The very last - NOT amateur radio

The last butcher in our village has closed after 150 years. The person who ran it retired and nobody wanted to take it on sadly.

We ate his last sausages yesterday with all the trimmings. Sad. 

Sunspots - Monday October 17th 2022

Solar flux is 119 and the SSN 59.  A=16 and K=1.

Heathkit HW family

An early Heathkit advert

As a teenager I always wanted a 2m HW30 kit. Goodness knows why, as by modern standards they were poor! 

Heathkit made a family of what became known as the Benton Harbor Lunchboxes. In many places they were the mainstay of VHF activity, way before FM, SSB and FT8.

They were valved and had a 5W AM TX and a super-regen RX. Most of the time this was fine for VHF at the time.

I cannot remember when they stopped being available, but I would guess mid 1970s.

At one time I had the manual, but never the rig.

The style I still like and in later years (before my stroke) fancied doing a modern equivalent for 10m with transistors and far smaller on a single PCB.

See http://www.radiomanual.info/schemi/Surplus_Radioamateur/Heathkit_HW-30_review_QST_2013.pdf

Autumn - NOT amateur radio

Autumn in Ontario, Canada

This photo of Ontario in autumn was posted by a friend on 365project recently. What amazing colours. 

10m QRP TX WSPR (Sunday)

As the 10m antenna is available I am again on 10m QRP (500mW) with the W5OLF beacon. The gear was turned on about 0850z. No spots of me yet today.  It was copied in Antarctica twice last week.

UPDATE 0905z: Already plenty of spots from the Canary Is.

UPDATE 1614z:  28 spots of me today on 10m QRP WSPR TX.

8m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

 My 8m FT8 gear was turned on at 0845z. It will be on most of the morning and afternoon.

UPDATE 1628z: 1 station as spotted me - EA3ERE (1153km) and I have spotted 1 - S50B (1220km).

UPDATE 1827z:  Still life on 8m. EI9KP (649km) and EA3ERE (1153km) spotted my 8m QRP FT8 today.

Bury St Edmunds Abbey - NOT amateur radio

Until King Henry VIII, this was one of the largest abbeys in England. Then it was dissolved by the King. Today, all that remains are the ruins.  Sacrilege.

Sunspots - Sunday October 16th 2022

Solar flux is 115 and the SSN 50.  A=18 and K=2.

Apple Day - NOT amateur radio

 

As mentioned before (I think!) our neighbour had an apple picking day last weekend as he has so many. 

I went with my wife and grandson.

It was a good, happy, day in glorious weather.

The resulting chutney was great and my wife has asked me to make more!

Simple 10m FT8 RX

These days, 10m is again in great shape. A very simple, but effective, FT8 receiver that does not tie up the main rig is my 10FT8R that appeared in RSGB RadCom last year. I built mine without a PCB, although a PCB would be ideal as a low cost club project.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/10ft8r-rx .