Plans for Monday

My current plan is to go on 8m QRP (2.5W) FT8 on 40.680 MHz and 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. I shall probably turn things on about 1120z. Usually, my regular 10m WSPR spots are from the Canary Isles.

Dutch breakfast - NOT amateur radio

This was my breakfast in Amsterdam back in September. It was about half the price of breakfast in the hotel. 

We thought it was worth walking 300m.

Devon walk - NOT amateur radio

Back in the summer I walked from my brother's house to Salcombe, about 3 miles. It was along what is known as "the old coach road". Perhaps it was the road taken by coaches a long time ago.

G3XBM on the DLARC

It is pleasing that my PDF book is accessible from the digital library of amateur radio and communication documents available via the Wayback Machine. My video channel is also available there although I don't know about my main website.

See https://archive.org/details/dlarc .

How simple can a rig be?

This was a challenge I wanted to have a go at. This is probably one of the simplest transceivers one can make. My inspiration came from a 40m rig by W2UW who is now sadly a silent key. My wish was to make it even simpler. My main issue was netting. The RX worked well. This appeared in GQRP SPRAT, although I cannot remember when.

There is a video on the website.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/80m-feter-transceiver .

DMR and network radios

Many people have no DMR radios, but have Android phones. This was the case with me. I had a network radio that was hardly used.  I found an app called Droidstar that enabled me to access the DMR network and thus worldwide contacts with a handheld. It has not been used often, but at least I can use DMR if I want to. I have found it more interesting just to listen.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/network-radio . 

Sunspots - Monday December 5th 2022

Solar flux is 144 and the SSN 93. A=16 and K=2.

Birthday - NOT amateur radio

 

About 10 days ago was my wife's birthday.  These were some of her cards.

17m FT8 RX (Sunday)

Without changing from the 8m dipole, I have swapped to 17m FT8 RX. Within a few minutes 39 stations were spotted as shown on the map.

UPDATE 2000z:  So far on 17m FT8 RX this afternoon 159 stations spotted. QRT very soon.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Sunday)

For the last several hours, I have been on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon. So far today, 7 stations have spotted me.

These follows a distinct pattern.  Early, I usually get spotted in the Canaries with the USA and Canada in the early afternoon. Just occasionally there are others. The impression i get is that many have moved over to FT8 instead of WSPR.

UPDATE 1705z:  11 unique stations have spotted me today,