At about 1024z, I turned on my 500mW WSPR TX beacon. So far, no spots.
UPDATE 1100z: 4 spots of me from the Canary Is so far.
UPDATE 1731z: 29 stations have spotted me.
10 Mar 2023
10m QRP WSPR (Friday)
Real winter - NOT amateur radio
This winter we have had more frosts and snow on the ground than for a long time. Years ago, we had snow on the ground every winter, whereas now to get any snow is the exception. This winter has been more like the winters in the 1950s. As I write there is snow falling and snow on the ground, even though it is officially spring according to the UK Mat Office!
Although I quite like the look of snow, I prefer milder sunnier weather. Roll on spring.
8m QRP FT8 (Friday)
Later today, I hope to go on 8m QRP FT8 again on 40.680 MHz. Although EI2IP and G4APB were both copied yesterday, I suspect my low ERP only gets spotted if conditions are exceptionally good via F2. Both these stations have probably got far greater ERP than I have. This is my choice to see what can be achieved on 8m with very simple gear. I suspect for reliable F2, I need at least another 10dB.
9 Mar 2023
8m QRP FT8 (Thursday)
It is now 1515z. My 8m FT8 QRP was turned on at about 1500z. So far, no spots at 1522z.
10m QRP WSPR (Thursday)
At about 1500z, my 500mW 10m WSPR TX beacon was turned on. So far, no spots today.
Rallies this weekends
The following rallies have been notified to me. If travelling far, it is always worth checking the information is correct before setting out.
- Saturday March 11th - South Kesteven ARS Junk Sale, Gantham, NG31 7AU. Comtact s.mason@skars.co.uk .
- Sunday March 12th - British Vintage Wireless Society Meet, Biggleswade, SG18 8JH. Contact jesser3@hotmail.com .
- Sunday March 12th - Dover ARC HAMZ, Ashford, Kent, TN24 9QX. Contact club@darc.online .
Fancy a job? - NOT amateur radio
It is now nearly 15 years that I have been retired. Local companies are still looking for good RF engineers. At my age and with my poor voice, I think I shall just stick to amateur radio and the odd article writing!
481 THz optical experiments
It is many years since I used my optical gear. As mentioned previously, I want to check it all works, download Spectran 2 and do some local tests initially. Our local church is about 300m away, so perhaps I can do some QRSS tests bouncing off this?
It the local tests work, I would like to do some over the horizon tests with G4HJW who is about 10km away. Sadly, there is a lot of clutter locally, so perhaps I would have a better chance with Bernie using cloudbounce, rather than clear air scattering? He might have to point to higher in the sky. With passing clouds, I might well copy him.
Being far more wobbly these days, this will be far harder for me now.
All my 100mm gear is still in the shack, but it all needs putting together and testing.
Spring? - NOT amateur radio
With snow on the ground it is hard to think of spring! We had snow overnight, which stopped this morning. My wife took these photos earlier this week and made the collage. A few more weeks?
Birthday boy - NOT amateur radio
Today is our elder son's birthday. We went out with him for lunch yesterday in Cambridge.
Faulty PC repaired - NOT amateur radio
Yesterday I had an email to say my PC had been repaired and checked and Asus was awaiting collection by the courier.
This was under warranty and was done very fast. I expect they just swapped the motherboard. They have contacted me at every stage. I hope it is OK now.
When it arrives back I must check it and see if FT8 works with the FT-710.
70cm FT8 activity contest
Yesterday evening was the 70cm FT8 activity contest (UKAC). I can only use 2.5W to my 2m big-wheel omni antenna, yet stations as far away as Germany were copied (see map) and 2 locals worked. I was not on very long as we have a regular 2m FM net.
8 Mar 2023
Windows PC
Currently I have 2 Windows PCs. Both run Windows 10 and were made by Asus. One I have had for years and is the main shack PC. The other failed under warranty and is currently being fixed.
