strange times, I advise checking with the organisers that it is taking place.

Sunday May 8th  Lough Erne ARC Annual Rally. Contact alan.r.gault@btinternet.com .

IC-705 and FT8?

The ICOM IC-705 is a great 10W radio with many wonderful features. I love the waterfall and many of the things it has as standard.

It is regularly used on 2m and 70cm (FM and USB, but I have not used it on FT8. Instead, I have used my FT817ND on 8m and other bands for FT8. Why? With the USB lead (even choked) I get desensitisation. I believe the simple solution is to use the IC-705 with wi-fi (yes it has this too!), but I have been too lazy to set this up yet. I am sure there are YouTube videos showing how to set this up! One of my projects in the coming weeks must be to set this up.

If you can point me in the right direction this might save me time. What is the simplest and clearest please?

10m WSPR QRP TX

As the 10m antenna is free, I am on 10m WSPR TX using 500mW from the W5OLF beacon. So far, spots from the Canary Is only at 0833z. 

UPDATE 1355z: 3 unique stations spotting my 500mW with the furthermost TA4/G8SCU (3010km). I suspect these are all single hop F2 propagation.

8m experiment (Thursday)

At the moment (0830z), I am again on 8m FT8 TX on 40.680 MHz USB dial. When we go for a walk later I shall be RX only.  So far, no spots given or received.

UPDATE 1505z:  After just over a month, I am already drawing some conclusions as follows: 

(1) With my QRP and simple antenna I can work DX by Es, but I think TEP exchanges e.g. with South Africa are beyond me. I estimate my ERP could be 20dB down on some of the better stations. 

(2) There are far fewer stations active than I was expecting. Is no-one really interested?

(3) I suspect many of those active lose interest once they know their capability. It looks like I shall have FT8 exchanges with Slovenian stations, then what? 

UPDATE  1507z:  Today I have spotted nobody and nobody has spotted me on 8m FT8. At this rate, especially as OFCOM wants £50 every year, I can see few being interested in the UK. What a great pity.

UPDATE 1518z:  Looks like I shall go QRT on 8m TX after the Es season.

UPDATE 1607z: Now on 8m FT8 TX (first) on 40.680 USB dial.

Swallows (Barn) - NOT amateur radio

These summer migrant birds winter in South Africa. They used to arrive here in early April. They are around as my son has taken a photo, but I suspect there are fewer. It is already well into May and I have still to see one. Last year I only saw 2 the whole spring and summer! Swifts normally arrive about now. 

UPDATE 1410z: We did a nice walk this morning around the village which included several stretches near water.  Had there been swallows and swifts around, we would have seen them. We saw none. My impression is there are fewer even than last year, which is very sad.

Chocolate box village - NOT amateur radio

 

The village of Dalham is not far from us. It is a real "chocolate box" village with lots of thatched cottages.

10m operation

My favourite band of all is 10m (28 MHz).  At 1.7 MHz wide, there is room for all modes. Apart from daytime in the better years of the sunspot cycle, it is unusual not to find clear frequency. Even with low power and small antennas worldwide DX is possible.

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

Sunspots - Thursday May 5th 2022

Solar flux is 130 and the SSN 64. A=6 and K=1.

Dayton (USA) Hamvention 2022

As far as I know this is on as a face-to-face convention later this month after a couple of dire Covid years rather getting in the way. 

Often the big manufacturers announce new products here, sometimes well before release. I guess they are testing the market interest. It will be interesting to see what is announced. This is an ideal chance for Yaesu to announce a proper successor to the FT817/818 series. The recent offering (the FT818) was distinctly underwhelming! With sunspot numbers rising this is an ideal time. Or will Yaesu again "miss the boat"?

This is one of the largest amateur radio gatherings on the planet. I have never been.

See https://hamvention.org/ .

2m activity contest (UKAC)

Last night was the May 2022 leg of the UKAC activity contest organised by the RSGB. In the 50 minutes I was on, I managed 6 QSOs with the furthermost G4RUL/P (172km) on the south coast.