Volta's battery

 

This dates from the very early 1800s. It may be the first battery ever made.

Faroe Islands - NOT amateur radio

 

This  photo was recently put on 365project by a friend in the Faroes. It looks very Icelandic.

Sunspots declining?

 Sometimes we see a second peak that can be higher than the first, but at the moment it looks like we are on the downward slopes of solar cycle 25. My favourite site for solar data has just been updated.

Conditions should still be good for several years yet.

Kings Lynn park - NOT amateur radio

 

We saw this on Saturday on our way back to the railway station.

6m QRP FT8 (Monday)

My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna has been spotted by 5 English stations at 0835z, although I have spotted none.

UPDATE 1509z:   5 stations spotted on RX with the best EI3ISB (452km) on the outskirts of Dublin. 11 UK stations have spotted me today. No signs of DX today.

UPDATE 1702z: Guess who spoke too soon!! A station in Norway has spotted my 2.5W QRP 6m FT8.

10m 500uW WSPR (April 1st)

My 500uW 10m WSPR is on, but no spots by 1410z. 

UPDATE 1707z:   Unexpected spots by EA8BFK (2880km). Conditions were good, but not exceptional. I was honestly expecting today to pass with no spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR. I must see if there is a correlation between solar conditions and being spotted by DX stations on 10m WSPR with exceptionally low power.  My guess (unfounded) would be that this is possible only when conditions are exceptionally stable, although today rather puzzles me. Sadly, I am not great at Excel! I can use it basically, but can't do clever things with it.

UPDATE 1852z: EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted me again!

UPDATE  1900z: I have created a spreadsheet to see if I can discern any patterns.

UPDATE 1935z:  This is the last week with 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR.   Although this is just a few days, it suggests my best chances are when A and K are low.

Sunspots - Monday April 1st

Solar flux is 134 and the SSN 50.  A=8 and K=2.

SSN 50? - not too promising?  I can remember day after day with SSN=0 and there was still plenty of N-S DX on 10m. With FT8 now, QSOs should be even easier. I worked LU with QRP SSB at the bottom of a solar cycle with just a low dipole. Never give up on the higher HF bands!

British Summer Time (BST) - NOT amateur radio

Last night the UK clocks went forward an hour. This means BST is an hour ahead of GMT. Quite often at this time I forget!

6m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna was on until I QSYed to 630m WSPR.  Stations that spotted me were from across England. On RX, my best DX was a station in Germany.

Kings Lynn port - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned yesterday, Kings Lynn was one of the most important ports in England centuries ago when it was a Hanseatic League port.  

These days, it would appear to be mainly a few fishing boats.

8m dilemma

My TX permit runs out shortly, and I am undecided about a new one. 

From an experimental view point, I have already proved that 2.5W FT8 and a low dipole is enough to reach many parts of the planet when F2 is good. Just to experiment I have to pay £50 a year, which I find offensive and stupid. I blame OFCOM and the RSGB for this utter stupidity. There are many people who want to do genuine research at 8m!! Pay?? How daft when amateur radio is meant to be about self-training! 

My inclination is to operate on 40.680MHz WSPR under ISM regulations (10mW ERP and IR2030 compliance) which is totally free and open to all in the UK. This would be much harder, but radio science would benefit more. I suspect that much of Europe would be in range on the better days in the Es season. The main issue could be too few monitors. I suspect 10mW ERP 8m FT8 would be too low.

It would be good if others joined me by keeping to ISM rules (or similar) in your area of the world. In some countries I believe one can legally beacon below certain powers.  If enough people tried, the research would be more meaningful. Remember, operation under ISM rules is not amateur radio. Such use is essentially one way beaconing for propagation research.

It would be great to have a lot of QRPP 8m WSPR beacons operational.

Back to normal on 10m WSPR?

These last few days have resulted in some exceptional spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR. Spots from the Canaries have been most days and I have been spotted in the USA by several stations in the last few days. Today, there are no spots at all, which I suspect is the norm. Perhaps I should try 10mW, which I suspect would be enough quite often.

UPDATE 2016z:   3 spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) by EA8BFK (2880km) today. I spoke too soon!

630m QRP WSPR (Sunday)

Rather earlier than usual, I have QSYed to 630m WSPR with my 10mW ERP. So far today (at 1455z) my QRP has been spotted by just one station G4FQI (128km).

UPDATE 2025z:  4 stations have spotted me.

English Lake District - NOT amateur radio

This part of England is probably one of the most beautiful. It has rolling hills and mountains and beautiful lakes. This photo was taken recently by a friend.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

With just 8 stations spotting me, 630m appears to be going "off the boil". Best was Norway, so it does not look like poor conditions.

Sunspots - Sunday March 31st

Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 60. A=5 and K=2.

Kings Lynn - NOT amateur radio

We recently visited here. It was once a Hanseatic League port and one of the most important ports in England . Although much of the town is nondescript, there are some fine buildings near the river.

630m QRP WSPR (Saturday)

 For about the last 30 minutes, I have been on 630m WSPR with my 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. So far,  3 stations have spotted me.

6m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

Most of the day, my 2.5W 6m FT8 to the V2000 omni vertical antenna. 24 stations spotted including one in Denmark.

10m QRPP WSPR

All week I have been trying out (again) on 500uW 10m WSPR. Yet again, my 500uW 10m WSPR has been spotted in the USA again and I have lost count of the  number of spots by EA8BFK (2880km) in the Canary Is..