23 Aug 2024

Homegrown tomatoes - NOT amateur radio

For some reason, tomatoes grown yourself always taste better! 

With the tomato bags, feed etc, I am sure they cost more than at the local supermarket, but they smell and taste great. These are some of the first this year.

Yaesu competitor to ICOM IC-705?


Although not available until next year MLS has announced a Yaesu competitor to the ICOM IC-705. At the moment I don’t know the price, but it has to be well below £1k to compete with the Chinese . This HAS to sell well for Yaesu's sake. Expect the IC-705 to drop in price!

The exchange rate against the Yen has improved a lot in the last few months.

I wonder if Yaesu has considered designing in Japan but manufacturing in a low cost area?

More something for nothing

 

Many years ago I experimented with this QRP transceiver circuit on 80m CW. It is hard to find anything much simpler!

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

Granddaughter - NOT amateur radio

 

This was one of my granddaughters yesterday at our home.

My dad over 100 years ago - NOT amateur radio

 


This was my dad over 100 years ago at Infants School. He is in the back row 4th from the right.

10m QRP (Friday)

Currently on 10m FT8 with my 2.5W. 

UPDATE 0929z:  Spotted by 62 stations already this morning and on RX the furthermost (115 spotted!) is VK6RK (14469km). 

Stations spotted here in the last day on 10m FT8

UPDATE  2024z:
  132 stations have spotted me today on 10m QRP FT8. 705 stations spotted here in the last day (see map).

Sunspots- Friday August 23rd

 Solar flux is 231 and the SSN 175. A=10 and K=2.

22 Aug 2024

10m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

 About an hour ago, I decided to go on 10m FT8 instead of WSPR. 

UPDATE 1715z:  43 stations have been spotted and 4 stations have spotted me. See map for the stations spotted here today.

UPDATE 1905z:  Spotted by 9 stations with the furthermost ZS1TX (9753km). 69 stations spotted here on RX.

Rallies this weekend

For many in the UK, Monday is a public holiday, so Monday is also a rally day. As always, check the details are correct before going on a long drive.

  • Sunday August 25th - Milton Keynes ARS Rally, Milton Keynes, MK8 9AA. Contact rally@mkars.org.uk .
  • Sunday  August 25th - Torbay Annual Communications Fair, Newton Abbot , TQ12 3SF. Contact rally@tars.org.uk .
  • Monday August 26th - Huntingdonshire ARS Rally, St Neots, PE19 2SH . Contact henry_hirst@hotmail.com .

Tenner - QRP CW on 10m

This rig is many years old. It is simple, but it worked lots of DX. 

As I recall, it produced about 500mW of CW.