Sunspots - Monday December 29th

 Solar flux is 188 and the SSN 143. A=9 and K=2.

Digital Voice (DV) transceiver

This was on Facebook yesterday, It looks like Crawley club members have been busy.

ICOM IC705

In my view the IC-705 vastly beats the Yaesu FTX-1. Certainly in the UK, the FTX-1 is very expensive and still lacks many of the features that the IC-705 had years ago. It was introduced about 5 years ago.  In my humble view Yaesu is playing catch up ... and losing badly.

It would not surprise me at all if ICOM announced an IC705A later this year in a portable form factor aimed at SOTA and POTA users with internal auto ATU and maybe 4m in European versions. It could sell well.

Yaesu have made some great kit and the majority of my commercial transceivers have been Yaesu. But I get the distinct impression Yaesu have "gone off the boil".

6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

 My gear was turned on at 0947z.

UPDATE 1006z:  So far, 4 English stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1435z:  Spotted by 15 stations with the furthest GM6NX (505km).

10m 500mW WSPR (Sunday)

 My beacon was turned on at 0946z.

UPDATE 1004z:  So far, one spot by EA8BFK (2880km).

UPDATE 1439z:  Spotted by 17 stations, most in North America.

70cm way back

 This has been on before. When first on the air I was a G8 and could only operate on 70cm and above unless operating another station under supervision. At university I became a G3.

My first forays on 70cm were with a version of this transverter. As most were crystal controlled it was fine. With a passive mixer it must have been deaf but worked some impressive DX with a tiny yagi on AM.

Sunday plans

 At the moment my plans are the same as yesterday i.e. 10m 500mW WSPR and 6m 5W FT8, although I may decide differently later!

Ukraine’s future

Today the president of Ukraine is meeting the US president at his estate in Florida. If President Zelenskyy does not accept what President Trump has agreed , the US president could just walk away. 

The future of democracy is at stake, although I don’t think President Trump appreciates this sadly.

Sunspots - Sunday December 28th

Solar  flux is 178 and the SSN 130.  A=7 and K=1.

Early frost

 

For the last few nights it’s been clear, so we had a frost last night. 

It went after a few hours.

Later in the day it clouded over.