6m MSK144 RX

As 6m MSK144 RX seemed promising, I have stayed on this band and mode all last night and today. Best DX copied is GM3NKG (474km). I suspect this is now either aircraft reflection or random MS.

Sunspots - Saturday December 16th 2017

Solar flux is 71 today and the sunspot number is zero again. A=5 and K=1.

Android WSPR beacon

To say I am a WSPR fan is an understatement! Nothing compares with the ability to span the globe with QRP, perhaps excepting OPERA. I see there is a WSPR app (Android) which allows a tablet to be hooked up to a rig to form a WSPR beacon. The app costs £1.58.

See https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iu4apc.wsprbeacon

Busy eating curry - NOT amateur radio

They all look miserable, but actually they are a friendly and happy bunch! 

Every month I go for a meal (different pubs in the area) with ex-work colleagues and this time it was a curry night at the pub (buffet) and everyone is tucking in! The curry was great.

ICOM IC7300 - time for a price drop?

Much to my surprise the price has still to fall, although there are "cracks": some are now offering the rig with free gifts.

Personally, I can wait. It is a good rig, but to my mind, the dealers have had a very good time and very good profits. Now is the time to drop the price. Sub £1000 please - soon.

BREXIT next stages - NOT amateur radio

Apparently the EU has agreed to move to the next stage in talks with the UK on its wish to leave. No doubt these talks will be hard, especially as Theresa May, the UK Prime Minister, is leader of a government only propped up by a group of Ulster MPs who don't like gays and abortions allegedly. I am not clear of my facts here.

Personally, I think the EU is fearful of other leavers and is concerned the EU could fall apart. There was much good in this "club", but much wrong too. In the end I hope we all strike a good deal in the best interests of all.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42368096 .

Desperately tired - NOT amateur radio

It is nearly 4 years since I was discharged from hospital, where I had been for 3.5 months following my stroke. In many ways I am lucky. However 15-20 minutes of physical or mental effort leaves me desperately tired. Others just do not "get it". My tiredness is utterly draining and then I am fine again. My voice is poor too.

Although I am still hopeful of further small improvements, I suspect how I am is how I am going to be. In the meantime, I still enjoy life. We are dealt a card in life and have to make the best of it.

Risks to under-sea cables? - NOT amateur radio

Much of our internet, banking and commercial traffic is carried on undersea cables and fibre. Apparently the military is worried by the vulnerability of such cables to rogue nations intent on disruptive warfare. The internet is a distributed system, so unless lots of lines are cut, it is unlikely to break completely, although traffic could be slowed.

I am not quite sure how you can protect these cables. It needs a nation with submarines to be a real threat.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42362500 .

Remaining on 6m MSK144

OK, it was the Geminids MS shower, but I was surprised by the level of activity on 50.280MHz MSK144. I was half expecting stations to have migrated to FT8. I am not sure if MSK144 works with much lower signal levels, but most MSK144 signals have been strong.

UPDATE 1214z: So far, 6 stations in 3 countries spotted on 6m MSK144 today. No great DX with the best being F4VPC (518km) in Brittany spotted.

Sunspots - Friday December 15th 2017

Solar flux is 72 and the sunspot number remains zero. A=4 and K=1.

Dreamer's Band (sub 9kHz amateur radio)

This is the new frontier. As Paul Nicholson pointed out, it is inexpensive and fun. It is much easier than many think.

"Perhaps the perception is that it is difficult?  Surely not.
Don't believe all those stories you hear about how hard it is
to radiate, or how difficult it is to find a location to
receive from!

Let's see -

- Low cost. You don't need expensive SDRs or test equipment.
  Your PC soundcard is signal generator, spectrum analyser,
  and SDR, all in one.  Transmitter is just an audio amplifier,
  even a low quality one.  The most expensive thing you'll buy
  is a load of wire for a loading coil.

- GPS timing?  £18 quid for a NEO-7 module and you know your
  frequency to the micro Hertz.  Buy two, you'll use them!

- Easy to build.  Just audio frequency signals, nothing critical
  about layout.   VLF is great for the homebrew enthusiast.

- You don't need a huge ERP.  10uW and you're on the air.  Your
  LF antenna will probably do better than you think at VLF.

- UK Notice of Variation?  No problem, a simple application form,
  and if enough apply, maybe the regulators will make that easier.

