The future of amateur radio

Some remain optimistic about the future of our hobby and I very much hope they are right. 

What is clear is the "magic of radio" is no longer there. As a teenager in the 1960s radio was still magic and an amateur licence allowed one to communicate across the world. These days we can all do this in colour video from a phone in the hand for free!

Unless we can connect with (especially young) people I can see our hobby evolving and dying out.

Amateur radio as we knew it will not be the same in the future. I cannot predict the trajectory it will follow,  but change is inevitable.

Am I worried?  No.  Most people use amateur radio like CB anyway.

My predictions have not changed:

• Most radio amateurs are older males. 
• These will get older and fewer rigs will get bought. 
• Some dealers will close. 
• Some manufacturers will leave the market as it will no longer make them profits. 
• Ads will disappear. 
• Magazines will close or get much smaller. 
• Amateur radio will become like CB with free bands for appliance operators.
• Those who want callsigns will be allocated these by national societies, not PTTs.
• Somehow those few who experiment will still experiment.

More 70cm FT8

 As mentioned yesterday, 70cm never fails a surprise me. It is like a switch being turned on when there is a contest with the band coming alive. 

With 10W SSB I consistently work over 100km despite just using my 2m big-wheel omni antenna and on 70cm FT8 RX the same antenna enables me to receive stations at great distances irrespective of conditions.

Last night in the FT8 UKAC stations right across Western Europe were copied on 70cm FT8 RX again. 

Stations spotted on 70cm FT8 last evening 

As mentioned before, it does not seem to depend on conditions and is almost like some kind of scatter mode. As it happens at almost any time, I do not think it is aircraft.

“Times they are a changing".  

Years ago people went on 70cm FM simplex just for a chat!! These days most people only come on for contests.

Sunspots - Thursday July 10th

 Solar flux is 120 and the SSN 83. A=8 and K=1.

70cm FT8 activity contest (UKAC) - Wednesday

Mostly I go on RX, maybe also on TX giving a few points away. 

It never fails to amaze me how far away I can copy stations with just my 144 MHz big-wheel omni antenna. The RSGB contest has not even started yet I have already spotted stations in the Netherlands and France out to 347km on 70cm. Also spotted the Isle of Man and DK1VC (503km) in Germany.

I have often wondered if I can receive that far by some kind of scatter.

End fed half-wave antennas?

These are multi-band antennas (K24) are end fed via a transformer so the high impedance is reduced to somewhere nearer 50 ohms. I see AliExpress is selling them for around £30 shipped to the UK. 

As a QRP operator, the limited power handling does not bother me. Usually I operate at about 5W. 

With high power some have reported RF feedback, often cured with a small counterpoise or choke on the coax. I am tempted to see how this works. I doubt I could make one for that price.

Banggood is selling similar ones for even less.

Swifts - NOT amateur radio

These are migratory birds that are supposed to be declining in numbers mainly as result of fewer nest sites. 

We certainly see far fewer swallows although I saw plenty in Devon last week.

This year, I seem to have spotted more swifts than last year. If I had not heard of the issue of falling numbers I would not have known. Maybe locally there are still plenty of swift nest sites or numbers are growing again? For example, there were about 20 screaming overhead earlier in a feeding party.

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/swift .

10m QRP WSPR (Wednesday)

 Plenty of Es about this morning with my 500mW WSPR beacon being widely spotted across Europe.

UPDATE 1620z: 43 stations have spotted me. Mainly Es. Map courtesy of M0XDK maps.

6m 5W FT8 (Wednesday)

My IC-705 at 5W has been on since mid-morning. Lots of Es about with me being copied widely around Europe.

UPDATE 1608z: So far spotted by 205 stations. 92 stations spotted here.

IC-705 remote

My main rig is an IC-705. I have never tried this using wi-fi or Bluetooth. 

Apparently there is an iOS version to remote the rig using Bluetooth and I hope there is one over wi-fi allowing the rig to be used from an iPhone. There is a video that show the Bluetooth version of this. I must try this.

Sunspots - Wednesday July 9th

 Solar flux is 115 and the SSN 88. A=13 and K=1.