28 Sept 2022
Sputnik Day 2011
1350 Window - NOT amateur radio
It was made in 1350 and was the biggest window in the world at the time. It is a great example of ancient glass.
Gloucester Cathedral - NOT amateur radio
QST stray
My free PDF book got a plug in October QST I see. Please feel free to download it should you want. It is totally free.
27 Sept 2022
8m GB3MCB beacon
This is being copied in Eire by EI9KP by weak tropo, but after several days I have had no sign here in East Anglia. I only have a low dipole and it is obviously too weak for tropo and with MS or aircraft, I almost certainly need more time for a decode on FT8.
I shall try again when there is a decent MS shower, hoping the Doppler doesn't kill the FT8!
ICOM IC-703
This is one of the best QRP transceivers I have ever owned. The best was the Yaesu FT7, but the IC-703 is very considerably smaller and covers more bands with speech processing and an auto ATU. Many years ago, I sold this to a local amateur, Ted G4NUA. Ted is now a silent key sadly. He was a keen experimenter, especially with 20m WSPR.
26 Sept 2022
Cambridge University Church - NOT amateur radio
Many famous people have given sermons here. I have heard a few in years past.
Chinese lanterns - NOT amateur radio
10m QRP WSPR TX (Monday)
Gear turned on earlier this morning. As usual, running 500mW from my WSPR beacon.
UPDATE 1300z: Just 3 unique stations spotting me so far today. These are one local and 2 in the Canary Is. The Canary Is looks like F2 propagation.
Yosemite National Park - NOT amateur radio
I visited there in the late 1990s when working in California, USA.
No, that is definitely not me!
Plans for today
Although I suspect my chances are low, I am continuing to monitor the beacon GB3MCB in Cornwall on 40.050 MHz FT8.
As the 10m antenna is free I shall probably go on 10m QRP WSPR TX with my 500mW W5OLF beacon.
UPDATE 0825z: 10m QRP WSPR TX turned on and PC manually re-synced "just in case".
PC time syncing
Many digital modes like WSPR and FT8 depend on accurate timing.
For the last few weeks I have just used Windows 10 to sync PC time. As a matter of habit I do a re-sync perhaps once a day "just in case".
Judging by results on FT8, I am perfectly sure this is fine. In the past I used special software for this. My advice is do not bother.
Make sure your settings for time automatically sync. This is extremely easy.
GB3MCB 8m beacon in Cornwall
This beacon on 40.050 MHz began operation this weekend.
It is situated in mid-Cornwall near St Austell. It should be very useful to indicate when 8m is open across the Atlantic. It has an FT8 sequence, so can be monitored with WSJT-X free software. The antennas are crossed dipoles.
Initially, it is operated under a test and innovation licence. In my view both the RSGB and OFCOM should have just granted them an NoV to the amateur licence as this truly helps propagation research and self training. The RSGB should have made the case and OFCOM agreed.
OFCOM and the RSGB -- just wake up!!! You are making yourselves look unbelievably stupid! Surely the whole purpose of our hobby is self training and radio research. Is it any wonder we cannot find RF engineers in the UK if there is no support?
8m need not be "more of the same". It is uniquely situated in the radio spectrum, on the HF/VHF boundary, to offer radio amateurs a real chance to contribute to radio propagation research. Instead, both the RSGB and OFCOM appear to be obstructive.
I am still totally puzzled why OFCOM seems so against even 5 kHz (just 5 kilohertz!!) at 8m being allocated to the amateur service by NoV. They could insist on narrow digital only and make us secondary users with limited power. It just seems so short-sighted. Like the Chinese trying to stop Covid or King Canute trying to stop the tide - there are some things in life that make no sense.
UPDATE 0804z: No spots overnight.
UPDATE 1556z: Still not a sign of that beacon. My feeling is that this is a complete waste of time. I thought I might see the odd MS burst, but nothing. Maybe I should remain on until the morning? Probably the 15 second TX period is too long for random MS. In a shower I might have better luck.
25 Sept 2022
70cm activity contest results
These have been published. My position is unchanged in the low power section.
See https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/vhfresults.pl?Contest=432MHz%20UKAC&year=2022 .
Help always at hand
Whenever I ask for help trying to find something, I usually get a positive response within a few hours. There are so many kind people who always offer their help. Thank you!
Don't ever let anyone say the spirit of amateur radio has gone. It most definitely is there. This week alone I have had kind offers from several people.
Help needed to find a circuit please
Back in the 1970s my first outings on 70cm were using a circuit I found in a VHF Communications magazine. I guess it would have been 1971-1974 sometime. I think the magazine came out quarterly.
The circuit used a varicap diode as a tripler on TX and as a mixer on RX. The IF was 2m and on 70cm it produced about 100mW as I recall. In those days most were crystal controlled AM and on RX we tuned "low to high", or similar, to get a QSO.
Do you recall this circuit? If you have a copy of the article I would be most grateful for a copy.
I have no intention of building it, but it would be nice for old time's sake. From an East Anglian "hill" (yes there are a few, HI) it worked as far as Yorkshire with a very small beam.
UPDATE 1341z: Found it!! Thanks Henry.
M0ZAE was a great help - thanks again. The edition was November 1971. The link takes you to all back numbers and is a great resource.
10m FT8 mainly RX (Sunday)
Later today, I hope to be on 10m FT8. Although some of the time I shall be QRP TX, most of the time I shall be RX only.
If F2 E-W is very good, I may QSY to 8m FT8.
UPDATE 1134z: Been on RX since about 1050z. 62 stations spotted so far today.
UPDATE 1255z: 152 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX (see map). |
| Stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX today |
UPDATE 1628z: 471 stations spotted today.
UPDATE 1835z: Now QSYed to 40.050 MHz to monitor the new (this weekend) GB3MCB 8m beacon.
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