Rallies

 The following have been notified to me. As always, check first with the organisers before going far.

August 7th - BATC Convention, Midland Air Museum, Coventry CV3 4FR. No contact details given.

August 7th - King's Lynn ARC, Gallywood community Centre PE30 4EL. rally.klarc@gmail.com .

Southgate News

This is an online amateur radio news service that I regularly visit. I see they have an item about my free PDF G3XBM Project Scrapbook today.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/ .

10m QRP WSPR TX (Thursday)

As usual when on 8m, I am on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. Just several spots of me by EA1FAQ (1249km) at 0926z. I presume this is Es.

UPDATE 1540z: 13 spots by EA1FAQ today. Nobody else!

8m experiment (Thursday)

Yesterday was surprisingly good on 8m FT8 QRP TX. I am again on 8m QRP FT8 TX on 40.680 MHz USB dial. 

UPDATE 0921z:   No spots.

UPDATE 1107z:   Spots of my QRP FT8 from Iberia today. 2 unique stations so far. I was expecting nothing!

Where we live - NOT amateur radio

This photo shows where we live. We live next door to the windmill which is clear as you can see the white sails. 

Sunspots - Thursday August 4th 2022

Solar flux is 100 and the SSN 37. A=8 and K=2.

2m FT8 UKAC

Tonight is the 2m FT8 activity contest. Before the start of the contest I worked local G4NBS. Lots of stations spotted on RX.

IC-705 out of band?

As you may recall, I have an 8m UK permit for a year. Currently, I use my widebanded FT817ND on 8m FT8, but it would be good to use the IC-705 instead.

Many were disappointed when 4m was not included.

I am wondering if there is a wideband mod (possibly allowing 4m and 8m access, although maybe not to spec) that can be accessed via keyboard presses only, so the inside is untouched?

Having been in production for over a year, I am sure this will have been published if possible.

BTW, after misplacing my Radiotoday Guide to the IC-705 after many months I found it again..... on my shack bookshelf!

Swifts in the UK - NOT amateur radio

These migratory birds breed here and then go to central Africa on migration. They only stop a few months, then they go. One day they are on the wing screaming in feeding parties. Then the skies fall silent until next spring. Most leave in August. Although numbers are lower, I cannot say I have noticed. There are far fewer swallows here.

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

Low sunspots

The less active side of the sun seems to be pointing our way, as the sunspot number has been low for several days. Hopefully, numbers will climb again in the days ahead. It is quite normal for sunspot numbers to vary.