Village walk - NOT amateur radio

 

Dodging the showers we did a 4.5km walk around our village.

10m 2W FT8 (Tuesday)

My tiny QDX was turned on at about 0923z.

See https://qrp-labs.com/qdx.html

UPDATE 1625z:  64 spots of me so far. 438 stations spotted here. USA starting to receive me now on TX.

Medieval masterpiece - NOT amateur radio

Ely Cathedral, UK, is a masterpiece of medieval engineering.  It was built about 1000 years ago, but the central tower collapsed in 1322 and was replaced by the octagon tower we see today.   

The whole cathedral was built in a time before CAD, lorries and cranes. I still marvel at the octagon every time I see it remembering that much of the cathedral is hundreds of years older!

No news?

Last night I looked on the Japanese website of Yaesu, hoping to find some clues about the FTX-1F such as price, recent specs, availability etc.. My Japanese is poor (well non-existent!) so I searched all categories. On the Japanese site I could see no mention of it at all!

These are the rumours (that I have seen so far):

• Price: around £1300. If correct, this would be far too much and would not dent the competition.
• Availability:  April 2025, waiting on FCC approval.
• Specs: Nothing at all since last summer!

The more I see, the more I think this is vapourware. All the clues suggest Yaesu was testing the market and is binning this before it is launched. 

I may be very very wrong, but I am surprised we have heard nothing factual since last summer. even though it was due to be released in "early 2025".  

Hmm.  

On present form I give Yaesu less than 5 years to quit the amateur radio market.

Sunspots - Tuesday March 11th

 Solar flux is 149 and the SSN is 90. A=10 and K=2.

Reducing the noise floor

One of the problems, especially in built-up areas is high local noise. This video is an attempt to make it better.

Shetland weather - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned before, one of my friends on 365project lives up in the Shetland Isles. 

They get plenty of weather up there interspersed with decent days. There is plenty of wind and just a few trees.

Ely, UK, High Street - NOT amateur radio

This was Ely High Street yesterday in the pleasant spring sunshine. 

The cathedral is next to it, dominating the fen countryside. 

Ely is an old island, famous for eels!

See https://www.visitely.org.uk/ .

10m QRP FT8 (Monday)

My QDX at 2W was turned on 10m FT8 at about 0723z. Quiet start.

UPDATE 1347z:  Spotted by 72 stations on 10m QRP FT8 TX. Furthermost is K5WBM (7359km). On RX I have spotted 303 stations. 

Stations spotted
here today on
10m FT8 at 1625z

UPDATE 1905z:  109 stations have spotted me and 640 stations have been spotted here.

Threads exhibition - NOT amateur radio

 

At Ely Cathedral is an exhibition of very intricate embroidery used in attire worn by the clergy.

Crystal sets

 

These can be very simple or, in some cases, very complicated. On my website is a page about crystal sets. No batteries are needed.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/crystal-set-dxing .

Sunspots - Monday March 10th

 Solar flux is 148 and the SSN 90. A=35 and K=2.

Ely, UK, market - NOT amateur radio

 

A drop of sun and everyone seems to come out!  This was Ely market a few hours ago.

World religions - NOT amateur radio

From a very young age I was brought up as a Church of England Anglican. In my late teenage years I had quite a strong belief, if unconventional!  

As an adult I am more aware of other belief systems, sincerely held by those who believe in them. I am sure if I was brought up in the Middle East I would probably be a devout Muslim. Likewise if I was brought up in the Jewish faith or in India I would have been equally devout in some other religion.

They cannot all be right or wrong.

What puzzles me is the holy books. In every world religion (I think) there is a holy book that is very thick, composed of writings written down for adherents to follow. What makes something sacred? 

It is only a few hundred years since we believed in witches and supported slavery. In the last century we put to death millions of Jews.

Although I still remain agnostic in my beliefs I prefer to think that all religions are attempts by humans to explain their place in the universe. Hints.  I think every religion has compassion and kindness at its heart.

No, religions puzzle me.

10m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

My 2W from the tiny QDX was turned on at about  0915z.

Stations spotting my
2W 10m FT8 today

UPDATE  1907z:  114 stations have spotted me and I have spotted 559 stations here. QRT soon.

Not for me!!

This array of G0KSC antennas was seen earlier. It is not for me!! An impressive array nonetheless.

Sunspots - Sunday March 9th

 Solar flux is 148 and the SSN 90. A=21 and K=5.

RX noise

An increasing issue especially in built-up areas is noise on receive. Increasingly, people are using switched mode PSUs with, for example, TVs. Also, there are inverters with solar panels. The result of all this is the noise floor, especially on the lower HF bands is going up and up. 

One solution is to use a separate antenna for receive and transmit. One approach is a low dipole for RX and a vertical on TX as in this video. Vertical antennas can pick up lots of local noise.

Anglesey Abbey walk - NOT amateur radio

 

My wife made this collage of our walk earlier this week.

10m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

My QDX at 2W has been on FT8 since breakfast.

Stations spotting me at 1030z

UPDATE 1050z: So far today, 21 stations have spotted me. 

UPDATE 1147z:  43 stations have spotted me and 187 stations have been spotted here.

UPDATE 2325z: 168 stations have spotted me today on 10m QRP FT8. Now QRT.