Sunspots - Tuesday May 10th 2022

Solar flux is 117 and the SSN 71.  A=8 and K=0.

Swifts - NOT amateur radio

For me, the return of the swifts from Africa is important. Today I saw several overhead. All is well. Swifts have been doing this long before I was born and hopefully long after I have gone. 

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/swift/ .

OFCOM consultations

OFCOM is consulting on Short-Range Devices and 26 GHz and 40 GHz uses. See the OFCOM website for details.

How times change!

When I was first licenced in the late 1960s, I wanted a Codar AT5 transmitter.  At the time it was the state of the art.  This was a valved 12W AM/CW transmitter. I never had one. 

I had the companion T28 RX, which was rubbish. I think the pair were really meant for mobile use, as most mobile in those days was on 160m AM. My T28 was a university prize for a VLF project on whistlers. It ended up as a 4-6 MHz IF for a VHF converter. I recall hearing USA stations on 2m via Oscar 6 and Oscar 7.

I also had an Eddystone EC10 receiver. Apart from the mechanical construction, this too was rubbish.

We have come a long way since those days. Today, you can buy a multi-mode transceiver with internal batteries covering 160m -70cm in a smaller size than the AT5!   In fact, this has been available for more than 20 years!

Farm shop - NOT amateur radio

This is the view from a local farm shop. We eat at the café there occasionally. 

8m experiment (Monday)

All quiet today so far, with no spots given or received. 

UPDATE 2010:  A quiet day. No spots given or received.  Now QRT.

10m WSPR TX beacon (Monday)

All seems pretty quiet so far with just multiple spots of me by TA4/G8SCU (3010km). I think this is single hop F2 rather than Es. 

UPDATE 2014z:  3 unique stations spotting me (2 in the Canaries and 1 in Turkey). 

UPDATE 2030z:   The Canary Is stations are still spotting me! I wonder what time this will end?

Feeding by hand NOT amateur radio

This was me feeding pheasants by hand some years ago. 

Sunspots - Monday May 9th 2022

 Solar flux is 119 and the SSN 89.  A=6 and K=3.

Transatlantic 2m beacon stopped

EI2DKH, the Irish transatlantic 2m beacon is off air according to the EI7GL blog. This is partly due to the site and cost of electricity as well as no reports in 7 years. I have recommended the use of FT8 if the beacon is re-sited. This works with fleeting signals weaker than CW.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ .