Sunspots - Thursday March 23rd 2023

Solar flux is 159 and the SSN 81. A=17 and K=1.

630m WSPR RX

At 2005z, I went on to 630m WSPR RX using the 2m big-wheel and coax via a ferrite rod ATU. So far this evening, a couple of German stations spotted.

UPDATE 2119z:  G6AVK (78km) also spotted. 

UPDATE 2218z: Now QRT. 

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Ely Cathedral - NOT amateur radio

This photo was taken yesterday at Ely Cathedral. There has been Christian worship on this site for 1350 years. 

Electric cars - NOT amateur radio

In a few years, as mentioned recently, I am expecting a "tipping point" when most use electric cars rather than cars fuelled by fossil fuels. My prediction is this will happen about 2028. 

For this to happen, range has to be considerably improved and prices have to fall dramatically. Electric cars today appeal mainly to early adopters, those who feel strongly against fossil fuels and those who only make very short journeys like shopping trips and who can charge at home.  I think the breakthrough will come with solid state batteries.

Usually on my trips to Cambridge I see about 2 electric cars. Today I saw 10!! There must be a lot of early adopters!

10m FT8 QRP (Wednesday)

As I am back from Cambridge, I am on 10m QRP FT8 with 5W.  After about 10 minutes,  13 stations have spotted me and I have spotted 99.

UPDATE 1540z:  28 stations have spotted my QRP 10m FT8 and I have spotted 257.

Stations that have spotted my
5W 10m FT8 today at 1800z

UPDATE 1945z:   572 stations have been spotted and 80 stations have spotted my 5W 10m FT8 TX.

AI search engines - NOT amateur radio

There has been a lot recently about artificial intelligence and search engines. First there was ChatGPT followed by GPT-4 and now BARD which is Google's experimental version.

I can see great danger with these as people believe what these bots create as truth, when it may be full of errors. I tried BARD out and most was correct, but some things were totally wrong!! 

Sunspots - Wednesday March 22nd 2023

 Solar flux is 152 and the SSN 70. A=8 and K=3  

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. 

Sunspots - Tuesday March 21st 2023

Solar flux is 156 and the SSN 75. A=13 and K=1. 

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

For the 5th time recently in our garden, a Muntjac deer scampered away. These are dog sized deer that look nice, but nibble away at some plants. In recent years, these introduced deer have become far more common here.

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. 

Sunspots - Monday March 20th 2023

 Solar flux is 143 and the SSN 73.  A=10 and K=1. 

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?

If he is around, I may try a 23cm SSB QSO with G4BAO. John has a superb 23cm station, so I should certainly be able to copy him. 

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.

Stations spotting me
on 10m FT8 TX
(8W) late morning

UPDATE 1342z: 230 stations have spotted my 8W 10m FT8 TX today (see map). On 10m FT8 RX 698 stations spotted.

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.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/.

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!

Sunspots - Sunday March 19th 2023

Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 35. A=8 and K=3.

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 .

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/ .

A Facebook memory yesterday - NOT amateur radio

 This was a Facebook memory yesterday.

Optical tests over the horizon in 2013

This was a test at 481THz in 2013 over the horizon. 

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! 

Sunspots - Saturday March 18th 2023

 Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 58.  A=9 and K=2. 

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.

Stations spotting my FT8 TX with
10W from the FT-710 on 10m today

UPDATE 1451z: Now working on FT8 on TX and RX. For some reason it refused to work on TX with RTS selected (as they say do), but works when CAT selected in WSJT-X. Odd. 144 stations have already spotted me!

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.

Stations spotting me
tonight on 6m FT8 TX

UPDATE 2211z:   QRT now. 14 spots of me on 6m FT8 TX.

Sunspots - Friday March 17th 2023

 Solar flux is 134 and the SSN 84.  A=7 and K=0.

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.

I wonder how many I shall actually do? Ask me in 4 weeks!