Sunspots - Sunday May 5th

 Solar flux is 167 was and the SSN 136. A=6 and K=1.

Homebase 10 antenna

This is on my website and was in Practical Wireless some years ago. With 10m in great shape at the moment you may want to make one.

The photo shows a dual band version for 10m and 6m.

Discovery TX-500

This product looks an ideal radio for SOTA and POTA operation being weatherproof and well featured. It is available from MLS at £1195.  I am unsure where it is made. It is a 10W SDR transceiver covering HF and 6m.

The product looks solid yet very thin. It looks like a military product in many ways.

For details see https://lab599.com/

Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, Ohio, USA

This takes place in a few weeks. It is probably the biggest ham gathering on the planet. 

It is often the place where new products are announced, even before the product is ready!  Why? The USA is probably the biggest market in the world.

One can imagine the pressures on the design teams!  You can almost hear the bosses at ICOM and Yaesu saying, "we MUST have a demo product in time for Dayton". The fallback is a non-working model under a screen so punters can only look. I just wonder if there will be any new products announced this year? There was little announced by the big Japanese manufacturers last year.

FT710 or IC7300?

Both these rigs are solid work horses with very similar specs. In the past I have owned an FT710, but I have not owned an IC7300. There are those who really enjoy these rigs. Both have an auto-ATU and are SDR based. 

There are some very competitive Chinese products on the market although I am still unsure about the quality and consistency of these Chinese products. They will get there. 

The FT710 is a bit less than the IC7300, especially with the Yaesu cashback deal. Mind you, the Chinese products are significantly less expensive. 

Once the Chinese really get their act together, they will definitely be serious competitors to the Japanese.

IC-7300 100000 sold!

This famous ICOM transceiver has now sold over 100k units since it was introduced in 2016 according to the ICOM Japan website and EI7GL's blog.

I wonder if a new version is coming?

Cambridge Botanic Garden flowers - NOT amateur radio

 

These flowers were seen last Wednesday at the Cambridge Botanic Garden.

Wicken Fen

This is not far from here. Good to hear cuckoos and once again . They like reed warbler nests!!

10m 10mW WSPR (Saturday)

 Today, my plan is to go on 10m WSPR with 10mW to see how it goes. If there is some Es, I am hopeful.

UPDATE 1549z: Plenty of Es about with my 10mW 10m WSPR being spotted by several stations. Some are probably Es, although I suspect the EA8 and TA may be F2 propagation.

Bird table experiment - NOT amateur radio

Our last bird table blew over and was damaged beyond repair in a storm. 

Being quite big, we had pigeons and other large birds dominating. As an experiment we now have 2 smaller bird tables hung from the tree. 

Hopefully, pigeons will be too big and fat!

UPDATE 1743z:  A big fat pigeon was eyeing the food on the bird tables and trying to work out how to get  it.... and failing! I just hope the smaller birds now find it.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

This was the best session for a while with my 10mW ERP being spotted by 8 stations. "Not dead yet" seems to be the message.

Sunspots - Saturday May 4th

 Solar flux is 156 and the SSN 121. A=10 and K=1.

Ukraine future - NOT amateur radio

Russia invading Ukraine was clearly wrong. 

What I am unsure about is Russia's intentions afterwards. In the end I suspect some of Ukraine will, in effect, be ceded to Russia or become "independent".

Several questions are begged:

• Why did the West do very little when Russia annexed Crimea about 10 years ago?
• Why did the West not intervene when Ukraine territories in the East were being fought over years ago?

One outcome I can see is:

• Crimea and disputed Ukraine eastern territories are made neutral states with UN protection.
• The people of eastern Ukraine territories and Crimea are offered free elections under the control of a neutral country or the UN acceptable to Russia and Ukraine.
• Russia is told in no uncertain terms that any attack on any NATO country would be dealt with by a massive response by all NATO states.
• Ukraine becomes a neutral country and vows never to join NATO.
• NATO declares never to attack or invade Russia.

We know the Russian people are "fed a line" by Putin and state media.  What we do not know is how "whiter than white" the West is.  I suspect we are not being told the full story.

Invading a neighbour can never be right though.

Cambridge Botanic Garden - NOT amateur radio

 

This photo was taken at the Botanic Garden on Wednesday.

6m QRP FT8 (Friday)

My 2.5W FT8  to the V2000 vertical omni antenna is on. So far, spotted widely across Europe (see map) by 20 stations.

UPDATE 1052z:   38 stations have spotted me.

Stations spotting my
2.5W 6m FT8 today

UPDATE 1529z:   45 stations have spotted me today. Now switched to 10mW 6m WSPR.

UPDATE 1810z: No spots of me on QRPP WSPR.

10m QRPP WSPR (Friday)

Today I am back to 500uW on 10m WSPR. I shall resync to internet time after breakfast.

UPDATE 1807z:  Internet time resync done early this morning. No spots.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

With 4 stations spotting my 10mW ERP overnight on 630m WSPR, the message is ‘not done yet’.

Golden Barrel Cactus - NOT amateur radio

This was seen at the Cambridge University Botanical Garden earlier in the week.

Sunspots - Friday May 3rd

 Solar flux is 142 and the SSN 125. A=44 and K=1.

Last gasp on 630m QRP WSPR

At about 2000z this evening, I shall try 630m WSPR for probably the last time until the autumn. 

I am unsure what nighttime challenge I shall try instead. 

My tests with 10mW ERP 630m WSPR using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground have been fun. The beauty is that neither my XYL nor the neighbours have any idea it is there!  

From my WSPR tests, I suspect it is only about 2 S-points down on a monster antenna and ground.