Baby crocodile - NOT amateur radio

 

When I saw this twig on our walk yesterday, I immediately thought of a baby crocodile. 

I know it is not, but it is funny how the mind works.

Solar peak - cycle 25

My favourite site for solar data is now showing the smoothed peak of cycle 25 as this October at 162.8. At one time they were showing a much smaller peak last November. 

This suggests good F2 conditions this autumn and spring.

10m 500mW WSPR TX (Thursday)

My beacon was turned on at about 0800z. 

UPDATE 1525z:  No spots. I suspect fewer people use WSPR now preferring FT8. Perhaps I should try 10m FT8 tomorrow?

6m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

My QRP 6m FT8 was turned on about 0800z.  

UPDATE 1046z:  10 English stations have spotted me See map.

UPDATE 1255z:   11 stations spotting me.

UPDATE 1518z:  12 stations have spotted me. See map.

Websites and dates

This really annoys me. It would be really helpful if people put dates when webpages were updated. I can’t tell you how often I have seen data only to see it was created some years ago and the data is out of date!! 

As an example CQWW contest website. Dates are shown for 2024, but were these written last year? The last blog update was April. 

This has happened so many times. All it needs is a footer saying when the webpage was last updated.

Sunspots - Thursday August 22nd

 Solar flux is 239 and the SSN 176. A=8 and K=2.

Brandon Country Park - NOT amateur radio

This is about 30km from us. 

It has a series of lovely woodland walks with plenty of heather in bloom on the heath as the photo shows.  

As you would expect with a large quantity of trees, many are felled or fall down naturally.

10m 500mW WSPR (Wednesday)

Whilst on 6m, I keep forgetting the 10m antenna is available, so I can use my 10m WSPR TX beacon.

UPDATE  0952z:  No spots of me.

UPDATE 1715z:  Spotted by 6 stations.

6m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

My 2.5W 6m FT8 was turned on about 0800z. 

UPDATE 0843z:  Spotted by 9 English stations. It makes you think how useful 6m FT8 could be inter-G when the band is not "open". Also many of those spotting me so far are probably cross polarised and using horizontal antennas. Just one G spotted on RX.

UPDATE 1721z:  20 stations spotted.  One might be Es.

CQWW contests?

As I recall, CQ magazine has stopped. At one time the CQWW contests were perhaps the most popular in the world. Even without submitting an entry, it was a way to contact new countries. When my voice was good I used to fill pages in the logbook. In later years, it has become too hard for me.

With the demise of CQ, I wonder what is happening with these contests?

Sunspots - Wednesday August 21st

 Solar flux is 244 and the SSN 200. A=7 and K=3.

8m or 6m?

In recent times, I have not been on 8m much, even though I have a UK T&I permit to TX on the 8m band. 

The main reason is I know what the band can do with Es. It is possible to span the European continent with just a few milliwatts of FT8 on 8m. 

The 8m band, being between 10m and 6m, comes into its own when the F2 MUF just exceeds 47MHz. 

With the sunspot count being good recently, it has exceeded 50MHz, especially on N-S paths.  Activity on 6m is much higher, so getting spots is easier than on 8m currently. 

As the F2 MUF goes down, I expect 8m will be more useful showing how the F2 MUF can reach 8m, but not 6m. I shall probably try again on 8m this autumn It would be great if more PTTs allowed amateur access. 

I hope the FCC, OFCOM and the RSGB are listening!

Moulton flowers - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned before, Moulton (near us) is a delightful village to walk around, with an old packhorse bridge, the church, river, thatched cottages and flowers.

6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

My QRP 6m FT8 was turned on after breakfast.

UPDATE 0824z:  12 stations have spotted me. I think there is some Es.

UPDATE 0901z:  IS0AWZ (1598km) has spotted me. See map.

UPDATE 1521z: 24 Europeans plus one CN8 have spotted me so far today. See map.

Changing images on my blog - NOT amateur radio

Quite often I need to change an image on my blogspot blog. I find this very "hit and miss". Sometimes I can do it easily and other times I struggle.  I can't help thinking I am missing a trick and there must be a better way. 

Does anybody know a method that just works please?

6m super DX

As well as being spotted in Namibia 🇳🇦 yesterday with 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna a PY way down in Brazil 🇧🇷 (Sao Paulo) was spotted on 6m FT8 yesterday. See map.

Sunspots - Tuesday August 20th

 Solar flux is 239 and the SSN 213. A=10 and K=1.

FETer transceiver (2008)

This was another of my attempts to get something for nothing! 

It worked remarkably well, but I struggled with netting the RX onto the TX frequency so I was afraid of clobbering someone else. It was an adaption of a circuit for 40m by W2UW but made even simpler. It appeared in SPRAT some years ago. 

Some have duplicated it and achieved some remarkable DX.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/80m-feter-transceiver .

Crickey - 2008! I must be old  HI 😀

Over the horizon on 481THz (optical)

Before my 2013 stroke I enjoyed experimenting at optical frequencies and was amazed that I could decode my QRSS CW well over the horizon with no clouds in the sky. Sadly, my stroke put an end to this. The circuit diagram shows the beacon I used. As you can see it is simple.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/optical-nanowaves/over-the-horizon .

Winter in Brisbane, Australia - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday our son sent us this photo showing Brisbane in winter. Even in winter it was 30 deg C!