Quieter than normal? - NOT amateur radio

 

Central Cambridge seemed quieter than normal. 

Perhaps it is our dull weather keeping people away!

6m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

 

My 5W from the IC-705 has been on since just before breakfast. 15 stations have spotted me by 1336z.

10m 500mW WSPR TX (Wednesday)

My QRP beacon was turned on just before breakfast. 15 stations have spotted me by 1333z.  

Sunspots - Wednesday February 12th

 Solar flux is 153 and the SSN 91. A=17 and K=4.

Practical Wireless thinner?

Maybe I have not noticed recently, but Practical Wireless, the UK magazine, seems to be thinner this month. My March 2025 edition came via the post today.

Getting thinner can imply it is trying to ride the storm, but is in trouble. I hope it survives.

8m licence free?

It is definitely worth checking what licence free options exist in your country to TX on 8m. These may be ISM, Part 15 or other. In many places you can legally TX on 8m without a licence. Definitely worth checking.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Tuesday)

My stand-alone 10m 500mW WSPR beacon is on.

UPDATE 1048z: 2 stations have spotted me with the furthermost EA8BFK (2880km).

UPDATE 1916z:  27 stations have spotted me with many in the USA .  QRT soon.

6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

My FT817ND is on 6m FT8. So far spotted by 4 stations in England and N.Ireland.

UPDATE 1338z:  Now 8 stations spotting me.

UPDATE 1359z:   I am intrigued by the spots regularly over 450km on 6m FT8.  I am wondering if this is troposcatter or random aircraft reflection somewhere over the paths. One only has to have a single aircraft somewhere on the path at the right spot for 15 seconds. In reality, with military and civil aircraft, this is highly probable in several hours.

UPDATE 1457z:  11 stations have spotted me with the furthermost OZ9QV (861km).

UPDATE 1912:. QRT soon.  12 stations have spotted me today.

8m TX permit turned down in Canada

I despair. 

It would seem that many in PTTs across the planet are totally ignorant of why we want a permit to TX on 8m. Time and again I hear accounts of people applying for a licence to TX on 8m and being refused. It would seem that many in PTTs know absolutely nothing about RF or radio propagation!! All they are interested in is how much money will be generated.

Also, it is my view that PTTs will realise no money will ever be made from amateur radio (just hassle) and it will become a free-for-all with no PTT involvement.

It would seem they no longer know in PTTs what the words "experimentation" and "research" mean.

Sunspots - Tuesday February 11th

 Solar flux is 159 and the SSN 104. A=24 and K=3.

10m QRP WSPR (Monday)

As I was on 8m FT8, my 10m antenna was available, so I am on 10m QRP WSPR with my 500mW beacon So far 3 stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1835z: Now QRT. 12 stations have spotted me today.

8m QRP FT8 (Monday)

My 8m QRP was turned on at about 1415z.

UPDATE 1838z: No spots. Now QRT.

Website dates - NOT amateur radio

One thing that really infuriates me are websites that have something on them that is time sensitive that are not updated or have a "date created". 

Today I looked on the Cambridge University weather page inviting me to meet them in September, except this was September last year!  I cannot tell you how often I have read a webpage only to find it is years out of date.

So, the very least they could do is put a date saying when the page was created. Better, still update the webpage!

Sunspot minimum

Probably I am one of the few people looking forward to the next solar minimum! We are currently close to the sunspot maximum and HF (even 6m) conditions can be very good.

This is the first time (just about) when we will have had widespread use of weak signal modes like FT8.  If people stick with the higher HF bands as conditions decline we might well find the higher bands are good far more often than we think. 

Especially on N-S paths it would not surprise me at all if there are widespread openings even in years with low sunspot numbers.

In many ways the next 11 years will give us plenty of chances to really experiment.

10m QRP FT8 with the IC-705

Stations spotting me today on 10m QRP FT8

My gear was turned on about 1015z.

UPDATE 1506z: When I QSYed to 8m, 270 stations had spotted me on 10m QRP FT8 today. See map. 10W FT8 gets everywhere.

Village "centre" - NOT amateur radio

At least in this part of the UK, it has seemed a long, dull winter as this photo shows. Our village of Burwell has a couple of  main centres for shops. 

I expect this goes back a long time when there were really two villages. 

Our local cafe is called the "Village Green" even though we don't really have one!

Monday plans

 At the moment I plan to go on 10m QRP FT8 with the IC705. If I go on 8m QRP FT8, I shall try 10m QRP WSPR, although going on 8m is far from certain

Amateur radio?

 This was spotted on Facebook earlier. It is not my idea of  amateur radio although I expect we have all worked such super stations.

Sunspots - Monday February 10th

 Solar flux is 163 and the SSN 142. A=18 and K=2.

Tower Bridge - NOT amateur radio

 

This was Tower Bridge in London last weekend. It was a dull day.