6m 5W FT8 (Wednesday)

My gear was turned on at about 1120z.

UPDATE 1634z: 30 stations have spotted me . See map. It seems that almost all times I go on 6m QRP FT8 TX, I get spotted in mainland Europe.

Making the Pixie better

The Pixie is available as a 40m transceiver extremely inexpensively from China. It is a low power transceiver, but the receiver is a real compromise often suffering from overload from broadcast stations and with poor selectivity. These mods by VK3YE 9 years ago make it a bit better. 

If you are after a really low cost way of getting into amateur radio,  this may be it. There have been several variations of it down the years.

The Pixie and Micro80 are also on my website.

Sunspots - Wednesday November 5th

 Solar flux is 159 and the SSN 91. A=10 and K=2.

Hamsphere special offer

At the moment I am being offered a year of Hamsphere at a special price of 9.99 Euros. I am not sure if this is being offered to all new members. 

I am not really a fan of simulated amateur radio, but I can understand this could appeal to some people with no access to traditional amateur radio transceivers or antennas. I imagine it is less popular when HF conditions are very good, as they are currently.

At this price I am tempted, even though I might use it infrequently.

10m 1W FT8 (Tuesday)

 My gear was turned on at about 0700z. FT8 is a very impressive mode, although not for chatting.

UPDATE 1001z:  84 stations have spotted me with the best 9K2RA-2 (4641km) in Kuwait. Really going down to 1W has made little difference, apart from increasing the fun. I might stick at this power in future, or try even lower! I think the lowest from the IC-705 is 500mW, although I can always add the 15dB attenuator.

UPDATE 1820z:  352 stations have spotted my 1W FT8. See map.

UPDATE 2024z:  QRT.

630m WSPR RX

Overnight I left my IC705 on 474.2kHz WSPR RX again using just the outer of the coax to my 2m big-wheel antenna and mains earth. In all, 11 stations spotted.

10m AM

In years past I was impressed with 10m AM just above 29.0 MHz. I have not listened for a while so must try again.

Tuesday plans

 At the moment I am inclined to try 10m FT8 at 1W after breakfast.

Christ’s Pieces, Cambridge, UK

Autumn  seems to have suddenly arrived. It all seems to have happened in the last couple of weeks.

The power of AI

A few  days ago, I saw an old photo of my dad with his WW2 flying crew. It was black and white. I put it through AI and I was impressed.