6m FT8 QRP (Sunday)

In a few moments I intend to go on 6m FT8 with 2.5W. Unless I get a response I shall be RX only.

UPDATE 1354z:   6 stations spotted on RX (all G) and 1 station spotted on TX - G0PQO (50km).

UPDATE 1600z: At last some activity outside G. EA1GCM (1098km) spotted. 7 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2204z:  QRT.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Sunday)

In a few moments I intend to go on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW from the W5OLF beacon. 

UPDATE 1330z:   3 unique stations spotted. Furthermost is EA8BFK (2880km).

UPDATE 2200z: QRT. 4 unique stations have spotted me.

Lerwick, Shetland - NOT amateur radio

This photo was posted on 365project yesterday. It shows the capital of the Shetland Islands which are part of Scotland but much closer to Norway. 

Sunspots - Sunday February 6th 2022

Solar flux is 126 and the SSN 91.  A=12 and K=3. 

Wedding? - NOT amateur radio

Someone once said that church bells almost sound like they are coming out of the earth. It was really good to hear all 8 bells being rung in our church earlier as recorded by my grandson.

The union jack flag is there (I think) as the queen has been on the throne 70 years this weekend. Whatever you think of royalty she has dedicated herself to service all that time and is well respected across the planet. I am against wealth because of who you are or who your forefathers were. Once the present queen dies I cannot seeing the royal family continuing without major changes.

6m FT8

 In a few moments I expect to be on 6m FT8 with QRP and the V2000 vertical omni antenna.

UPDATE 1024z:  After a brief period on 2.5W TX, I am RX only. No spots at all yet on RX or TX.

UPDATE 1910z:  QRT soon.  In all, 7 stations spotted, all in the UK.

10m WSPR

 In a few minutes time, I propose to go on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW from the W5OLF beacon.

UPDATE 1021z:  4 spots so far with furthermost EA8BFK (2880km).

UPDATE 1413z: 5 unique statio s have spotted me today so far. Furthermost is FY5KE (7110km) assuming he is not a pirate!! 

UPDATE 1900z: 11 unique stations spotted me today including 5 in the USA. QRT shortly.

Breakfast joke? - NOT amateur radio

For breakfast I had a chickpea burger and bacon. The burger had chickpeas, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, herbs and Marmite and egg plus some flour to bind it.  On reflection, I would prefer the egg separately. The burger was delicious.

The amaryllis has just flowered this week.

Sunspots - Saturday February 5th 2022

Solar flux is 130 and the SSN 87. A=32 and K=3. 

Nearly spring? - NOT amateur radio

I see that the rooks are repairing old nests in the horse chestnut trees in the churchyard. These trees are very old. 

10m WSPR TX beacon using 500mW

 Most of the day I have been on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW from the W5OLF beacon. 5 unique stations have spotted me today so far. 

UPDATE 2200z:  QRT soon.

6m FT8 (Friday)

Apart from a very brief period on TX with 2.5W and the V2000 vertical omni early on this morning, I was on 6m FT8 RX. 5 stations spotted on RX and one G spotted my 2.5W FT8 TX. 

UPDATE 2218z: 7 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX with the furthermost OZ5TG (738km). QRT now.

More Hare Park - NOT amateur radio

 

This photo, taken yesterday, was meant to be of the swans that you can hardly see! Still the trees are nice. 😁

Comment

"Why are you such a winger?

Having seen your comments about amateur TV it seems that you are just a prejudiced old fart that cannot accept that other amateur radio interests gain greater prominence than your stupid ideas on 40MHz propagation.

I hope that you die before you get a reply."

Thank you for your supportive (!!) comments sent anonymously. For the record I have no issue whatsoever with extra spectrum for DATV. The only reason I have not explored this fascinating area of our hobby is that there is only so much one can do.

My issue is with OFCOM who seem to treat customer service with distain.  After approaching 4 months I think I am owed the kindness of an update?

For the record, I hope I do not come across as an "old f**t". Old I can accept!! 

This comment has been reported as SPAM.

Sunspots - Friday February 4th 2022

Solar flux is 127 and the SSN 84. A=27 and K=4.

8m NoV? - zzzz

Nearly 4 weeks ago I asked OFCOM for an update on my application submitted in October. 2021. I am still waiting for that update!! A WSPR TX needs about 6Hz (yes Hertz) of spectrum and FT8 about 50Hz. DATV experimenters have been granted 2000000Hz of VHF spectrum. Come on! At this rate I shall be pushing up daisies before I hear.

Wake up OFCOM as the Es season will soon be here! 

In the USA and Canada those with experimental 8m licences seem to be having some success on WSPR.

Iris in the grass - NOT amateur radio

 

This was in Hare Park earlier.

Reflections - NOT amateur radio

Every year we go to Hare Park, Chippenham, Cambs, UK to see the snowdrops. Maybe we were a little early this time, but there seemed fewer snowdrops around. 

It still looks great though. This is a photo of the lake.

Rally cancelled

 The Red Rose rally, due to be held this Sunday Feb 6th, has been cancelled I understand.

It is always worth checking the status with rally organisers in case I am wrong. I only pass on what I have been told and you should not take what I say as always correct!

10m WSPR with 500mW QRP (Thursday)

At the moment I am on 10m WSPR TX with my W5OLF beacon. So far, 3 local spots by G4KPX (14km).

UPDATE 1517z: 10 unique stations have spotted me today.

UPDATE 1700z: Still the same 10 unique stations spotting me.

