Colourful garden - NOT amateur radio

This garden is opposite Ely Cathedral and usually is a riot of colour. 

Sunspots - Sunday June 26th 2022

Solar flux is 108 and the SSN 31.  A=16 and K=5.

ICOM IC-7300 transceiver

It is now several years since this SDR product was first launched.  It is very popular. It covers all of HF as well as 6m, and 4m in Europe. It has an auto ATU that will match 10:1 mismatches at the 50W setting. I have never owned one, but people speak highly of it.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/icom-ic-7300 .

RF engineer shortage - NOT amateur radio

What the situation is like in other countries I do not know, but in the UK it is acute. There are far fewer RF designers than there once were. When I started in RF design, most were radio amateurs with a total fascination for RF. 

In my professional life, I saw many CVs from aspiring RF engineers. Most were hopeless! Graduates that knew really very very little. At 73 years I have been offered 2 jobs this year already! They must be very desperate!

Personally, I feel that many have lost the "magic" of RF. This is where amateur radio "self training" could help. We need more good, intrinsically motivated RF designers in the UK. We must do everything in our power to encourage RF design in the future.

Trim time - NOT amateur radio

When we moved here in 2013 this border was pretty bare. Now it is in need of a trim! 

Ely Tudor Chimneys - NOT amateur radio

These were seen in nearby Ely earlier in the week. 

8m experiment (Saturday)

Although I have been on 40.680 MHz USB dial FT8 TX for about 40 minutes, no spots given or received so far. It is now 0918z.

UPDATE 1853z:  No spots at all today on 40.680 FT8. You get the impression that 8m, with far fewer monitors than 10m and 6m, is on the wane. Yes, there will be good days, but now we are beginning to see more days with no Es propagation. It seems amazing that next week is July!

10m QRP WSPR TX (Saturday)

Yet again, I am on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW. It is now 0920z and I have received reports from 4 unique stations already. I think these are by Es.

UPDATE 1930z:   13 spots of my 500mW today so far. Average, but not great.

OFCOM and 8m

 OFCOM is consulting ahead of WRC23. See the OFCOM website for details.

As you probably know, I am APPALLED by the very negative attitude by OFCOM and the RSGB to self training (what the amateur licence is meant to be about!!). Their position is utterly stupid by making us pay £50 annually to experiment at 8m.

My proposal is:

• 5 kHz wide only 40.680-40.685 MHz amateur band at 8m
• narrow digital only (e.g. WSPR, FT8, CW, but no speech)
• by NoV
• strictly for real experiments , not "more of the same"

If you feel inclined, write to OFCOM and copy the RSGB. The current situation WRT 8m is so so stupid!!

I am conscious that RF engineers are in very short supply so why are we not encouraging self training?

Sunspots - Saturday June 25th 2022

Solar flux is 115 and the SSN 60.  A=8 and K=3.