We are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary today. In some ways that day in 1971 seems like yesterday. I have no idea how those years have flown by. Since then we have 2 boys and 4 grandchildren.
Both of us were several stones lighter then and I still had hair! Most of my hair went when I was in my twenties.
Advice? Enjoy every moment, as time goes by very quickly.
Although I have been spotted by 6 G stations, there is no evidence here of Es yet. I have spotted just 3 Gs this morning on 6m FT8 RX.
As time goes by Es openings become rarer.
For a while I had assumed that most 10m WSPR users had migrated to FT8 instead, but I was so wrong.
In the last 2 weeks I have been spotted by 102 different stations on 10m WSPR with 500mW from my W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon. I have used this for many years and works as well now as it ever has.
I tend to leave the tiny 10m WSPR TX beacon on when I look on 6m FT8 RX.
No spots of me yet today.
I was totally unaware of some of the historical allocations at 8m. It seems there are historical precedents.
Click on the chart to enlarge if need be.
At 0822z, my 10m WSPR beacon was turned on.
UPDATE 1205z: So far today, spots by 20 unique stations.
UPDATE 1304z: I see John EI7GL spotted me 10 times with SNR varying by 8dB. This is typical of Es: sometimes signals can be incredibly strong.
More North Americans than I have spotted all summer. Remember this is just with the V2000 omni vertical antenna. In all, 633 stations spotted on 6m FT8.
When I went on TX briefly, there was no problem being spotted all over Europe with 2.5W.
Back in the late 1960s I was at university with Ian. Under him, the Liverpool university radio club G3OUL thrived. He ended up with a 2:2 degree, but went on to head Nortel and get an MBE. He was a natural RF engineer and brilliant. I think he died a few years ago. It was a privilege to know him.
He was a mad keen radio amateur.
Most of the morning I have been on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW. Apart from lots of local spots by G2XV (18km), nothing yet.
UPDATE 1455z: DK6UG (633km) has also spotted me this afternoon.
Most of the morning, I have been on 6m FT8. apart from a few moments earlier on QRP TX (8 G spots), I have been RX only. 41 stations copied by what seems like Es. Antenna still the V2000 vertical omni.
Periodically, I like to remind people of my G3XBM video channel that includes more details about quite a few projects.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/video-channel .
Since about 0820z, I have been on 10m WSPR TX (100%, 500mW). So far, no spots of me.
UPDATE 0934z: Just 1 G spot so far from G2XV (18km).
UPDATE 1217z: Spots by 3 stations so far today.
After a very brief period on TX with 2.5W and the V2000 omni (6 G spots of me), I am now on RX only. So far, at 0830z, no spots of others. I guess 6m Es openings will be far less often now.
UPDATE 0937z: Some Es, but not much. So far this morning 9 spots with the furthermost IW7DLE (1860km).
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| Stations spotted to 1020z |
When their replacement for the FT817ND was announced most people groaned that they could miss out on such an opportunity.
Way back in 2010 I suggested a possible successor. They did something that, in my view, was totally pathetic and underwhelming totally "missing the boat" and doing the minimum to overcome supply issues and nothing to make it a decent step forward.
The photo shows what many of us were hoping for 11 years ago!!
Since then they have had some fine SDR transceivers, but no attempt to get into the QRP portable market leaving many people to wonder if they have lost their way or have no money or are considering leaving the market.
My message is simple - Yaesu wake up!!
As we had thunderstorms after lunch, I turned off 10m WSPR and 6m FT8 as well as the PSU and PC. The storm has passed, but I shall wait until the morning before reconnecting things.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/lightning-maps .
The first version had too much chirp, whereas this has virtually no chirp at all. It is a "for fun" rig for 10m CW with very few parts, that I am sure can be improved.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/10m-lesser-chirpy .
OFCOM has produced a new report on technologies that could shape the future of the internet. See the OFCOM website for more details.
As it is quite long, I have only read the summary so far, but I did not realise that 51% of the world's people now use the internet and that its use has grown 12 fold since 2010.
After a brief session on 2.5W TX (5 UK spots of me, but no QSOs) I am RX only. 3 UK stations spotted so far. At the moment (0805z) it seems there is no Es noticeable here. As before, my antenna is the V2000 omni vertical.
UPDATE 0840z: Just 6 G stations spotted so far today. At this time yesterday 6m FT8 was really good. I guess as time progresses we will still get openings, but less often.
UPDATE 1010z: 17 stations spotted so far. Just recently, a couple in the Ukraine spotted, probably by Es
Been on 10m WSPR TX (500mW) since 0752z. Nobody has spotted me yet.
UPDATE 1014z: Still nobody has spotted me yet.
UPDATE 1119z: 2 spots of my QRP so far today. At least this beacon can just quietly run in the background.
According to John's blog, there was another Europe to Australia opening on 6m. The furthermost was over 17000km, which is quite mind blowing on a VHF band. This is not a pirate as multiple stations were involved. Amazing! This seems extremely unlikely to be multi-hop Es. I am sure we have lots to learn still!
Also on the blog is a report of the South African 8m beacon being copied in SE England.
See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ .
See https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/about .
OFCOM has committed to make innovation the heart of UK wireless future.
I hope this means access to more spectrum for serious radio amateurs interested in real radio science. See the OFCOM website.
Would not access to some spectrum on a shared, non interference, basis be a good idea?
