Sentimentalist - NOT amateur radio

At the moment, I am reading a book about swifts in which it says these have been around since the Eocene era i.e. about 50 million years. It is hard to grasp. This means these birds were flying high in the sky before humans came on the scene. I find this quite humbling.  I guess other migratory birds like swallows and martins go back a very long time too.

Most swifts, swallows and martins have now embarked on their long journeys south. I also keep an eye out for the first to come back each spring, probably as they have done for millions of years before me.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

Overnight, I left my 630m QRP WSPR gear running. 

LA3EQ (769km) and OH1LSQ (1733km) both spotted me. The station in Finland has now spotted me on 3 days running despite my low ERP and Jan in Norway seems to get me consistently. 

Other, closer, stations also spotted me. Although I was hoping to spot some new stations overnight, I was not successful.

VLF upconverter

Many people want to take a peek at what is on VLF. The problem is that many receivers do not tune that low. One answer is an upconverter so that VLF is translated to a frequency covered by a conventional receiver. 

For amateur VLF signals, this is extremely unlikely to be useful as VLF amateur signals need great frequency accuracy, extremely narrow bandwidths and long integration periods measured in hours or days. 

For VLF utility stations this upconverter will be useful.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vlf/vlf-converter

Sunspots - Monday, October 9th 2023

Solar flux is 157 and the SSN 149.  A=7 and K=2. 

Crystal Set DXing

Many of us "cut our teeth" by making crystal sets on medium wave to receive a local station. As you know, crystal sets require no power. All you need is a sensitive headset or earpiece as all the power comes from the transmitter.

What is less well known is that a short wave crystal set can be made and great fun had.  This is totally different from conventional SWLing. Signals have to be mV, not uV. It is possible to hear amateur and utility signals as well as broadcast stations. Sadly, there are fewer English language broadcasts to be heard.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/crystal-set-dxing

Mis-shapen, but home grown - NOT amateur radio

Earlier this year we were given some pepper plants grown from the seeds inside a pepper by a friend. 

She had no luck, but one of ours has grown into a (mis-shapen!) pepper. 

At some point soon we will eat it. It has been on a windowsill most of the time.

Palestine and Israel - NOT amateur radio

Any aggression is dreadful and the taking of hostages unforgivable.  I wish that the people of Palestine could be treated fairly by Israel and that people (both Arab and Israelis) could all live in peace respecting their differences.

When I was taking my A levels in 1967 there was a war between Arabs and Israelis . After a lifetime of work and 15 years of retirement, the bad feeling is still there. Peace, please.

Blog numbers - NOT amateur radio

For several weeks I consistently had blog visitor numbers about 10 times more than normal. Occasionally I know numbers are higher as a result of bot probes. This was different. Numbers are now back to normal. I can only assume numbers were being wrongly inflated.  

Moral?  Do not believe all you read!

Have we gone mad in the UK? - NOT amateur radio

Let me say right away, that I have absolutely nothing against gay or bisexual people. Some of my best friends are gay and some are happily married.  One (female) couple have a child and they are all happy and loved.

What I have a problem with is attacking (often by words in the media) of conventional couples. Yes, the overriding thing is everyone regardless of colour, gender or religion has the right to be happy. We have no business to interfere.

What I am asking for is toleration. We are all different. Let's respect this.

Simple 10m FT8 RX

It is amazing that something so simple works so well. I found a very low cost source of crystals and this does not tie up the "big rig". With 10m so good at the moment, this is a really low cost way of monitoring the activity.

I wish someone would do a simple PCB. It would make an ideal club project or Buildathon.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/10ft8r-rx

Cheap crystals? See https://kc9on.com/product/14mhz-hc49u-tall-crystals/   $1.75 each!