Sunspots - Thursday March 30th 2023

Solar flux is 148 and the SSN 135. A=6 and K=2. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - NOT amateur radio

This worries me. 

Just now I tried Google's version called Bard again. It tries to make sense of the data it knows about and writes about this. Some answers were remarkably good, whereas some were useless and factually incorrect.

Now, used properly I can see lot of uses. However, many will (wrongly) take everything it says as factually correct when it is not. I can see a future when many people accept everything produced by AI as factually correct. "Brave New World", as Aldous Huxley Huxley said?

Cambridge artwork

 

This painting was in a shop window in Cambridge on Monday.

G4BAO away?

Several times I have tried to contact John to arrange a quick sked on 23m SSB. It seems odd to me that he has not replied even when I sent to an address he had used quite recently and another that I had. 

At first I wondered if my address had gone into SPAM by mistake. I have come to the conclusion he is away.... or I am no longer in his good books,HI!

6m FT8 (Wednesday)

Stations spotting my 6m FT8 until 1602z

At the moment (1510z) I am on 6m FT8 with the FT-710. So far, spotted across the UK with the furthermost MI0BOT (478km). Was this aircraft reflection?

King's College flowers - NOT amateur radio

At the moment the spring flowers on the lane towards King's College in Cambridge from Queens Road look a picture. This photo was taken on Monday. 

FT-710 on 8m TX?

Luckily, I have one of the few legal permits in the UK to TX on 8m. For the last year, I have used my FT817ND on 8m FT8. So far, with just low power and a low wire dipole, I have been copied on 4 continents and in 21 countries (it may be more now). 

I am curious to know if the FT-710 can be simply modified to TX on 8m just with button presses. Although I have no plans to use my FT-710 on 8m, I am just wondering. I am sure there will be wideband mods by changing diodes internally, but I do not want to do this.

4m FT8 (Wednesday)

Once again on 4m FT8. So far, no spots. 

UPDATE 1508z: After a whole day with absolutely no 4m FT8 spots (and apparently no monitors either!) I have QSYed to 6m FT8 and was immediately spotted across England. Probably I shall give 4m a miss until Es kicks in. It is unlikely I shall bother with a halo for 4m as my "ad hoc" arrangement seems to work perfectly. This will certainly get me Es contacts into Europe on 4m FT8.

Sunspots - Wednesday March 29th 2023

 Solar flux is 159 and the SSN 114. A=5 and K=0.

4m FT8 (Tuesday)

At about 1810z, my 4m FT8 was turned on. My compromise antenna is again the 2m big-wheel and coax tuned via the auto-ATU in the FT-710.  After about 50 minutes, no spots.

UPDATE 2000z:  No spots.