18 Mar 2024

Sunspots- Monday March 18th

Solar flux is 151 and the SSN 86. A=2 and K= 0.

17 Mar 2024

630m QRP WSPR (Sunday)

 At about 1906z I QSYed to 630m WSPR with my 10mW ERP. I had been on 8m FT8.

Return to 8m QRP FT8

At the moment, I am on 8m QRP FT8. The antenna appears to be a bit too long and probably needs cutting a bit. I have put on a new PL259 plug.

UPDATE 1730z:   No spots.

EI7GL's blog

John's blog is always interesting. I note he has a fascinating report of a 23cm QSO in Australia by lightning scatter. The blog is always worth a read.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/

Walk yesterday - NOT amateur radio

 


This is a collage of our walk around the village of Reach, near Cambridge, yesterday.

10m QRPP WSPR (Sunday)

My 500uW 10m WSPR is on again.

UPDATE 1050z:  Yet again my 500uW (0.5mW) WSPR has been spotted in the Canary Is.. A reminder that even though my beacon is pre-programmed to report 0.5W it is actually 0.5mW (30dB less) with the PA off in these tests. The station(s) at the RX end must have low noise floors!

UPDATE 1122z:
  He has spotted me again. Now 2 spots of me today with 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR. I guess this must be single hop F2.

UPDATE 1153z:
The photos show Peter's site and antenna in the Canary Islands and my beacon which is about the size of a pack of cards and needs no PC.

UPDATE  1520z: For a third time today he has spotted my 500uW QRPP!


6m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni is on again. At 0925z, 6 English stations had spotted me.

Stations spotting my 6m
QRP FT8 this morning
UPDATE 1217z:
8 stations have spotted me. It is pleasing to see activity even when there is no DX around. If I can work around the UK with just 2.5W and an omni, imagine what is possible with full power and a beam!

UPDATE 1435z:  No further spots of me, but I have spotted 14 UK stations.

630m QRP WSPR overnight


Overnight 14 stations, including  2 in Norway, spotted my 10mW ERP 630m WSPR.  I shall try again tonight. Being on 630m WSPR TX again over the last few months has been great fun.

Pathfinder - NOT amateur radio


My dad was a Pathfinder in Lancaster bombers in WW2 . He hated the war and rarely talked about those scary night raids over Germany. I am sure that those bombs would have killed or maimed innocent people just like him. This would have always haunted him all his life. Wars are so cruel.

He died in 1987 and loved his quiet life in Devon after the war. He must have been so brave and so scared knowing that on each trip he could have been killed or maimed.

Sunspots- Sunday March 17th

 Solar flux is 144 and the SSN 67 . A=3 and K=0.