Putin and Iran - Times Radio

 Most days I watch the YouTube videos from Times Radio. They have some very well informed speakers.

uSDX Ultra

This transceiver is now some years old and I assume it is still being made. In the UK it is available from AliExpress for just over £85, which is very low for a QRP handheld covering many of the HF bands. In a tiny handheld form factor is amazing value. It is sold as a 5W radio, but 3-4W is more common.

There have been reports of bad audio unless the settings are adjusted but I have no idea if this has been improved in later models. 

On the face of it, it looks a bargain, but I have not used one.

I would imagine you would get stung for duty.

Sunspots - Monday March 9th

 Solar flux is 135 and the SSN 76.  A=22 and K=1.

Joe Blogs YouTube

In the world of politics and economics the videos by Joe Blogs are informative. Most days I like to hear what he has to say.  It's nice to see something that is not AI and that you can trust.   

That's the trouble these days: you can never be sure that what you see is what the person really said unless you definitely trust the source.

10m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

In the end I gave up on 8m FT8  RX and QSYed to 10m FT8 using the IC705 at 5W.

UPDATE 2020z: My 5W 10m FT8 was spotted by 19 stations mostly in the USA. On RX, I have spotted 484 stations with the best LT5X (13475km) in Tierra del Fuego in Argentina.

UPDATE 2022z:  QRT.

Mizuho transceivers

For many years I owned a 2m SSB handheld by Mizuho. It was used on 2m SSB and via a homebrew transverter on 10m where it produced about 1W pep. It worked all over the world. As I recall, the battery life was not good, so I tended to use it with a PSU mostly.

I think they made versions for 15m, 10m, 6m, 4m and 2m. Sadly, I think they are no longer available.

See https://www.mizuhoradio.com/ .

Spring colour

In the autumn we put in winter flowering primroses to give a splash of colour under our front windows. 

All are now in flower and they look very colourful.

They will be replaced by summer bedding plants later. 

Probably not visible are the weeds. I cleared them all about 2 weeks ago - honest!

8m FT8 RX (Sunday)

Today, I am trying 8m FT8 RX again.

UPDATE 1450z:  No spots. I think my antenna must be poor on 8m.  I might try the coax to my 2m antenna via an ATU if it works at 40.680.

Sunspots - Sunday March 8th

 Solar flux is 135 and the SSN 75. A=18 and K=3.

Shetland Is.

As mentioned before in this blog one of my friends on 365project.org lives way up north in the Shetland Islands and takes some very good photos of life up there. 

There are few trees, in the summer days are long and very short in winter, and it can be very windy. Being much more northerly, it tends to have weather colder than further south.