Village centre?

In our village, Burwell, we have no real village centre, with shops in various places. 

Perhaps the village centre could be considered as near our local co-op shop where there are a few shops together as in the photo. 

Thursday plans

 Later, I will continue with 500mW 10m WSPR and 5W 6m FT8 probably.

Sunspots - Thursday November 6th

Solar flux is 147 and the SSN 76. A=28 and K=3. 

Wars

We live in more uncertain times with people seeming more angry than they were, In many nations the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. 

In my view, this widening gap between rich and poor is a pointer towards revolution, when the poor say "enough is enough".  Sadly, rich billionaires control most of the media and ways by which people communicate.

I really hope revolution in many nations can be avoided. I hope that those voted into high office look beyond "feathering their own nests" and look to really improve the lot of the common man.

What is happening in the USA is a poor advert for democracy. What is happening in Russia is troubling too.

10m 500mW WSPR (Wednesday)

My beacon has been on since about 1130z.

UPDATE 1324z:  No spots. 

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.