8m FT8 (Sunday)

For the last few hours, I have been on 8m (40.680 MHz) QRP FT8. At 1206z, no spots on TX or RX. 

UPDATE 1956z:  No spots.

10m 500mW WSPR TX (Sunday)

My 10m WSPR beacon has been on much of the morning. So far, 4 unique stations have spotted me. 

UPDATE 1735z:  25 unique stations have spotted my QRP today.

23cm aircraft scatter

It looks like my best chance of copying beacons on 23cm is via aircraft scatter. This is reflection off aircraft in the correct part of the sky. I have not tried this yet. 

I am told that using software like Airscout allows one to predict when paths might be possible. 

Of course, this is no guarantee of success, but at least tells you when it is worth a try. I have no idea how strong such signals might be. Based on lower frequencies, I would expect such signals to be quite good. I expect there would some Doppler as the plane is moving across the sky. I guess how much depends on the path and plane direction.

This should be interesting. I wonder which beacons I can see? From here, I hope I can see the beacons on Dunstable Downs and at Martlesham Heath.

Dropbox (nasty) - NOT amateur radio

Just received an email from Dropbox saying my free account is over limit. The page is very intimidating and almost forces you to pay an extortionate £95 plus a year for extra space. All their stuff seems designed to take money off you or send you emails you really do not want. Even cancelling is made difficult.

I think I have deleted my account. I do not like their approach at all.

For information, Google offers all the file storage that I need for far, far less.

Sunspots - Sunday February 5th 2023

Solar flux is 139 and the SSN 66. A=6 and K=2. 

8m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

Despite my 2.5W FT8 to the dipole on 40.680 MHz being on since mid morning, no spots at all have been recorded on PSKreporter. I think this is the situation, although it could be delays at PSKreporter.

UPDATE 2148z:  QRT. No spots all day.

10m QRP WSPR (Saturday)

 My 500mW 10m WSPR beacom by W5OLF was turned on about 1010z. So far, at 1045z,  spotted many times in the Canary Isles.

UPDATE 1229z:  So far today, my 500mW 10m WSPR has been spotted by 5 stations.

UPDATE 1712z:   20 stations have spotted my 500mW WSPR on 10m today.

UPDATE 2150z:  QRT.

"It is all too much?" - NOT amateur radio

Many years ago (5?) a doctor said these words to me.  I replied "of course not". 

Now I am less sure. As I get older, I feel my strength waning, people around me are dying (friends and family) and I live in an almost constant state of near exhaustion and giddiness. Life is no longer such fun. As a younger person, all my life was ahead of me. My sex life was healthy and meant a lot. These days, my drive is no longer there.  Ahead of me is (probably) ill health and death.

We once went to a party, mainly of older people. The host said, "you are not allowed to discuss your illness or medication". She was very wise!

Most of the time, I remain positive doing what still gives me fun, and there  are plenty of things.  On the whole, I am a "glass half full" sort of person i.e. positive.

..... but I now know what that doctor meant.

Oscar 100 narrowband

Every few weeks I take a peek at activity levels on the narrowband transponder on Oscar 100 using the on-line SDR at Goonhilly Down. Although I cannot comment on the wideband transponder, the narrowband transponder is very under used. My last look was early weekend in Europe.

Early optical experiments

This was a whole 11 years ago. Later, I went on to much further over the horizon.