10m 500mW WSPR TX (Wednesday)

My beacon has been on for a bit under an hour. 

UPDATE 1343z:  Spotted by 14 stations so far.

8m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

When I got back from Cambridge I turned on my QMX+  on 8m FT8.  Spotted by HI0SDR (7062km) in the Dominican Republic. Another 2W 8m transatlantic.

Why? - NOT amateur radio

 Allegedly the USA president has used an executive order to overturn a conviction of a man who sold drugs on the dark web. This puzzles me.

Sunspots - Wednesday January 22nd

 Solar flux is 225 and the SSN 251. A=10 and K=2.

Village quiet corner - NOT amateur radio

This is a quiet corner of our village with a fine display of snowdrops. To me, snowdrops are a promise of better days ahead.

8m FT8 TX (Tuesday)

At about 1130z I QSYed to 40.680 MHz QRP FT8 with about 2W from my QMX+ into a low dipole. At 1551z 

UPDATE 1916z:  Just LX5JX (468km) spotted me. Now QRT.

6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

My 6m QRP FT8 was turned on at about 0935z. At 1112z 39 stations have spotted me.

10m 500mW WSPR (Tuesday)

My beacon was turned on at about 0930z. At 1100z, 9 stations had spotted me with the furthermost ZD7GB (7607km).

UPDATE 1915z: 26 stations have spotted me today. Now QRT.

That Yaesu FTX-1F

It is interesting to read the speculation surrounding the Yaesu FTX-1F. 

It was announced last summer and due to be released "early 2025" yet no specs have been forthcoming leading some to speculate if it will ever appear.

Certainly since the early 2000s market conditions are very different. Back then Yaesu had most of the market with almost no competition. ICOM and others are already in the market and the Chinese are coming up strongly with very keen prices. Yaesu more than ever know this could be their saviour or that it will soon be time to get out of this market.

In  my mind it has to be a market leader in features and price, much better than the IC-705 at a much better price.

At one time Yaesu were way out front. Not any more!

In the past I have had many Yaesu transceivers. They have made some excellent products, but I remain skeptical about this product, knowing that in the end all they are asking is one question, "will it make us money?".

See https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/1hs9jwj/yaesu_ftx1f_is_it_real_or_is_it_vapor/

Tuesday plans

 Assuming the QMX+ initialises in a reasonable time, my plans today are to go on 10m QRP WSPR and 8m QRP FT8. If I have problems still with the QMX+, I shall try 6m QRP FT8 with the IC-705. 

The QMX+ is excellent once it initialises. I hope this is fixed in a software release.

Sunspots - Tuesday January 21st

 Solar flux is 230 and the SSN 277 (is this an error?).  A=20 and K=1.

11 years ago - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows me with my brother when I came out of hospital in 2014.

I was in hospital for 3.5 months with a brain bleed. My brother came to see me regularly from Devon. He also raised lots of money for Headway, a charity for brain injured people.

Unlike many I made a pretty full recovery. Apart from giddiness and poor speech most of me still works!

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/non-amateur-radio/stroke .

US presidential elections - NOT amateur radio

The people of the USA have elected their president for the next 4 years in an election. 

The outgoing president has, allegedly, issued preemptive pardons to prevent the incoming president "going after" those who opposed him in the past. 

I truly hope the incoming president is above such things and continues to uphold all that is best about democracy and sees peace around the world as an honourable aim.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r5g5dezk4o .

Pititico 1 transistor transceiver

You may be interested in this (and other) videos on the Pititico transceiver on DX Explorer. 

As there is no amplification of the audio on RX I imagine it is not very sensitive so probably safer to call stations you can hear. Putting out a call you might squash another station already there that you cannot hear!

Norway - NOT amateur radio

 

One of my friends on 365project posted this photo of a Norwegian lighthouse.

6m QRP FT8 (Monday)

At the moment I am on 6m FT8 with the IC705 (10W) and the V2000 vertical omni antenna. At 1200z, just 9 English spots of me.

UPDATE 1258z:  Currently being spotted by 19 stations in 5 countries.

UPDATE 1543z: 28 stations in 7 countries have spotted me today on 6m QRP FT8.

8m QRP FT8 with the QMX+ (Monday)

Once my QMX+ has initialised (with software -019 it can sometimes take ages! I was holding off upgrading software until SSB is available) I intend to go on 8m QRP FT8.

UPDATE 1140z: As my QMX+ failed to initialise (is this just a problem with -19 software version?) I shall not be on 8m FT8 today.

10m 500mW WSPR (Monday)

 My stand-alone beacon was turned on at about 0930z. So far (at 0947z)  no spots of me.

UPDATE 1244z:   19 spots of me.

Sunspots - Monday January 20th

 Solar flux is 234 and the SSN 143. A=15 and K=3.

LED Christmas Tree

Over Christmas we had a multicoloured fibre optic small tree in our lounge. 

With January in the UK being generally cloudy and dull, we had withdrawal symptoms, so we bought a small LED tree.