The photo was taken in 2013. It shows a thatched cottage in a village not far from here.
21 Mar 2023
Thatched cottage - NOT amateur radio
The photo was taken in 2013. It shows a thatched cottage in a village not far from here.
630m WSPR RX (Tuesday)
At about 1745z, I changed to 630m WSPR RX. It is now 1756z and, so far, no spots.
UPDATE 2057z: 2 stations spotted so far this evening.
UPDATE 2240z: Now QRT.
4m UKAC - missed it!!
Last Thursday evening was the 4m (70 MHz) activity contest for March. I missed it!
My antenna is just my 2m big-wheel and coax matched via the auto-ATU in the FT-710. I have no idea how it performs with regard to gain, polarisation, or directivity. This I was hoping to find out! Maybe in April? My next chance looks like April 20th.
Birthday lunch - NOT amateur radio
Yesterday we went to lunch with old university friends we have known since the 1960s. Seeing them, it is as if we had seen them just the day before.
10m WSPR QRP TX and RX
At present, I am on QRP 10m WSPR using the FT-710. After the first transmission 4 spots.
UPDATE 1625z: My own 5W WSPR TX has been spotted by 19 unique stations and I have spotted 135 unique stations. Furthermost so far is a spot by WP3SM (6851km) in Puerto Rico.
Tuesday plans
My current plan is to go on 10m WSPR with the FT-710 to see if I can preset the optimum settings for WSPR. I may try 630m WSPR RX after dark.
Red-legged partridges - NOT amateur radio
We used see these handsome birds regularly in our garden but I have not seen any recently.
630m WSPR RX yesterday
For the first time I tried my FT-710 on 630m WSPR RX using the coax to my 2m big-wheel via a ferrite rod ATU. Everything seems to work fine with stations in the Netherlands Germany and Norway spotted before I had to turn the rig off.
20 Mar 2023
Plans for the day (Monday)
As we are out some of today, I shall probably go on 472 kHz WSPR RX this evening. It is getting later in the season, so I have no idea how it will go. I shall probably have to use the coax to my 2m big-wheel antenna with some loading.
Muntjac deer - NOT amateur radio
See https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/mammals/muntjac-deer .
2m FT8 QRP
In my view 2m FT8 has been transformational with DX possible at any time with QRP. Yes, SSB activity has declined, but I feel sure some sort of scatter is being tapped into.
This is not aircraft scatter as planes are not needed. Personally I think this is troposcatter made possible by the far better sensitivity of FT8.
The photo shows the received stations on typical day with flat conditions. This was 2019 with just an omni antenna!
Hallsands Devon - NOT amateur radio
This painting was done in 1884. It shows the coastal village of Hallsands that was washed away early in the 20th century. Dredging offshore for Plymouth Dockyard was blamed. Previously this had been a thriving village famous for crab fishing.
19 Mar 2023
Kindness
Many times in the last 10 years I have been reminded of the kindness shown to me.
Complete strangers have offered me help and several have sent me gifts, purely out of kindness, things to make life better. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. All I can say is the true spirit of amateur radio is alive and well.
It is my belief that there are many more kind people in the world than bad ones. It is just that kindness is, sadly, not sensational or newsworthy.
At some point, I hope that I am able to be as kind to somebody else.
23cm QSO this week?
My station has an ERP about 40dB less than his. I hope he can copy me! I am still using 2W pep to my 2el beam pointing out of the shack window.
Breaking down barriers
Many years ago in the so called,"cold war", we had many contacts on amateur radio with stations across the world including many stations that, at that time, were in the USSR. Some of my best QSL cards are from those years.
I would like to think that these QSOs helped to break down barriers between people. Amateur radio has no interest in politics and never should. We can be black, white, yellow or even green, male, female or in between, left wing, right wing, capitalist or communist. It matters not. We are all just humans with an interest in radio.
Sunshine twins - NOT amateur radio
As teenagers a very long time ago, my wife and I had yellow jackets. Years later we bought some more.
