70cm FT8 yesterday - disappointing

 As the tropo forecast looked promising yesterday, I went on 70cm FT8 QRP. It was a great disappointment with only G stations spotted. With average conditions, I'm probably many dBs down on a "proper" 70cm station with the correct polarisation, a decent beam and decent coax, so I probably miss a lot on tropo but less on scatter. I may try again later. 

Sunspots - Wednesday January 19th 2022

Solar flux is 115 and the SSN 59. A=18 and K=5.

Odd cloud - NOT amateur radio

I think these are ice crystals reflecting the sun. Seen this morning. 

G4PJ's QTH

Back in the 1960s my mentor was Bill G4PJ. His shack was right on the water's edge in Salcombe, Devon, UK  and his earth went straight into the water! The photo shows right outside his old shack. 

No wonder I could copy his 160m AM signals 4 miles away on a crystal set!

That 8m NoV application to OFCOM

 It is now over a week since I asked OFCOM for a progress update. What have I heard? Apart from those computer generated auto-responses saying my question has been received, absolutely nothing!! I get the distinct impression they are either (a) totally incompetent, or (b) they have lost it and are too embarrassed to say.  Another week and then they get phone calls.

I am puzzled why a totally genuine request for a time limited, low power NoV requiring 50Hz of spectrum is so hard. This at a time when they can doll out 2MHz of VHF spectrum for DATV research beggars belief! My original NoV went in in October.

10m QRP WSPR (Tuesday)

As the antenna is available, I am again on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW from the W5OLF beacon. So far (at 0923z) just spots from G4KPX (14km).

UPDATE 1705z: 7 stations have spotted me today. QRT soon.

Best ever QSO?

Way back in 2007, I achieved what I had thought impossible - a real QRP 6m QSO across the Atlantic. The antenna at the far end must have helped, but Lofty must have had good ears!  My antenna? Just the V2000 vertical omni fed with CB coax. My power? 1W ERP.

70cm QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

After breakfast I hope to be on 70cm FT8 QRP with 2.5W and the V2000 vertical omni antenna. Activity and conditions may not be good until this evening. Nonetheless it will be interesting to keep eyes and ears open. It may also indicate what I can expect all the time with scatter. 

UPDATE 0924z:  No spots on RX so far. I have not tried TX. The gear was turned on at 0824z.

UPDATE 1244z:  Just a single 70cm FT8 spot so far today M7RSG (88km).

UPDATE 1416z:  A brief TX period just now resulted in nobody spotting me. No further spots on RX.

UPDATE 1840z:  At the moment, 70cm FT8 has been disappointing. 1 local G6KWA (22km) has been spotted and I have been spotted by G6OUA (63km). No DX, well yet anyway. According to the Hepburn Tropo Forecast, I was expecting better.

Sunspots - Tuesday January 18th 2022

 Solar flux is 114 and the SSN 99. A=9 and K=3. 

Time's arrow - NOT amateur radio

Often, new discoveries in science are counter-intuitive and they do not sit comfortably with our experiences. 

One of these is quantum mechanics, where everything can be described as a wave that exits in all space and all time. OK, the experience now is the most probable.

Time may be a bit like this. In our everyday experience, time flows from the past into the future. However, the future and the past may be always there. In the future we may find out that time is an illusion.

Think of Schrodinger's cat: we cannot know if it is alive or dead until we open the box. Various interpretations have been put forward.

All I am saying is time is a mystery and one day our understanding of it could be totally different.