Plans for Monday

 You can tell it is October in the UK! Drizzle, cold and miserable. 

As I am in Cambridge much of the day for my U3A courses I do not expect to do much radio today.

1940s coach - NOT amateur radio

 

Our local museum had some visitors who arrived in this vintage coach.

Sunspots - Monday October 14th

 Solar flux is 195 and the SSN 108. A=5 and K=1.

10m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

 Assuming it all works, I intend to go on 10m QRP FT8 after breakfast with my QDX.

UPDATE 1744z: It did not work! Apparently the QDX has to be power cycled. Not only that, but the Windows update wants to move to Windows 11 and the PC has not enough disk space. If I was more confident, I would convert it to Linux, but I do not understand how to do it and then install WSJT-X under Linux. Ideally, I would like someone locally to do it!

Shield bug - NOT amateur radio

 

This says today, but it was first on Facebook in 2017. 

Sunspots - Sunday October 13th

Solar  flux is 214 and the SSN 95. A=20 and K=1.

Granddaughter's visit - NOT amateur radio

Our granddaughter is sleeping here tonight. 

This photo was taken whilst she was watching "Strictly Come Dancing" on TV.

Pititico ultra simple transceiver

As far as I can tell this ultra-simple transceiver has a passive receiver. It was designed initially by PY2OHH and this version appeared in this Canadian club magazine. Others have made versions for other bands. 

Clearly with such an insensitive receiver, it is better to call others calling CQ as you may not hear others on the frequency. The RX sensitivity will depend how good the headphones are.

See https://www.calameo.com/read/0076654746ade7e23a716 .

See also https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/tiny-transceiver-gets-it-done-with-one-transistor/ .

"Never knowingly undersold" - NOT amateur radio

Earlier this week my wife had a little time to kill in Cambridge, so she went into a famous shop. Certainly in the past they used the phrase "never knowingly undersold" meaning if you could find it cheaper they would refund you. I think they have dropped this now with internet competition. 

They run as a worker's co-operative with staff sharing in profits. They seem to charge huge amounts for goods and they must be struggling in the fierce retail market. 

It would not surprise me if they do not survive in their current form. It is a nice shop, but they charge silly prices.

QDX or QMX+?

Both these QRPlabs products are excellent rigs and I have them both. 

QDX

Most of my operating is either WSPR or FT8 on either 15m or 10m. I cannot recall when I last used SSB on HF because of my poor voice. The QDX is much smaller than the QMX+, but has no display and does not include 6m. Later versions of QMX+ software promise SSB too.

Now, with my limited ability to use SSB, I am questioning if I should keep the QMX+ rig. I probably will for now, but really the QDX would do all I need in the size of a pack of cards.

UPDATE 1806z:   It has been such a long time since I used the QDX that I have forgotten the sequence in which things are connected. There is a known issue with Windows, but not with Linux. For some reason the QDX is not recognised at first.