Back in the 1960s my uncle called us "the sunshine twins". Can't think why!!! 😄
10m FT8 (Sunday)
At 0945z, I turned on my 10m FT8 using the FT-710. So far, spotted by 9 stations and I have spotted 43 stations after just 5 minutes.
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| Stations spotting me on 10m FT8 TX (8W) late morning |
UPDATE 1725z: 688 stations have spotted my 8W 10m FT8 today and 1485 stations spotted here. I have not seen 10m this good for many years.
UPDATE 2055z: 1909 stations have been spotted and 817 stations have spotted me today on 10m FT8 with 8W.
UPDATE 2110z: QRT.
Oscar 100 narrowband activity
Activity levels on the narrow-band transponder of this geosynchronous satellite are still very low with plenty of space. In my view, this satellite is a failure with activity levels way below what was expected.
30 THz experiments
Isn't it great when you read about someone in our hobby doing real experiments that truly explore the boundaries? Such cases are the experiments at 30 THz and above by M0LRH and M7HBL in GQRP SPRAT 193 and 194. Their DX is crossing a field, but to me this is really pushing the boundaries. Excellent!
18 Mar 2023
6m FT8 (Saturday)
As my FT-710 is now working fine with FT8, I am currently on 50.313 MHz FT8 on 6m. So far, (at 1717z) 15 stations have spotted me. On RX I have , so far, spotted nobody, despite a huge number of people monitoring 6m FT8 in Europe. Interestingly, hardy any monitors in Russia. Most monitors are waiting for the Es season before going on TX, it would appear.
UPDATE 1721z: I guess I could go on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. Don't think I shall bother.
UPDATE 1811z: 18 stations have spotted me (furthermost GW0GEI (308km)) and I have spotted 1 station. Spotting very few on 6m FT8 RX.
UPDATE 1825z: 19 stations have spotted me today on 6m FT8 TX (see map).
UPDATE 2005z: 20 stations have spotted me.
Wymondham (pronounced Windum) - NOT amateur radio
Today, we went to Wymondham in Norfolk. This is a delightful market town, not far from Norwich. It has a great abbey. Some of my wife's family lived here once. It is about an hour away by car. A friend staying with us drove.
The photo of the meal was taken last year. We visited exactly a year ago.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wymondham .
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wymondham .
Electric cars and batteries - NOT amateur radio
We are still awaiting a breakthrough in batteries for electric cars. Lithium, used in most (all?) electric vehicle batteries is a rare earth material in short supply. These batteries are expensive and big. There is also the issue of charging.
A breakthrough may be on the way promising much better ranges, less cost, and fast charging times. Until this happens, I cannot see a tipping point when there is a really big take-up of electric cars. Imagine - far less expensive electric cars, very infrequent charging, long ranges. It will happen.
See https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/electric/solid-state-battery-ev/ .
2013 tests below 9 kHz
This was 2013 below 9 kHz. Amazing with amateur power and back garden antennas. Some of these took hours to see!
17 Mar 2023
OFCOM updates
Every week, OFCOM updates the data it holds on licences etc.. on us. See the OFCOM website for more details.
FT-710 and FT8
As our visitor arrived earlier than expected, I was unable to do the firmware update until Friday AM. I am taking things in easy stages. The CAT now works correctly. FT8 RX works correctly. The PC is doing (yet another!!) Windows update and I will try FT8 TX next.
My brain is like treacle with things that would have been so easy in the past now being unbelievably hard.
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| Stations spotting my FT8 TX with 10W from the FT-710 on 10m today |
UPDATE 1506z: OK I am lazy! My TX is currently set to "fix TX frequency" in WSJT-X, meaning I rarely go after others. With 271 stations spotting me, I have not been called by a single station. ALC is very low and I am running about 10W.
UPDATE 1528z: So far today on 10m FT8 with about 10W spotted by 317 unique stations using the FT-710. May try 12m.
UPDATE 1758z: My 2m big-wheel and coax match on my FT-710, so I am giving 4m a try. I am on 70.154 MHz with about 10W of FT8, although there seems some uncertainty about the 4m FT8 frequency.