Despite trying everything, I have still not got the FT-710 to work on FT8. I have downloaded the drivers, checked the settings are correct many, many times. This includes watching several YouTube videos. Until the other PC returns from repair, I cannot check the FT-710 with the other Windows PC.
Looking in Device Manager, all is there, but I cannot get CAT to work and there is no TX audio.
Of course, the FT-710 could be faulty, but I suspect the shack PC.
8m WSPR (Wednesday)
For a change, I am on 8m WSPR today. As the TX is on for longer periods, I am TXing at 1W instead for 20% if the time.
7 Mar 2023
FT-710 and FT8
This afternoon, I shall have a go at getting FT8 working on the Yaesu FT-710AESS. It requires some drivers downloading first. There are several YouTube videos which should help.
Anglesey Abbey earlier - NOT amateur radio
This was the mill and leat at Anglesey Abbey this morning.
Good looking fellow? - NOT amateur radio
This photo shows me when I was young. Not much change on the top!! I have been bald since my early 20s. It did not last long!
E-field probes (EFP)
These are very small RX antennas that can be very effective at VLF, LF and MF. As you move HF, they get less effective. The main issue is that at lower frequencies external noise dominates.
There are several designs around. Important factors are dynamic range (they can be hit with some very strong signals) and positioning away from buildings to minimise noise pick-up.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/antennas/e-field-probe-efp .
80m FETer transceiver
One of the challenges in amateur radio is how simple can you make a rig that really communicates? Some years ago I designed and built this unit for 80m CW that appeared in GQRP SPRAT. It is one of the simplest transceivers you can make. It really works!
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/80m-feter-transceiver .
6 Mar 2023
446 radios - NOT amateur radio
How do they makes profits?
Too small - NOT amateur radio
For many years I was a Christian. These days I am perhaps better described as agnostic. I am not sure what I believe.
Christianity seems too small for me in a world of many faiths. Then you have the probable existence of trillions of planets in the universe. There are probably billions of planets in our galaxy alone and billions of galaxies!!
My view currently is that all religions are hints towards the truth. Christianity seems too parochial these days. I cannot believe that all the religions in the world other than Christianity are wrong.
My own view is that we are all capable of evil given the right triggers. We would rather this was not true, but history proves us wrong. Just shortly before I was born, millions were put to death in gas chambers by the people of a civilised country. I can imagine us being just as evil had circumstances been different.
Throughout history, religions of all sorts have been the trigger for evil against fellow men.
In many ways I envy people with strong religious beliefs, but to me, this is not enough.
I am a strong believer of the existence of good and evil. There is clearly evil in the world, but often (always?) this has its roots in evil done to the perpetrator. It is my firm belief that there is far more good in the world than evil. Sadly, good deeds are rarely newsworthy.
All we can hope is we leave this world having worked for some good within it.
10m QRP WSPR (Monday)
As Monday morning is housework time here, I might put my WSPR 500mW W5OLF beacon on for a while.
Upcoming optical tests on 481 THz
It is years since I did optical experiments. My current plan is to do some local tests with QRSS bouncing off buildings. If these are successful, I want to try an "over the horizon" test with G4HJW.
My first task will be to install Spectran 2 software as this will be needed to decode QRSS and to check the signal margins.
Muntjac deer poo - NOT amateur radio
Bet you never expected this!
In recent weeks we have had a lot of these small deer in our garden. They have eaten some plants. When I cut the grass for the first time this year recently I noticed they left me a small "gift".
Club 72?
Some years ago there was a Russian QRP club that was quite active on 20m CW.
At the moment Russia is not in our good books over Ukraine, but I personally have no issues with the Russian people. Indeed, at the height of the "cold war" many Russians were worked and, via the medium of amateur radio, barriers were broken down. All were human beings just like us!
In my view we have to keep politics out of amateur radio. One of the great things about our hobby is we are all equal whether we come for Russia, the USA, Ghana or wherever. If will be a sad day if barriers are ever erected.
