At 1046z I QSYed to 630m WSPR RX. I am not sure how many people are on during the day, so this is an experiment.
UPDATE 1038z: 501 stations spotted.
I might QSY to 630m WSPR RX soon.
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| Getting the optical gear working |
Rather earlier than normal, I have turned on 630m WSPR RX. So far spotted PA3GSH (396km), so my system is working.
Again my "antenna" is the coax to my 2m big-wheel omni antenna tuned with a ferrite rod on the bench.
UPDATE 1930z: 2 stations spotted so far this evening with the furthermost DB8BG (498km).
About a week ago, I outlined the projects that I hoped to tackle in the next 4 weeks. So far, I am making progress.
Next week, I hope to re set up my optical gear and do some local tests and arrange a 23cm SSB sked with G4BAO.
Progress!
At the moment, I am on 10m FT8. So far, 3 stations have spotted me after about 5 minutes and 5 stations have been spotted on RX.
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| Spots of my QRP 10m FT8 today |
At 1850z my 630m WSPR RX was turned on. No spots yet.
UPDATE 2206z: Still no spots.
UPDATE 2208z: I am puzzled. G6AVK is usually copied, but I have had no spots all evening. As far as I can tell, everything is correct. It is not just uploading to WSPRnet as there are no local spots either!
UPDATE 2240z : Restarted WSJT-X and immediately got spots from the Netherlands and Germany. Not sure what was going on. Now QRT.
Although the banking sector is supposed to be far more resilient these days, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Bank stocks still look spooked by recent events with SVB and Credit Swisse. I hope this is short lived.
Am now on 10m FT8. Only D2UY (Angola) coming through, suggesting there is plenty of disturbance. I am not sure if there is a delay on PSKreporter at the moment.
UPDATE 1456z: Just 2 G spots of me so far. These are probably normal tropo. Furthermost is G4FAL (180km) near Sheffield. I remember that this sort of range was always possible with QRP 10m SSB and a dipole. It is probably even more likely with FT8. Pretty sure far more inter-G QSOs would be possible on 10m FT8.
UPDATE 1900z: Now QRT, but in the end I was spotted by 8 stations and I spotted 12.
As I am unable to drive at night, I have really enjoyed the Cambridge Radio Club lectures via Zoom. They are trying to arrange "hybrid" meetings with personal contact in Cambridge and Zoom lectures for those that cannot get in. In my view, the Zoom lectures have been excellent.
My personal view is that all lectures should be on Zoom only, with a social gathering somewhere else once a month. This would mean no room hire, reduced annual fees, people could watch or talk from anywhere on the planet and people could watch the Zoom talks with others in their homes if they do not have Zoom. I would expect most people have Zoom.
Imagine if CDARC became a worldwide radio club!
The image is from the CDARC website. I wanted to link to this image, but could not see how to do this. Instead, I took a screenshot. If copyright infringement is an issue, it will be removed.
As HF looks to be disturbed, I am again on 4m FT8 with my makeshift antenna. At 1043z, no spots.
UPDATE 1245z: No spots of me, but G4HGI (244km) spotted on 4m FT8 RX.
UPDATE 1416z: GW8ASA (301km) has again spotted me at similar levels to yesterday.
UPDATE 1421z: Nothing outside of the UK so far on 4m FT8. Rather surprised there are not many more stations on 4m FT8. I expect this will change in the Es season.
One of the pleasures of UK winter is the usual absence of thunder and lightning. In the UK they can occur, but they are far more common in the summer.
Although I know the chances of a direct strike are low, they do occur. I know of 2 friends who had this. One of the more common things is a power surge as storms approach.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/lightning-maps .
It looks like the coming days (especially today) could see quite disturbed solar conditions due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) on the sun. I am not clever enough to know how this will effect HF and low VHF.
See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/red-kite.
I like the spring as it is the season of new hope after a long, dark winter. The blossom does not last long, but it beautiful for a while. I prefer the spring to the summer.
OFCOM is consulting on the future use of the 1900-1920 MHz spectrum. See the OFCOM website for details. Apparently these frequencies are allocated, but not used.
At the moment I am again on 70.154 MHz FT8 with my big-wheel 2m omni and coax tuned via the auto-ATU in the FT-710. At 1029z, no spots. I have yet to be spotted on 4m, although my "antenna" does not help!
UPDATE 1226z: Well, my 4m "antenna" is working with 3 stations spotted and one spotting me - G4HGI (244km).
UPDATE 1241z: I would imagine that most propagation is one of the following: flat-band propagation, tropo enhancement, MS or scatter. As Bas says in the comments, the Es season is probably some months away still.
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| Stations spotting me today on 4m FT8 TX |
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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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!
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.
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| Stations that have spotted my 5W 10m FT8 today at 1800z |
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