UPDATE 1827z: No spots of me (or others) on 4m FT8. I hope I am on the right spot.
UPDATE 2101z: I gave up on 4m for several reasons: not sure of FT8 frequency, poor antenna, low activity. Now on 6m FT8 and being spotted by quite a few. Furthermost on 6m FT8 is MI0BOT (478km). The convention in the UK is to TX evens, but of course more UK stations will spot you on "odd" periods as they are listening then. Judging by the number of stations on RX (none at all!) I guess most people are just on RX.
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| Stations spotting me tonight on 6m FT8 TX |
UPDATE 2211z: QRT now. 14 spots of me on 6m FT8 TX.
16 Mar 2023
Future projects
These are the projects I want to do in the coming weeks:
- 23cm SSB QSO with G4BAO.
- Local 481 THz QRSS tests bouncing off local things like the windmill and church.
- NLOS optical test at 481 THz with G4HJW.
- FT8 with the FT-710.
- Continued 8m tests, probably with WSPR near 40.680 MHz USB dial.
- Write another article ( I have an idea).
- Erect a 4m band halo.
Total exhaustion - NOT amateur radio
Things are far harder for me nowadays. Although I try to do "normal" things , I get exhausted very quickly after mental or physical things. This must be a combination of getting older and my 2013 stroke. My stroke after-effects cause me to be giddy almost all my waking hours. This is a "hidden disability" that few can see or understand.
As I have said many times, never judge a book by its cover. Many people suffer in silence whilst casual observers can see nothing wrong and mistake exhaustion for laziness.
FT-710 and FT8
As you may recall, I have been struggling to get this working. Later today I have a "window" to update the firmware and try the recommended settings again. Hopefully I can get things going.
Our grandchildren go shortly and our best man (from a long time ago!) arrives late afternoon.
The death of AM on the amateur bands
Although there are still a few AM nets on some bands, the mode has mostly been replaced by FM and SSB. This is a pity as in years gone by people "chanced" on amateur radio by listening on short wave. I well remember hearing amateurs on 160m AM many years ago. I remember copying G4PJ 4 miles away on a crystal set in the 1960s when he was on AM.
These days, people can no longer just chance on amateur radio. Our hobby has changed and the way newcomers "find" the hobby will be different. Modes like FT8 may be fine for working DX, but it is unlikely to be an introductory route for newcomers. As a person with a poor voice, I quite like FT8 and WSPR. At the same time, I am conscious that these modes cannot be ways in to the hobby.
AM had many advantages: gear was simple, ex-PMR radios were practically being given away and signals could be detected by very simple detectors. The simplest was just a diode detector. As I recall weak signals were better on AM than FM. Of course AM carriers could be a real nuisance.
Many today have never experienced AM, which is sad.
Even MW/LW broadcast AM is being phased out.
Several of my designs in the past were for simple AM transceivers. See my website at www.g3xbm.co.uk or my free PDF book for details.
Where I lived as a teenager - NOT amateur radio
This very old engraving shows Kingsbridge, Devon as it was over 200 years ago.
Although it has changed quite a bit, the main town is still very recognisable. I lived there from 1959-1970. It is at the head of the Kingsbridge Estuary, that is actually a ria or drowned river valley.
It is still a very beautiful area today.
15 Mar 2023
Eddystone EC10 RX
This RX was first introduced in the late 1960s and was the first transistorised communications RX. It sold for £48 when it first appeared, and we all (well quite a few of us) wanted one.
By modern standards it was hopeless. At high HF the image rejection was pathetic because of the low IF. They still appear on sites like eBay for a fortune. They have become collector's pieces. I briefly owned one a long time ago, goodness knows why. They used germanium transistors and these became leaky with time. Many need replacing. Mechanically, these receivers were excellent. Shame about the electronics!
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/eddystone-ec10 .
Burston strike school, Norfolk - NOT amateur radio
This evening, we went to our local history society meeting. It was a talk on the Burston Strike School in Norfolk. The speaker did not use a projector and just spoke. It was excellent.
I had not heard about this before, but interested to hear this was all so near. It was in an age when society was very stratified.
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