Does Club-72 still exist?
Mizuho MX2
This was an SSB/CW 2m 200mW handheld. I think it dates from the 1980s. In its time I worked some great SSB DX with mine when out portable. I still have one, but it has not been used for years. By modern standards it was not too small. As I recall, it was let down by poor battery life.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/vhfuhf-commercial-rigs/mizuho-mx2.
FT8 on the FT-710AESS
One of my aims this week is to try FT8 on my FT-710. As a keen QRPer, I usually run low power and this will be no exception. In the end I overcame my issues with noise on FT8 RX with the IC-705. I hope this is not an issue on the FT-710. If it is, I shall add ferrite chokes on the USB cable between the rig and PC.
5 Mar 2023
Dalham - NOT amateur radio
We like to do a circular walk around the village of Dalham near Newmarket. This is the lane back to the village. Delightful.
Ferrite rod TX antennas
Ferrite rods are commonly used as RX antennas on MW and LW. They are compact and efficient for their intended purpose. Their use as TX antennas is almost non-existent.
As long as the ferrite is suitable for the frequency and as long as the ferrite is not in saturation, they may be used on TX. This implies very low power, but we know on WSPR and possibly FT8, long distances may be spanned with very low power indeed. Certainly great ranges have been covered with milliwatts and microwatts.
Some years ago, I did some TX tests with ferrite rods and the results surprised me.
In absolute terms, I have little idea about their loss compared with, say, a dipole. At 630m and 160m, antenna efficiencies are often -30dBd or worse, so they could be far better than we might expect. They certainly are small! Some people have bundled several rods together. I have not tried this.
This is yet another area in which radio amateurs can carry out useful research. Be careful that the ferrite rod alone is doing the work and you are not coupling into a bigger antenna nearby.
In my view ferrite rods "compress space" within the rod. As such, they could be used as magnetic or loading in E-field antennas.Remeber to keep power very low.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/antennas/ferrite-rod-tx-antennas .
8m QRP FT8 (Sunday)
At 0925z, my 8m QRP FT8 was turned on. For a change, I am TXing 2nd. So far, no spots.
UPDATE 1100z: SP5NOF (1406km) and G9PUV (158km) spotted, but nobody has spotted my 8m FT8 QRP. I hope SP5NOF is legal.
UPDATE 1801z: No further spots all day. QRT soon.
Spring? - NOT amateur radio
The birds in our churchyard are getting ready to nest by repairing old nests as the photo shows. Next week could be much colder. They are in for a shock!
10m QRP WSPR TX (Sunday)
At 0925z, my 500mW 10m WSPR was turned on. So far, no spots.
UPDATE 1021z: 13 spots of me from the Canary Is.. Some reports have 22dB in hand, suggesting I could have been copied with just 5mW (or lower) if the RX noise floor was low enough. On previous days, signals have been even stronger at times!
UPDATE 1150z: LA3SP (1049km) has spotted me many times with up to 25dB in hand!! 3 unique stations have spotted me so far today.
Wisdom - NOT amateur radio
Many years ago I read somewhere that there is a great deal of difference between being clever and being wise. My Auntie Kitty was definitely not clever, but she was wise.
This quote was in "The Knowledge" yesterday.
At the 1937 Soviet writers’ congress, Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago, faced a terrible dilemma: to speak or not to speak. This was at the height of Stalin’s purges; writers who deviated an iota from the regime’s view risked being “disappeared”. On the final day, more than six feet tall and “incredibly beautiful”, Pasternak went to the lectern. The silence, it was said, could be heard “all the way to Vladivostok”. When he finally spoke, he began with just one word: the number “30”, denoting Shakespeare’s famous sonnet. “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought / I summon up remembrance of things past…” All 2,000 people in the hall rose to their feet and recited the rest of the poem by heart. The sonnet “said everything” – you can’t touch what we hold in our heads.
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