USA - UK trade deal - NOT amateur radio

Oh yes.

And I am sure this will come with plenty of strings (China, Huawei and Iran being three) and a strong "America first" bias. Personally, I think we should tread very carefully of Americans baring gifts. If it is too good to be true, it probably is.

Every American I have ever met in the flesh has been kind and generous, but I do not trust President Trump or his team.

Sunspots - Tuesday August 13th 2019

Solar flux is 67 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=2. Pits.

Exhaustion and giddiness - NOT amateur radio

To be honest, the after effects of my 2013 stroke are getting me down. In the last few years there has been no improvement.

Today, the loft ladder beckoned (not actually into the loft, where I've not been since 2013!).

All the time on my feet giddiness and exhaustion are the main issues. Compared with my pre-stroke days, there are many things that can no longer be done. Chatting is now hard! Thinking of the positives, much can still be done. In many ways my life is far better than that of many. For this I am grateful.

At some point I need to re-erect my HF antenna and this involves getting up a ladder to the flat roof of my garage. In the past, this would have been trivial!

Cape Verde Is on 70cm

According to a second hand report on Southgate News the Cape Verde contest group can now operate on 70cms. Does this mean yet more astounding DX records will fall?

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/august/d4c-contest-team-set-up-new-432-mhz-station-on-cape-verde-islands.htm

The original report came from John's excellent blog at https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2019/08/new-432-mhz-station-on-cape-verde.html .

6m FT8

A few moments ago I went on 6m FT8 for the day being spotted by 6 stations with a QSO with 1 Italian. This could have been 2 but I realised too late that I was not on TX . On 6m FT8 RX 4 stations were spotted . There is early Es about .

UPDATE 0850z: 22 stations in 11 countries spotted so far today on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1250z: 54 stations spotted so far. Widespread 6m Es again.

UPDATE 1605z: 112 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX with the best DX being EA8AQV (2989km). Plenty of Es still.

UPDATE 1912z: Now 173 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX. Clearly the Es season is not yet over.

UPDATE 2148z: QRT time. When I turned everything off, 163 stations spotted in the last 12 hours on 6m FT8 RX with the best DX being EA8JK (3022km).

Sunspots - Monday August 12th 2019

Solar flux is 69 and the sunspot number 0. A=7 and K=2. Still looks to me like we are bumping along the bottom of sunspot minimum.

472kHz (630m) WSPR overnight

In the end 2 stations spotted me on 472kHz WSPR, but no further stations were spotted here. At least the gear works.

Roman Chester - NOT amateur radio

Last week, we stayed with an old friend who is a blue badge guide for Liverpool and Chester. He gave us a free tour of Chester. The photo shows Roman Chester. Pretty sure the Roman soldier is there for the tourists! Small city, but lots to see.

Return to 472kHz WSPR

For the first time in many months I have returned to 472kHz WSPR using 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground using my transverter driven with the FT817ND. G1GKN (99km) is a good signal. So far, I have only been copied by G0VQH (15km).

UPDATE 2015z: Best DX on 472kHz WSPR RX is DL7NN (873km).

UPDATE 2120z: The following unique stations have been spotted:

Best DX on 472kHz WSPR RX is LA8AV (1035km).

UPDATE 2138z: Although I am not that hopeful, I shall stop on 472kHz WSPR overnight. It is still summer and the noise levels will be high, preventing many stations from copying my QRPP signal.

Thunder and Lightning

At the moment we have thunder and lightning, so everything in the shack has been disconnected for now.

See https://www.lightningmaps.org/blitzortung/europe/index.php?bo_page=map&bo_showmap=uk

6m FT8

A recent 6m FT8 CQ was spotted by 6 stations with best DX being OZ9QV (861km). On RX not a single spot yet.

Stations spotted so far today 

on 6m FT8 RX (to 1252z)

UPDATE 1156z: Plenty of stations (64) now coming through, many by Es, today on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1252z: 74 stations from all over Europe spotted in the last 12 hours in 6m FT8 RX. Who said the Es season is over?

UPDATE  1610z: When the storms "stopped play" 96 stations spotted with best DX on 6m FT8 RX being 4X1SK (3566km) in Israel.

UPDATE 1705z: The storm seems to have moved westwards, so everything was reconnected. I called CQ on 6m FT8 and worked a YO2. The best DX of me on 6m FT8 TX was 9H1PI (2130km) on Malta. Now 125 stations spotted here today in the last 12 hours on 6m FT8 RX with the V2000 vertical omni antenna.

UPDATE 2020z: When I eventually "pulled the plug" because of storms (again) 146 stations were spotted on 6m FT8 RX. I have since QSYed to MF WSPR.

The arrow of time - NOT amateur radio

One of the things we take for granted is that the future is the future and the past is the past. Of course time itself could be an illusion. Our limited brains may make this hard to conceive.

If I recall my quantum mechanics correctly, everything can be represented as a wave function in all time and all space. Tunnel diodes only work on the basis of this "probabilistic" world view. They work!

Codar AT5 TX

How times change!

When I was first interested in the hobby we had horrendous noise at the top of 160m from Loran. In recent years we have noise all over the band from switch mode PSUs and other man made noise sources.

In the late 1960s 160m was the main mobile band, using AM of course. A popular TX was the AT5 paired with a T28 RX. The AT5 covered 160m and 80m and produced about 12W output. In its day it was a good radio from the car or at the home QTH. I always wanted one.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/at5

6m MSK144 RX

Overnight, I was monitoring the 6m MS "watering hole" on 50.280MHz MSK144. Certainly now and maybe for some time the Internet has been off, so reports to PSKreporter will not have got through.

UPDATE 0615z: As I was concerned that my internet connection was off, I checked the PC to see what 6m MSK144 signals were received overnight - nothing! This makes me wonder if something was wrong .

Sunspots - Sunday August 11th 2019

Solar flux is 67 and the sunspot number 0. A=8 and K=2.

Oscar 100 - is activity increasing?

Last night at about 2022z I took a peak at the activity on the wideband transponder of Oscar 100, the geosynchronous amateur satellite. Perhaps I was lucky but there were 10 active SSB stations, most in QSOs. Now, maybe I chanced on a good time, but this is the busiest I have ever seen on Oscar 100.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Killer electrons?

Maybe astronauts have even more to worry about.

See https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaaw1368

Chester town crier - NOT amateur radio

Last week we were in Chester.

In the photo, the town crier is in good voice. I think he makes a good tourist attraction these days.

6m FT8

As I am home again, I am on 6m FT8. Only 2 stations spotted here so far on 6m FT8 RX (Denmark and Switzerland), but I got 9 spots of my CQ call on 6m FT8 TX with the best being OY1OF (1163km) in the Faroe Is.

UPDATE 1600z: With just 4 stations spotted I think many are now leaving 6m thinking the Es season has ended.

UPDATE 1633z: In the last 25 minutes I called CQ on 6m FT8 TX. 25 spots from all over Europe (as the map shows) indicating the Es season is far from over. No QSOs resulted, which tells me many are still monitoring, but fewer are on TX.

UPDATE 1856z: Another recent 6m FT8 TX CQ call was spotted by 12 stations.

UPDATE 2012z: A recent 6m FT8 TX CQ was spotted by 6 stations right across Europe. I am convinced that many who would be on TX think the Es season is over.

Chester - NOT amateur radio

Chester is a fine city not far from Liverpool, UK.

It has many sorts of architecture and the old centre is quite compact, so easy to walk around.

It is enclosed by old city walls that one can walk around. It also has a fine cathedral.