Fresh green - NOT amateur radio

One of the great things about spring is the fresh green leaves. The trees in our garden are just coming into leaf. There is a sense of the earth "coming alive" again after a long, dark, winter. All seasons have their beauty.

10m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

Since about 0700z, I have been on 10m QRP FT8 with the tiny QDX transceiver, which runs just under 5W. At 0825z, 12 spots of me with the furthermost A61R (5589km).

UPDATE 0920z:  15 stations have spotted my QRP 10m FT8 today and I have spotted 22.

UPDATE 1025z:  26 stations have spotted me and I have spotted 42 with the QRP QDX.

UPDATE 1248z: Spotted by 79 stations so far with the furthermost PY1SX (9306km). 5W or less on 10m FT8 seems quite enough!

UPDATE 1324z:  Spotted by 90 stations.

Stations spotting me at
1434z on 10m QRP FT8

UPDATE 1434z:  Spotted by 124 stations in 5 continents. QRP reins!!

UPDATE 1733z:   Spotted by 171 stations.

UPDATE 1910z: 173 stations have spotted my 10m FT8 QRP today. Unlikely to get any more spots today.

Sunspots - Thursday April 6th 2023

 Solar flux is 137 and the SSN is 37. A=11 and K=1. 

Coffee in the garden

Our son came to stay with his son and we were able to enjoy coffee in the garden. 

Donald Trump - NOT amateur radio

 It is impossible to know if the ex president of the USA is guilty of the crimes of which he is charged. What I do know is unless he is found guilty, his chances of re-election in late 2024 increase. 

At the moment, the USA seems very polarised. I really cannot understand why the USA cannot find younger candidates. If either Biden or Trump stand and get in they would be very old men!

Finland joins NATO - NOT amateur radio

Although not a political animal by nature, I can understand why Finland has joined NATO. It is the 31st member state sharing a very long border with Russia. It feels safer as a nation within NATO, knowing that if it was attacked all the NATO countries are duty bound to support it. It looks like the invasion of Ukraine has had the exact opposite effect with even more NATO countries on its borders.

Personally, I just wish all countries could live in peace and harmony as defence spending is, ultimately, a total waste of money.

QDX on 10m FT8

This runs at less than 5W, but has been widely spotted again this afternoon. It would seem the tiny QDX is all that is needed to get around the world. Since the photo was taken, many more stations have spotted me today on 10m FT8.

Stations spotting my
QRP 10m FT8 TX today

UPDATE 1955z:  64 stations spotted my QRP 10m FT8 today with the QDX transceiver.

XBM80-2 transceiver webpage

As Jason M0NYW has kindly done a PCB layout and provided the Gerber files, I was hoping to add a link to these on my website, but I cannot create a public link to my Google Drive zip file. Not sure if this is a temporary issue. 

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/80m-xbm80-2 .

UPDATE 1700z:  I think I have solved the problem and the link to Jason's Gerber file is now on the webpage. 

Sunspots - Wednesday April 5th 2023

Solar flux is 136 and the SSN 44. A=12 and K=2.

At Lode - NOT amateur radio

 

As mentioned earlier, we did a nice walk earlier today.