Long-tailed tits - NOT amateur radio

These days these are one of the most common tits. Often they fly from tree to tree in flocks making a high pitched "song". As a child we saw lots of different tits. Nowadays there are fewer. This one was on the bird table. 

8m experiment (Thursday)

For the last few days people have been reporting my QRP 8m FT8 TX on 40.680 MHz USB dial. So, I shall be on again after breakfast. Es is less frequent, but still there most days. 

UPDATE 1046z:    Gear turned on at 0836z.  No spots.

UPDATE 1703z:    No spots all day.

Sunspots - Thursday August 18th 2022

Solar flux is 123 and the SSN 82.  A=31 and K=2.

10m FT8 QRP

As 8m QRP FT8 was not good, I have QSYed to 10m QRP FT8. Compared to 10m WSPR, it appears like a different band with lots of F2 DX from Africa on RX including 7Q7 and ZD7 (I do not think they are uploading to PSKreporter).

UPDATE 1538z:   Plenty of F2 DX on 10m FT8 RX. After a brief period on TX, I am now RX only (see map).

UPDATE  1612z:  39 stations spotted so far with quite a few in South America.

ICOM AH-5000 antenna

This antenna has just come to my attention. Like all things ICOM it is expensive. It is meant to cover all HF bands (maybe with a tuner on some frequencies). I have no idea how it performs. 

It looks like a Rybakov style antenna, but I have no idea. 

There are other, similar commercial antennas around which are far less expensive. 

Of course, you can roll your own and save a packet!

See http://g0kya.blogspot.com/2009/02/rybakov-vertical.html .

See https://amphenolprocom.com/media/pdfdocs/hf-5000.en-GB.pdf?timestamp=1660739714.

160m FT8

Many people suffer with high local noise on 160m. Even here in a rural village it is close to S9 on SSB.  

FT8 can be quite an effective mode as it only needs 50 Hz of bandwidth and works with very weak signals. For this reason, it can be very good with high noise levels as the effective bandwidth is so much narrower than SSB. 

As the (free) software effectively creates the 50 Hz bandwidth, narrow filters are not needed in the rig. SSB filters are fine.

WSPR needs even less bandwidth (about 6 Hz) but is not a QSO mode really, and takes nearly 120 seconds to send a message whereas FT8 needs 15 seconds to send a message burst. It take a few minutes to complete a QSO. Contacts are very basic.  JT8 supports free form messages, but I have not used this. Most prefer FT8 to WSPR.

See https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html .

10m QRP WSPR TX (Wednesday)

As the 10m antenna is available, I am again on 10m WSPR TX with the 500mW beacon. It is now 0932z and I have been on about 45 minutes, but no spots.

UPDATE 0938z:  Just spotted by LA3RK (1064km).

UPDATE 1216z:  5 unique stations have spotted me today.

UPDATE 1422z: No further spots today.

Red legged partridges - NOT amateur radio

One of my Facebook memories today was this photo of 4 red legged partridges in our garden 5 years ago. We have not seen any for a while. These are introduced birds that are colourful and can be quite tame. 

8m experiment (Wednesday) - success already!

Although I have on been on QRP 8m FT8 on 40.680 MHz USB dial for only about 25 minutes, I have already been spotted strongly by HC02 (1808km) in southern Portugal. Yesterday I was spotted by S50B. There is still life on 8m, quite definitely.

UPDATE 1229z:  No further spots today. I think we are seeing fewer widespread Es openings or there are fewer monitors.

Sunspots - Wednesday August 17th 2022

Solar flux is 129 and the SSN 119. A=5 and K=3.