- Where else can you operate at the cutting edge with such
  simple equipment?

In case you think my location here is specially good, it certainly
isn't.  The mains here at the top of the Calder Valley is very
rough, terrible sidebands.  All the properties around here get
their power by overhead lines at 12kV and one of the two 33kV
lines feeding Todmorden is only a km away.  The nearest 12kV
line is just 120m from the E-field antenna. 140mV RMS of 50Hz
on the E-field probe and a lot of harmonics.  Reception here is
bad!   You can probably do better in the suburbs.

How many times per century does amateur radio find a green field
to explore?  Not just a new band but a whole new frequency range.

Don't miss out on this one!

--
Paul Nicholson"

ARRL 10m contest

This was last weekend, but guess who forgot? Apparently conditions were not good, so I probably missed very little.

Tree surgeon - NOT amateur radio

This tree surgeon was busy at work in our village this morning. Rather him than me!

I noticed he had a machine to grind up the branches on his lorry. Otherwise there would be a lot of branches to deal with.

In this job a head for heights must help. I'd be useless!

Realtime HF predictions

A reminder that almost realtime HF predictions are available at the convective weather website.

New OFCOM chairman

The government has appointed a new OFCOM chairman.

See http://ofcom.createsend1.com/t/ViewEmail/i/5192FE1F35CB87692540EF23F30FEDED/59D1BD3EA2F08127C67FD2F38AC4859C

Sunspots - Thursday December 14th 2017

Solar flux is 71 today and the sunspot number zero. A=7 and K=3.

6m MSK144 RX in the Geminids MS shower

Overnight I was on 50.280MHz MSK144 RX for the peak of the Geminids MS shower. I only have a V2000 omni antenna (no beams) on 6m. All over western and northern Europe copied. I assume many of these were MS.

I shall remain on 50.280MHz MSK144 RX for a few hours at least.

UPDATE 1056z: I think the count is now 13 countries spotted on 6m MSK144 in the last day.

UPDATE 1312z: With 31 unique spots in the last day there is plenty of activity in Europe on 50.280MHz MSK144. I think I shall stick with this band and mode for another day.

UPDATE 1800z:  Best DX on 6m MSK144 RX is SM5EPO (1347km).

Geminids meteor shower

This peaks tonight, so I am monitoring 50.280 MSK144 to see what appears overnight.

OFCOM

OFCOM has published it technical analysis about sharing at 700MHz.

See http://ofcom.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/i/C7C5470B2352391A2540EF23F30FEDED/59D1BD3EA2F08127C67FD2F38AC4859C

Cambridge Pret A Manger - NOT amateur radio

As I was in Cambridge for my U3A course on Samuel Pepys, I called in to Pret A Manger for a coffee and bread roll. Surprisingly it was less busy than last week. I have always found the staff helpful and polite and prices reasonable.

Sunspots - Wednesday December 13th 2017

Solar flux is 73 today. Sunspot number is 11. A=13 and K=1.

6m FT8 RX

At the moment, I am monitoring 6m FT8 RX. Nothing yet.

UPDATE 1415z: Just ON8DM (237km) spotted.

630m mistake!

When on 630m WSPR I usually check spots on another machine in another room. I noticed spots stopped around 2130z last night. So, I went into the shack to see the connection to the antenna had fallen off! Luckily, it was easily reconnected. Luckily, the transverter PA was not damaged and full power was restored.

70cm UKAC

Well, I probably have the very worst set-up for this contest: 5W SSB, RG58 (lossy) coax and a 2m halo!! Add to that that speaking is very hard and that I was only on for about 10 minutes and you can see why I never win!

QSYed to 630m WSPR

At 1900z, I QSYed to 630m WSPR (10mW ERP, 20% TX). 10m WSPR was really not very good.

10m WSPR (2W, 20% TX)

For a change, I decided to go on 10m WSPR transceive today. I am using 2W (instead of 0.5W) and looking for others 80% of the time on RX.

UPDATE 1514z:  No WSPR spots given or received on 10m all day so far. Dire.

UPDATE  1824z: Although no-one spotted me, I spotted DL and OM. Best DX was OM1AI (1269km).

