481THz optical beacon tests

This popped up as a Facebook memory yesterday. It is some years since I last did optical tests over the horizon. In the near future, I want to re-assemble my optical gear and do some local tests before attempting some NLOS tests with Bernie G4HJW who is over the horizon about 9km away.

Sunspots - Tuesday March 14th 2023

Solar flux is 143 and the SSN 87. A=3 and K=3.

OFCOM updates

 A reminder that OFCOM updates the data it holds on licences etc. every week. See the OFCOM website for details.

Thomas Paine Statue - NOT amateur radio

We saw this statue in Thetford yesterday.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine .
 

12m FT8 yesterday

 In the end, I went QRT on 12m FT8 RX only at about 2100z. In all, 921 stations were spotted. The band was still wide open when I went QRT.

Tilt switch DT project - NOT amateur radio

My grandson was very exited about this design and technology (DT) project at his school. It is a demo of a tilt switch. 

These are widely used in "man down" alarms in wireless devices where you can trigger a remote alarm if a person falls to the ground. This has applications in safety critical situations such as police radios. 

We might make an engineer of him yet!  He is excited about such things, which is good.

Pixie transceivers

The Pixie is a classic low cost CW transceiver usually for 80m or 40m. It started life as the Micro80. Kits are available from China at ridiculously low prices, although some are better than others. 

It uses the PA transistor as a mixer and often suffered from poor selectivity and AM breakthrough. It was let down by this poor RX. Over the years several versions have been created to help with these issues. 

However, it does work and is capable of really get contacts.

The photos show a typical Pixie and my version of the Micro80. 

See  https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/8040m-pixie-and-micro80-transceivers .

Sunspots - Monday March 13th 2023

Solar flux is 143 and the SSN 135.  A=4 and K=0. It looks like the page I get my information from is back to normal. Yesterday morning it looked different.

See https://dx.qsl.net/propagation/index.html .

BBC email? - NOT amateur radio

I cannot find the BBC email to whom I should send my complaint.  If you know it, please would you share it?

My complaint is that nearly every documentary seems to have loud and intrusive music that drowns out the speaker. Why? It is almost as if we have to have this music, but why is it so loud?  

It would be good if this music was much quieter or even not there at all! The music is added, I suppose, to give dramatic effect.

The latest culprit is David Attenborough's "Wild Isles" on BBC1.

Please, do not treat us as stupid.

Yaesu FT-710 FT8 - last try!

Having tried most things, I shall give my FT-710AESS one more try on FT8. 

So far, everything I have tried has failed. If it is something I am doing wrong, I have yet to find out what it is! All the drivers are installed, port selection is correct, port properties are correct, rig selection is correct, RTS is selected (as they say), but still CAT fails to work. 

If this fails, the rig will have to go back. I really hope I can crack it. It should not be this hard. If the rig is working, I fail to see why this popular mode is so difficult.

If you have one of these rigs, please tell me your FT8 settings both on the transceiver and WSJT-X. I thought mine were all correct, but obviously not.