Although the banking sector is supposed to be far more resilient these days, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Bank stocks still look spooked by recent events with SVB and Credit Swisse. I hope this is short lived.
24 Mar 2023
10m FT8 (Friday)
Am now on 10m FT8. Only D2UY (Angola) coming through, suggesting there is plenty of disturbance. I am not sure if there is a delay on PSKreporter at the moment.
UPDATE 1456z: Just 2 G spots of me so far. These are probably normal tropo. Furthermost is G4FAL (180km) near Sheffield. I remember that this sort of range was always possible with QRP 10m SSB and a dipole. It is probably even more likely with FT8. Pretty sure far more inter-G QSOs would be possible on 10m FT8.
UPDATE 1900z: Now QRT, but in the end I was spotted by 8 stations and I spotted 12.
CDARC Zoom talks
As I am unable to drive at night, I have really enjoyed the Cambridge Radio Club lectures via Zoom. They are trying to arrange "hybrid" meetings with personal contact in Cambridge and Zoom lectures for those that cannot get in. In my view, the Zoom lectures have been excellent.
My personal view is that all lectures should be on Zoom only, with a social gathering somewhere else once a month. This would mean no room hire, reduced annual fees, people could watch or talk from anywhere on the planet and people could watch the Zoom talks with others in their homes if they do not have Zoom. I would expect most people have Zoom.
Imagine if CDARC became a worldwide radio club!
The image is from the CDARC website. I wanted to link to this image, but could not see how to do this. Instead, I took a screenshot. If copyright infringement is an issue, it will be removed.
See https://www.cdarc.org.uk/ .
Grass cutting - NOT amateur radio
For the second time this year, I cut the grass, just beating the rain. February was very dry, but March made up for it!!
4m FT8 (Friday)
As HF looks to be disturbed, I am again on 4m FT8 with my makeshift antenna. At 1043z, no spots.
UPDATE 1245z: No spots of me, but G4HGI (244km) spotted on 4m FT8 RX.
UPDATE 1416z: GW8ASA (301km) has again spotted me at similar levels to yesterday.
UPDATE 1421z: Nothing outside of the UK so far on 4m FT8. Rather surprised there are not many more stations on 4m FT8. I expect this will change in the Es season.
Lightning
One of the pleasures of UK winter is the usual absence of thunder and lightning. In the UK they can occur, but they are far more common in the summer.
Although I know the chances of a direct strike are low, they do occur. I know of 2 friends who had this. One of the more common things is a power surge as storms approach.
What I tend to do is keep a watchful eye on approaching storms. If there is any danger, I disconnect everything: antennas, mains plugs etc.. I have no idea if this is the correct strategy. My view is it is better to be safe than sorry.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/lightning-maps .
CME
It looks like the coming days (especially today) could see quite disturbed solar conditions due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) on the sun. I am not clever enough to know how this will effect HF and low VHF.
Red Kites (birds) - NOT amateur radio
Until these birds were re-introduced in England some years ago, you would only see them normally in Wales. Now they are a quite common sight especially near motorways where they seek out road kill.
See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/red-kite.
23 Mar 2023
Low cost RF modules
A few moments ago I took a peek at RF modules on eBay. This is just one that will cover many bands. Someone much fitter than me could probably design some useful kit around these.
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