Tunwell Court, Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

Having lived in the Cambridge area for 54 years I have never noticed this cottage opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum! 

It dates back to the 1500s and is currently owned by Peterhouse College. 

Message to self,"keep your eyes open in future".

Rallies this Sunday

 The following have been notified to me. The usual caveats apply: always check before going any distance.

• Sunday August 18th - Rugby Amateur Transmitting Society Annual Radio Rally, Rugby, CV23 9PY. Contact rally@rugbyats.co.uk .
• Sunday August 18th - West Manchester Radio Club Red Rose Summer Rally, Leigh, WN7 2PJ. Contact rally@wmrc.co.uk .

Antennas and amateur radio

My latest RadCom arrived yesterday.

One major dealer is advertising widely (the RSGB must really value this income) and I could not help noticing a major antenna manufacturer selling antennas (on the centre pages) via this dealer for £3899.99 and £4199.99!

If this major UK dealer decided to "hang up his boots" and leave the amateur market then RadCom would have to radically change. It would probably have to shrink and come out less often.  The only amateur radio magazine remaining on newsagent's stands would really struggle.

Now, I am not able, nor wish, to say how you spend your money. However, for me, these antennas are not amateur radio. A fan dipole covering all the higher HF bands could probably be made for the cost of a few coffees out. So you might be a few dBs down on a big tower with one of these antennas on the top, but you will probably save a 4 figure sum in the process.

In the end, we have to understand what our hobby is really about.  To me, there are 2 major sorts of radio amateur: (a) those who just get out their credit card and (b) those that experiment. I prefer the latter.

In my view, the writing is already on the wall. I personally see a battle looming between the credit card operators and experimenters.  In my view credit card operators will merge with CB. Experimenters?

Australian treats - NOT amateur radio

Our son and family are spending a few weeks in Brisbane, Australia with his in-laws. I see our grandson has found some treats!

They are currently at the Sunshine Coast, although the weather looks better here! 😊

Sunspots - Friday August 16th

 Solar flux is 227 and the SSN 164 . A=6 and K=2.

FT8/FT4 and very brief Es openings

Up to now I have always used FT8 rather than FT4, especially with QRP.  FT4 is quicker, but not as sensitive as FT8. I can imagine with Es out of season, FT4 might catch some openings that FT8 might miss. 

This would apply for other types of propagation too where very brief openings might occur. I can imagine some F2 DX openings might be very fleeting. FT4 might catch these. I am not sure how many monitor FT4, but I imagine far fewer than FT8. 

One useful future WSJT-X enhancement would be automatic detection of FT8 and FT4 speeds so stations could use either modes in either slots. 

Faroe Islands - NOT amateur radio

 

One of the things I enjoy about 365project is seeing other parts of the world. This photo recently appeared.

As I have said before, the idea is to post something every day. 

It is not connected in any way with Microsoft365. It is totally free although for a modest $19.99 a year you may have privacy and more albums. 

I have done it for about 13 years and love it. Some use it  to show their artistic talent. Others use it as a kind of visual diary. I am the latter!

Well equipped stations

As you know the facet of amateur radio that I most enjoy is QRP.  However, I sometimes wonder what having high power, a tower and a big beam would be like.

In a recent 70cm contest I noticed one station working Scotland and France when I could not even hear them! I can imagine that 1000W, a big beam, and a tall tower would certainly help!

70cm UKAC activity contest

I do not submit a log for this but enjoy the activity. It is much easier to copy and work DX on 70cm FT8 than SSB. After working a couple of locals, I was RX only for the rest of the evening and  copied stations all over from France 🇫🇷  Netherlands 🇳🇱 and Germany 🇩🇪 as well as the British Isles. Not bad with 2.5W and a 2m omni antenna.

This underlies just how good FT8 could be on 70cm. If only more would use the band and mode outside contests!

The map shows the stations copied - with a 2m omni antenna!

The human touch - NOT amateur radio

More and more we are losing human interactions.

I can think of several examples: you ring up (almost any business) to be greeted with an AI message like "say in your own words what you want to talk about". With a poor voice I find it almost impossible to be understood. Many supermarkets are replacing checkouts that have humans with auto-tills where you just scan barcodes. You try to talk to your bank and get sent to a call centre on the far side of the planet where you are just a number. Most website chats are just AI bots, not humans.   It goes on and on.

Human beings like talking with human beings. 

For some lonely people it is the only human interaction they get. In my view we are going backwards as a society. Less and less we are able to speak with each other.