8m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

Later I hope to go on 8m QRP FT8. No spots on 8m yesterday. If the MUF goes high enough today, I am in with a chance of reaching the USA again. 

Chances of a tiny 8m UK amateur band look slim, even by NoV.

UPDATE 1242z:  On 40.680 MHz QRP FT8. No spots.

8m FT8 spots
of me today

UPDATE 1807z:  2 spots of me today and I have spotted a single station on 8m FT8 RX. Sadly, it looks like I did not reach the USA on 8m today.

UPDATE 1833z:  I asked the RSGB about a tiny 8m amateur band. Reading the email reply this is very unlikely in the UK. Those in the UK who want to continue with 8m propagation research will have to get T&I licences. These cost £50 for a year. Many might be able to use ISM regulations that allow 10mW ERP without a licence. I have asked OFCOM for clarification on the ISM rules.

Crab prize - NOT amateur radio

Ten years ago I was staying in Devon with my brother. We attended the local history society where I won this huge dressed crab as a raffle prize. It was too large to take home, but my sister-in-law made some excellent crab sandwiches!

10m QRP WSPR TX (Wednesday)

Shortly I'll be on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW from the W5OLF beacon. 

UPDATE 1113z:  Just spots of me from the Canary Isles so far today.

St John's College, Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows the main entrance to St John's College, Cambridge on Monday. 

Sunspots - Wednesday December 7th 2022

Solar flux is 144 and the SSN 123. A=4 and K =0.

OFCOM and mobile data

OFCOM has consulted on spectrum for mobile data. See the OFCOM website for details. 

8m amateur band?

Recently I approached the RSGB to enquire about their position on a very tiny 8m amateur band (just 5 kHz wide) by NoV. The response from the VHF manager was to point me to the RSGB's statement back in March. At this rate experimenters will again have to pay to do research on 8m in 2023 in the UK. It sounds like both the RSGB and OFCOM are dead against even a tiny 8m amateur band. To me, this is illogical. 

By some means I intend to continue my 8m propagation research in 2023.

Also sought was clarification on research in the ISM bands in the UK from OFCOM. Their reply on this is awaited.

It would be really good if true researchers could gain access to 8m without having to pay, especially around solar maximum when there is so much to be explored.

It would be really good if many more stations and countries were permitted access to the 8m band, ideally FT8 with 40.680 USB dial. More stations would certainly make research more interesting.

Once again, this is about research and self training, which is surely what our hobby is really about? 

Personally, I am not particularly interested in 2-way communications at 8m. What interests me is radio science, particularly propagation.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Tuesday)

 For about and hour or so, I have been on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. 6 unique stations have spotted me today.

UPDATE  1443z: 10 unique stations have spotted me today.

8m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

 For about an hour, I have been on 8m QRP FT8. It is on 40.680 MHz but I am TXing second (running 2.5W) in the hope of being spotted in the USA. No spots yet.

UPDATE 1446z: No spots.

Some amazing numbers - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday was the last lecture on cosmology as part of my U3A sessions in Cambridge. We heard some truly staggering numbers which I shall share here.

• There are at least 100000000000 (100 billion) galaxies in the observable universe.
• Each galaxy contains at least 100s of billions of stars.
• The universe is mostly empty space.
• 5% of the universe is atomic matter. The rest is mostly dark matter or dark energy. We do not know what these are.
• Many stars have planetary systems.
• The universe is at least 41 billion light years across.

It was an interesting series of lectures, but my "take away" thought is just how little we really know.  Many of the theories fit, but many are incomplete.  Some theories involve multiple universes.  We really know nothing. Humans are a speck.

Back in the 1960s there was a series of books by Eric von Daniken. His basic theory (I seem to recall) was religious events were the result of visits from other worlds of beings different from us. Events at those times long ago were interpreted as supernatural. Remember, we still believed in witches just a few centuries ago!   Now, I am not saying he was right, but it an interesting thought.

What I do know, is that whatever we think now is most probably wrong. It is our interpretation of things by our (small) human brains. The truth is we do not know. All we can do is live kindly. Most religions have kindness to others at their hearts.