6m FT8 (Thursday)

 At the moment I am on 6m FT8 QRP with 2.5W and the V2000 vertical. I was on TX  for about 5 minutes, but am RX only now. No spots yet on TX or RX.

UPDATE 1515z:  17 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost 9H1TX (2318km). This looks like Es.

Interesting art - NOT amateur radio

I was sent this by Steve G1KQH. Turn it 180 degrees and take a look. I have no idea where it came from originally.

Sunspots - Thursday February 3rd 2022

Solar flux is 128 and the SSN 75. A=12 and K=4.

2m FT8 activity contest

If you are interested, there is a 2m FT8 activity contest from 1900-2100z tonight, organised by the RSGB. See the RSGB website for more details.  Activity is very high.

UPDATE 2102z:   4 QSOs although I spent much of the time I was on RX. On RX 150 stations spotted (remember this is 2m!!) with the furthermost EA2XR (1024km) in northern Spain.

Remember, I am just using the omni big-wheel and 2.5W, sometimes 1W!!

10m WSPR TX and RX

At the moment, I am on 10m WSPR. On TX I am using 1W for 20% of the time with the rest on RX. So far, 1 station spotted here and I have been spotted by 6 unique stations.

Working DX

DX means different things to different people. 

To some, it is trying to work all countries available today on SSB, perhaps with the full legal power (or more!) and a big beam on a tower. To others it is working across town with uW powers.

Back in the 1980s I owned a Yaesu FT7. This was an HF only 10W rig. I worked DXCC with it and simple antennas (mostly dipoles) on SSB.

These days I am on RX more than TX. I still prefer QRP! If DXCC chasing is your "thing" fine.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/yaesu-ft7 .

Frost - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows a frosty day some years ago. 

Cambridge punts - NOT amateur radio

In the summer, a lot of people enjoy relaxing on a punt on the River Cam. At this time of year it is quieter. 

Winter sunrise - NOT amateur radio

 

The sun rising in the east.

10m FT8 RX (Wednesday)

My 10m FT8 RX was turned on about 0930z. So far (at 1002z), 61 stations spotted with the furthermost VK1MA (16904km). 

UPDATE 1351z:  311 stations spotted.

160m FT8 RX overnight

With 487 stations spotted on RX overnight with the non resonant 10m antenna and several stations in the USA and one in Japan, it was a good session on 160m FT8 RX. 

Slightly better solar cycle?

According to the updated solar data, it looks like this solar cycle is very slightly better than the last cycle. What does this mean? Expect the next solar cycle to be very similar to the last one.

See https://www.solen.info/solar/images/comparison_recent_cycles.png .

Sunspots - Wednesday February 2nd 2022

 Solar flux is 129 and the SSN 88.  A=7 and K=3.

160m FT8 RX (Tuesday)

I have just QSYed to 160m FT8 RX. 3 stations spotted so far including 2 Germans calling a station in the Far East. It is still daylight here. Probably things will get lively after dark.

UPDATE 1652z: 15 stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX using the untuned 10m wire antenna with the furthermost RD9D (3664km).

UPDATE 1917z:  146 stations spotted.

UPDATE 2140z:  327 stations spotted.

University of the 3rd Age - NOT amateur radio

For about 14 years, I have been attending U3A courses. It is great fun learning new things just for fun. Some involve going into Cambridge and some are on Zoom. The Zoom talks are very effective, and far better than I ever expected.

This year I am studying Medieval History and quantum mechanics, the latter was last done in the late 1960s at university! It is hard!!

Quantum mechanics is spooky. One has to forget what we perceive as reality and accept that sometimes things can be quite different. One aspect is wave functions that seem to imply things exist in all space and all time, past and future included. Things are most probable now, but entangled things even at the extremes of the universe, know about each other instantaneously. Forget the speed of light - instantaneously means just that! Some of these things have been proven by experiments.

SPAM messages - NOT amateur radio

It is sad that, these days, we have to be on our guard against SPAM. On the whole, my SPAM filter does a good job. Just occasionally it thinks something is SPAM that is not, and misses some SPAM. Mistakes are rare. 

Before deleting SPAM I usually do a quick check in case some important stuff is there. At a guess less than 1 in 1000 is wrong, which is pretty good. Without SPAM filtering, I would probably see more SPAM than genuine messages.

 

10m FT8 RX (Tuesday)

 At the moment I am on 10m FT8 RX. It is now 1052z and, so far, 47 stations spotted. Furthermost is VK6AS (14459km).

UPDATE 1243z:  137 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX today.

I quite enjoy 10m FT8 RX as I can monitor propagation on a different PC in the lounge whilst doing other things. I suppose with remote software I could TX too from the lounge. PSKreporter allows me to see who is being spotted by my system.

UPDATE 1358z: 195 stations spotted. 

UPDATE 1530z: 296 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1624z: 351 stations spotted. QRT soon and move to 160m FT8 RX.

15m QRP

 A good DX band is 15m. This is mainly a daytime DX band, but evening openings are increasing as the sunspot count and solar flux go up. These days I am on RX far more than TX. 

This was not the case when the Pipit transceiver was designed and built. This would have been over 30 years ago! For several months it was the only rig I used despite only being 800mW. These days there is more FT8 activity, but you cannot beat the thrill of getting heard thouasnds of miles away and having solid QSOs.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/15m-qrp-cw-pipit .

Cambridge Street - NOT amateur radio

Cambridge is an historic city famous for its colleges and backs. It also has lots of bikes and posters on railings!

How to save energy - NOT amateur radio

This was a Facebook memory from 11 years ago.