Sunspots - Tuesday January 21st

 Solar flux is 230 and the SSN 277 (is this an error?).  A=20 and K=1.

11 years ago - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows me with my brother when I came out of hospital in 2014.

I was in hospital for 3.5 months with a brain bleed. My brother came to see me regularly from Devon. He also raised lots of money for Headway, a charity for brain injured people.

Unlike many I made a pretty full recovery. Apart from giddiness and poor speech most of me still works!

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/non-amateur-radio/stroke .

US presidential elections - NOT amateur radio

The people of the USA have elected their president for the next 4 years in an election. 

The outgoing president has, allegedly, issued preemptive pardons to prevent the incoming president "going after" those who opposed him in the past. 

I truly hope the incoming president is above such things and continues to uphold all that is best about democracy and sees peace around the world as an honourable aim.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r5g5dezk4o .

Pititico 1 transistor transceiver

You may be interested in this (and other) videos on the Pititico transceiver on DX Explorer. 

As there is no amplification of the audio on RX I imagine it is not very sensitive so probably safer to call stations you can hear. Putting out a call you might squash another station already there that you cannot hear!

Norway - NOT amateur radio

 

One of my friends on 365project posted this photo of a Norwegian lighthouse.

6m QRP FT8 (Monday)

At the moment I am on 6m FT8 with the IC705 (10W) and the V2000 vertical omni antenna. At 1200z, just 9 English spots of me.

UPDATE 1258z:  Currently being spotted by 19 stations in 5 countries.

UPDATE 1543z: 28 stations in 7 countries have spotted me today on 6m QRP FT8.

8m QRP FT8 with the QMX+ (Monday)

Once my QMX+ has initialised (with software -019 it can sometimes take ages! I was holding off upgrading software until SSB is available) I intend to go on 8m QRP FT8.

UPDATE 1140z: As my QMX+ failed to initialise (is this just a problem with -19 software version?) I shall not be on 8m FT8 today.

10m 500mW WSPR (Monday)

 My stand-alone beacon was turned on at about 0930z. So far (at 0947z)  no spots of me.

UPDATE 1244z:   19 spots of me.

Sunspots - Monday January 20th

 Solar flux is 234 and the SSN 143. A=15 and K=3.

LED Christmas Tree

Over Christmas we had a multicoloured fibre optic small tree in our lounge. 

With January in the UK being generally cloudy and dull, we had withdrawal symptoms, so we bought a small LED tree.