Plans for Tuesday

At lunch I intend to go on 8m QRP FT8 on 40.680 MHz in the second TX period. As many in the USA seem to be TX in the first period, this may help my chances of being spotted over there with my 2.5W and low dipole. Yesterday I was first period and spotted by 2 in England and 1 in Eire.

I also intend to go on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon.

Sunspots - Tuesday December 6th 2022

 Solar flux is 150 and the SSN 89. A=8 and K=1

2016

This photo was taken in 2016 and shows my wife and my brother outside a local cottage. 

Plans for Monday

My current plan is to go on 8m QRP (2.5W) FT8 on 40.680 MHz and 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. I shall probably turn things on about 1120z. Usually, my regular 10m WSPR spots are from the Canary Isles.

Dutch breakfast - NOT amateur radio

This was my breakfast in Amsterdam back in September. It was about half the price of breakfast in the hotel. 

We thought it was worth walking 300m.

Devon walk - NOT amateur radio

Back in the summer I walked from my brother's house to Salcombe, about 3 miles. It was along what is known as "the old coach road". Perhaps it was the road taken by coaches a long time ago.

G3XBM on the DLARC

It is pleasing that my PDF book is accessible from the digital library of amateur radio and communication documents available via the Wayback Machine. My video channel is also available there although I don't know about my main website.

See https://archive.org/details/dlarc .

How simple can a rig be?

This was a challenge I wanted to have a go at. This is probably one of the simplest transceivers one can make. My inspiration came from a 40m rig by W2UW who is now sadly a silent key. My wish was to make it even simpler. My main issue was netting. The RX worked well. This appeared in GQRP SPRAT, although I cannot remember when.

There is a video on the website.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/80m-feter-transceiver .

DMR and network radios

Many people have no DMR radios, but have Android phones. This was the case with me. I had a network radio that was hardly used.  I found an app called Droidstar that enabled me to access the DMR network and thus worldwide contacts with a handheld. It has not been used often, but at least I can use DMR if I want to. I have found it more interesting just to listen.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/network-radio . 

Sunspots - Monday December 5th 2022

Solar flux is 144 and the SSN 93. A=16 and K=2.

Birthday - NOT amateur radio

 

About 10 days ago was my wife's birthday.  These were some of her cards.

17m FT8 RX (Sunday)

Without changing from the 8m dipole, I have swapped to 17m FT8 RX. Within a few minutes 39 stations were spotted as shown on the map.

UPDATE 2000z:  So far on 17m FT8 RX this afternoon 159 stations spotted. QRT very soon.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Sunday)

For the last several hours, I have been on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon. So far today, 7 stations have spotted me.

These follows a distinct pattern.  Early, I usually get spotted in the Canaries with the USA and Canada in the early afternoon. Just occasionally there are others. The impression i get is that many have moved over to FT8 instead of WSPR.

UPDATE 1705z:  11 unique stations have spotted me today,

8m FT8 QRP (Sunday)

 Although I have been on 8m most of the morning, no spots although in the last few days I have been spotted by EI9KP (649km) and G4FFC (47km).

UPDATE 1707z:   No spots all day.

Card tricks - NOT amateur radio

This was one of our grandchildren doing card tricks last night. She baffled me and would not tell me how she did it. 

Sunspots - Sunday December 4th 2022

 Solar flux is 134 and SSN 68.  A=10 and K=2.

220 MHz band

As far as I know, we have never had the 220 MHz amateur band this side of the Atlantic. Maybe we did before WW2. Perhaps someone can tell me.

Every week I get Amateur Radio Weekly in my email and this mentioned that this allocation is little used outside of the big US cities. If other VHF allocations are anything to go by, I am not surprised. 2m and 70cm are generally quiet here.

At one time handhelds were made for this band. I guess there are few nowadays if not many get sold.

