If only people could live together peacefully.
It is reported on the BBC website that many thousands of homes for settlers have been approved in the occupied West Bank by the state of Israel. Surely this just stokes the fire.
Whilst what happened by HAMAS in Israel on October 7th was evil, surely the response by the state of Israel is over the top?
My 10mW ERP was turned on at about 1855z. So far, spotted by 3 stations with the furthermost PA3BAK (317km).
In a few moments I shall go on 6m FT8 with my 2.5W and vertical V2000 omni antenna.
My 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR TX is on. No spots now for several days. As you can see, I like making things hard!
UPDATE 1655z: EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted my 500uW (0.5mW). I was not really expecting this.
Tonight is the 2m activity contest organised by the RSGB. I usually go on for a short while with my 10W pep to the big-wheel omni antenna. I usually give up soon as I find it very hard on my poor voice. I called a station in a rare square, but gave up.
Most Tuesdays we go into Cambridge on the bus. As we are old, it is free with our bus passes. We grab a bite to eat then walk through the grounds of King's College to West Road concert hall. Every week they feature different students and different sorts of music.
There is no doubt that Cambridge University has some excellent musicians and we are lucky to be able to enjoy them for free.
The photo shows me having a bite to eat.
My 6m 2.5W FT8 and V2000 vertical omni antenna have been on most of the day. 11 stations spotted me and 5 stations spotted by me. All these (TX and RX) were English with no DX.
Despite being on all day, no spots of my QRPP 10m WSPR signal. It looks like conditions have to be very settled and good for this tiny power to work.
My 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR has now been spotted in 7 countries and 3 continents. Antenna remains the low Par end-fed.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the Es season.
Last night I tried some local 137kHz tests using my 137kHz beacon. Then it blew up!! I could smell burning and the transmission stopped.
I think this puts an end to my tests at 137kHz.
UPDATE 0929z: In a vain hope, as my FT817ND was widebanded when I bought it, I tried directly TXing on MF and LF. It said "TX err", so no luck!
My 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground was turned on about 1900z.
UPDATE 2004z: So far spotted by 13 stations - all the usual stations and nothing special.
UPDATE 2318z: 20 stations have spotted me so far.
Some years ago I was quite active on amateur VLF. On TX I experimented with 5W earth-mode and on radiated VLF I concentrated on RX and copied several Europeans below 10kHz. The photo shows G3XIZ (45km) although I regularly spotted German stations at far greater range.
Antennas were an 80m loop or my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground at home and a portable multi-turned tuned loop or earth electrodes in the ground out portable. Out portable, the loop on the ground was the most successful.
My 10mW ERP WSPR from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground was turned on at about 2114z. 7 stations have spotted me.
At 1443z, the 10m WSPR beacon had its PA turned on, so after that time it is running the full power of 500mW again.
UPDATE 1456z: 5 spots received already including 2 stations in the USA. It is much easier at 500mW than 500uW!!
UPDATE 1504z: It is far easier at 500mW!
Judging by the sounds, spring has come. This morning I can hear several people cutting their grass for the first time since the autumn. Ours is too wet. Maybe later?
My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna was turned on at about 1240z.
Today, I was going back to 500mW 10m WSPR (QRO for me!!), but I decided, after the success yesterday, to stick with real QRPP instead.
So, I am trying again with the beacon PA off at 500uW.
UPDATE 1437z: No spots.
My best site for solar data has been updated as it always is at the start of a month. It shows us just over the solar cycle peak. Unless we see a second peak (possible) we could be on a long decline to solar minimum. We can expect good conditions on the higher HF bands for some years yet.
I remember working South America on 10m QRP SSB (10W pep and a dipole) right at the solar minimum and zero sunspots. With FT8 this should be even easier.
Stick with the higher HF bands!
Before going out in the car I can check things locally.
This software allows about 2 minutes of audio to be recorded as a spectrogram view. I hope to do this by just placing the iPhone next to the FT817's speaker. The photo of the SpectrumView screen is attached.
My current 8m TX permit runs out early next month. My choice is to apply for a new permit (probably a similar one requested). This will cost me £50. Although I can afford it, I object to having to pay to carry out genuine research. For this stupidity I have issues with the RSGB and OFCOM.
The alternative is to run 10mW ERP using ISM rules. This is free.
Most active stations on 8m have either spotted my FT8 or worked me.
Radio science might benefit from me running very low power in the Es season which mainly starts in May. At the moment I am inclined to run 10mW ERP 8m WSPR whenever the 8m band looks promising. As long as there are people across Europe monitoring 8m WSPR, I have every confidence of being spotted.
Assuming I can get it working, one thing to try as the sunspots decline (not yet we hope!) will be to send FT8 in sequence on all bands from 17m to 10m. I have no idea of the antenna pattern on various bands, but it might give me some indications of band openings.
One of the things I have noticed in the past is people leave the higher HF bands. Maybe with FT8 now, some may stay around. Often it is a lack of activity and not poor conditions. On SSB an isolated call may be missed. Not so with FT8 with lots of people monitoring.
Incidentally, I can highly recommend the QDX. It is tiny (about the size of a pack of cards) and can run all the modes on WSJT-X.
A very nice addition would be a QDX covering 10m, 8m, 6m, 4m and 2m. Even 10m-4m would be very useful.
Usually I sleep well, but have you noticed how hard it is to get to sleep when you try to?
Sleep is odd as you are not aware when you actually drop off: you are awake and then you must be asleep! Waking up very early is very hard.
One more day on 10m WSPR at 500uW (0.5mW). Probably go QRO tomorrow with 500mW! I might also give 6m FT8 another try.
On the way to the Co-op food shop in the village, I spotted this postman. I asked his permission to take this photo. Very festive!
