Spring - NOT amateur radio

 

These flowers were in a garden in a nearby village. For the last couple of days it has felt like spring at last.

Getting ready - NOT amateur radio

Our grandson has rung in 109 towers now including this one at Isleham where they seem prepared for the coronation next weekend. 

In general, the whole preparation for the coronation feels very low key. I am old enough to remember the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II!! I guess we were still getting over WW2 and this was a bit of light relief. 

I remember going to watch the coronation on a neighbour's tiny TV screen in black and white. We did not have a TV until 1957 and that was just one channel and back and white. At the time we thought it was amazing. Before then, we used to watch a snowy TV picture whilst sitting on the floor a a local radio/TV shop. At that time we were about 150km from the nearest TV transmitter.

10m QRP FT8 with the QDX

 

Since about 1120z, I have been on 10m QRP with the QDX. So far, mostly Europeans, I presume by Es.

UPDATE 1340z:   80 stations have spotted my QRP.

Crabapple - NOT amateur radio

We only have one crabapple tree. It seems to be good every other year, so we are hoping for a good crop this year and some good crabapple jelly, as last year was poor. 

Sunspots - Sunday April 30th 2023

 Solar flux is 156 and the SSN 82.  A=20 and K=1.

Multiband antennas

Quite a good multi-band antenna is the end-fed via a 9:1 balun. At the end of the wire it presents a high impedance and the 9:1 balun drops the impedance to a low SWR, certainly less than 3:1 that can be tuned via the auto-ATU in many modern rigs. On many radios an ATU will not be needed at all. With QRP, RF on the coax is not usually an issue. With high power, more care or a counterpoise may be needed.

At the moment I am using an end-fed antenna. I have not found a counterpoise necessary.

Commercial versions are available (e.g. from Moonraker), although many make their own.

Amateur Radio Weekly

Thus comes to me as an email on Saturdays. It is a precis of amateur radio news and very good it is. There are links to the originating articles.

See https://hamweekly.com/ .

8m tests to restart

This next week, I hope to restart my QRP tests on 40.680 MHz FT8. I have been off for a few weeks. 

The Es season is just getting under way. This season, I may try WSPR sometime probably in the WSPR window at 40.680 MHz (DF 1400-1600 Hz).

It would be good if lots of countries came on 8m FT8 or WSPR this season, ideally TX, but RX if nothing else.

I am convinced that just 10mW ERP WSPR will be copied across Europe on 8m at times. In the UK anybody would be able to TX 10mW ERP WSPR in the 8m ISM band without a licence as long as the technical requirements and IR2030 are met. This is not the Amateur Radio Service. It is an experiment under ISM rules.

Breakfast time? - NOT amateur radio

This thrush was hunting for worms and insects when we were on our walk earlier. Must be breakfast time!

10m QRP FT8 with the QDX

Since breakfast, I have been on 10m FT8 with the QDX QRP rig. 16 spots of me so far with the furthermost H44MS (14814km) in the Soloman Is in the Pacific. I think this genuine too.

UPDATE 1824z:  65 stations have spotted me so far today (see map).