Fewer Christmas cards? - NOT amateur radio

In the last few years postage costs have rocketed in the UK. Also, people keep in touch by email and social media far more than in the past. Postcards used to be sent to/by lots of people on holiday, but there are far fewer these days.

It is early days, but I am expecting far fewer Christmas cards this year. Some people have died, some find postage costs too high and some decide to give to charity instead. If it wasn't for my wife, I expect we'd send out far fewer cards!

One thing I have wondered - why not reduce the cost of second class postage stamps in the UK in early December? This would encourage more people to post Christmas cards. Overall, it might help with PO revenue. The PO could sell 2nd class special Christmas stamps at, say, 35p each in the lead-up to Christmas. They could even stipulate these are only to be used on Christmas cards.

630m WSPR overnight

Overnight I was again on 630m WSPR (10mW ERP, 20% TX). In all, I was spotted by 7 unique stations with PA0RDT (243km) my best DX. I spotted 10 uniques.

For a change I am now on 10m WSPR (2W, 20% TX).

Sunspots - Tuesday December 12th 2017

Solar flux is 72 today and the sunspot number 11. A=3 and K=2.

East Cambs net 144.575MHz FM

At 2000z, I went on the 2m FM net in East Cambridgeshire on 144.575MHz. Others are always most welcome to join in. Discussions rarely go on beyond 2030z.

6m FT8

For about 30 minutes, I have been on 6m FT8 RX again. As yet, nothing spotted.

UPDATE 1100z: OK2BRD (1289km) spotted. Not sure of the propagation mode.

UPDATE 1900z: 7 stations in 6 countries today on 6m FT8. Soon be time to QSY to 630m WSPR.

UPDATE 1932z: G4BMM (123km) copied. I suspect this is aircraft reflection from planes in the London, Heathrow stack.

UPDATE 2220z: Best DX today on 6m FT8 RX was IT9CHU (2045km).

Evenings soon getting lighter - NOT amateur radio

Although the days still get shorter until early January, the evenings start to get very slowly lighter again from next weekend here. I think this depends on many factors. It is one hour lighter by the end of January.

Snow - NOT amateur radio

We still have a bit of snow on the ground, but it remains very cold. Already there are signs we are in for a colder winter than we have had for some years. Already we have had many more frosts than last winter and it is still 2 weeks to Christmas.

630m OPERA RX last night

LA3EQ (769km) was the best DX on 630m OPERA RX last night. No transatlantic DX copied here. I have now QSYed to 6m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Monday December 11th 2017

Solar flux is 72 today and the sunspot number 11.  A=3 and K=3.

uBitx kit

A useful resource for the uBitx kit is http://miscdotgeek.com/

477kHz OPERA RX

I decided to give 477kHz OPERA RX another go this evening and overnight. Nothing yet spotted. Because the FT817 is used in split mode I need to set up another memory which sets the TX frequency to 477kHz too via the transverter. With my brain as it is, this is less easy than it once was.

UPDATE 2110z: Just G6AVK (78km) spotted so far on 477kHz OPERA this evening. The best place to look for spots seems to be http://spots.microwavers.es/index.php .

UPDATE 2125z: Now G0NDB (259km) has been spotted twice.

HF vertical antenna

Somewhere, I have a Sandpiper vertical made some years ago. I think it is an X80. It is hardly used. It has been up briefly years ago. As I recall, it acted like a Rybacov antenna and was a vertical fed via a un-un so it provided a reasonable match on several HF bands. HF vertical antennas can pick up noise from nearby things more easily than horizontal antennas, but it might allow me access to several bands, so I might be able to WSPR on several bands sequentially. It probably won't be erected until the spring.

Snow - NOT amateur radio

Today we had our first "proper" snow since 2013. Snow is quite rare here these days due to our warming world. Someone explain this to President Trump in words of one syllable. Silly me, this is all a Chinese hoax.

It has been snowing all morning although I suspect it will soon go. It could turn to ice. Nice as it lasted.

6m FT8

For a change, I am on 6m FT8 RX today. Really I am hoping for G stations and any EUs would be a bonus.

UPDATE 1350z: Nothing at all spotted so far on 6m FT8.

UPDATE 1546z: One Belgian station spotted on 6m FT8 - ON8DM (237km). Aircraft?

UPDATE 1815z: Quite a few central and eastern Europeans spotted on 6m FT8.