I can imagine this could be an interesting band if activity was high. Frequently on 70cm tropo is better than 2m. At a time when activity was higher, it was not uncommon to have frequent, very localised tropo openings. With 4W and an old TV antenna, it was possible to work FM DX on 70cms quite often.

See https://www.onallbands.com/222-mhz-is-anybody-there/ .

See https://hamweekly.com/ .

MF transverter

This photo from 2012 was found earlier. I cannot remember if this was the original 500 kHz transverter or the one for I did for 472 kHz. The 472 kHz one has been used most autumns and winters with my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground on WSPR. Even though the ERP is very low, it is regularly gets spotted in Norway. The transverter produces 10W, but the ERP is about 10mW. 

Salcombe harbour, Devon - NOT amateur radio

This photo of Salcombe was taken yesterday I think .  As an earlier post today indicated, this was where I spent my childhood. 

On our primary school classroom ceiling, we could see the reflection of sunshine on the water reflecting on the ceiling. Funny how I can remember this and seeing the harbour from the playground. We just took it all for granted, not appreciating how lucky we were.  

Just 10 years before some of the landing craft in the Normandy landings of WW2 went from here. It must have been so different then.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Saturday)

For about an hour, I have been on 10m QRP TX running 500mW from my W5OLF beacon. So far, 3 unique stations have spotted me. It is now 1205z.

8m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

It is now 1120z. I have been on 8m QRP FT8 on 40.680 MHz for about 20 minutes. So far,  1 spot on TX by G4FFC (47km), On RX, no spots. On 8m FT8 I Use 2.5W and a low wire dipole.

UPDATE 1502z:  Nothing back from the RSGB about my email suggesting a 5 kHz wide 8m amateur band, narrow digital only. Am I surprised? Not really. No further stations spotting me today and I have spotted nobody.

UPDATE 1518z: In the UK my understanding is we can use equipment without a certificate of conformity or type approval at 8m as long as it meets the technical requirement and the interface requirements as detailed in IR 2030. This is because we have no intention of putting anything on the market.  This means 10mW ERP and we are responsible for compliance. From my own tests and tests by M0NYW, 10mW ERP certainly covers the local area with WSPR and might well work on FT8 over some paths, especially with proper 8m antennas at both ends. My own tests were with a low wire 8m dipole, whereas most locals receiving me were using a variety of (non 8m) antennas. In better Es openings I would expect 10mW ERP to reach Europe. This means many more UK stations could legally operate 8m WSPR beacons.

Salcombe 1960s? - NOT amateur radio

Salcombe is where I lived as a young child. This photo probably dates from the early 1960s or even late 1950s. It shows the waterfront in Salcombe. 

Plans for the day (Saturday)

 Later, I expect to be on 8m QRP FT8 and 10m QRP WSPR TX.

Sunspots - Saturday December 3rd 2022

 Solar flux  is 124 and the SSN 66.  A=16 and K=2.

OFCOM Updates

Every week, OFCOM updates the figures it holds on us and publishes these. Check the OFCOM website for their latest figures.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Friday)

 Nearly forgot again that when I am on 8m FT8, I can also go on 10m QRP WSPR with my stand-alone W5OLF beacon. The beacon was turned on at about 1130z. At 1305z, my 500mW beacon had been spotted by 7 unique stations.

This little beacon has given me good service for many years.

8m QRP FT8 (Friday)

 At about 1130z I turned on my 2.5W QRP 8m FT8 (TX first and RX) on 40.680 MHz.  At 1257z, no spots.

Plans for today (Friday)

After shopping in a minute I think I shall immediately go on 8m QRP FT8 on 40.680 MHz. This will be around 1100z.

So far this autumn my 2.5W has only made it to the USA once on 8m. 

23cm update

As regular blog readers will know, I now have a 2W 23cm transverter. I have yet to use it as I have been busy with other things. I still have to get some leads. My plan is to do some tests locally with the supplied test antenna and do some portable operating with a better antenna in the activity contests next year. So, if you are local, stand by!! 

Sunspots - Friday December 2nd 2022

Solar flux is 119 and the SSN 49. A=28 and K=3.