6m QRP FT8 (Monday)

 26 stations have spotted me at 1114z.

UPDATE  2055z:  64 stations have spotted me today.

Sunspots - Monday November 25th

 Solar flux is 203 and the SSN 164. A=7 and K=2.

Birthday girl - NOT amateur radio

 

Today is my wife's birthday. 

Before you ask, NO I am not pregnant and don't you be so darn cheeky! 😀😀

Faroes - NOT amateur radio

One of the things I like about 365project is seeing things and places from right across the world. 

Some places are much hotter whereas some (like the photo posted by a friend in the Faroe Is) are much colder. 

There was snow on the hills and temperatures of 4 degrees C in September! I expect they see the northern lights far more often up there. 

Exceptional E-W F2 MUF

In the last few weeks the F2 MUF has exceeded 50MHz "across the pond" on a few occasions. I would expect this at times at the height of a good(ish) solar cycle. It would reach 8m far more often. Indeed my 8m 2.5W FT8 to a dipole was regularly spotted in Canada, the USA and Caribbean in autumn 2023 as well as this autumn. 

In my view this is where 8m FT8 could score. Just occasionally for a short period, the MUF will be high enough. These openings are far less likely to be spotted on CW or SSB, whereas with 8m FT8 and PSKreporter it is far more likely these brief openings will be noticed.

As the sunspots decline the N-S MUF may support 8m FT8 to South Africa more often than we might think.

70cm activity contest

It is a dead certainty that I have never even come close to winning the AL section of this contest! Why? 10W to a 2m big-wheel omni antenna and well less than an hour of operating.

The results were published earlier and I remain 51st out of 92 stations in the low power (AL) section. I am certain that if my voice allowed me to stop on longer, a much better score would be possible. I only really take part because of the activity. It is also good for my voice.

6m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

 My QMX+ has been on since about 1035z. So far, 5 English  stations have spotted me. The QMX+ initialised after a few minutes!

UPDATE 1145z:  10 stations have spotted me (all English).

UPDATE 1644z:  17 stations spotting me (see photo). I wonder if the more distant stations are F2 backscatter?

10m QRP WSPR (Sunday)

My 500mW WSPR has been on since about 1015z. So far spotted by 10 stations. 

UPDATE 1706z:  37 stations have spotted me with the furthermost ND7M (8568km).

Sunspots - Sunday November 24th

 Solar flux is 200 and the SSN 156. A=8 and K=1.

Climate change - NOT amateur radio

It is a very odd person (probably living on Planet Zog) that cannot see that our climate is changing. We may argue if this is cyclical or as a result of man, but changing it is.

In some countries it is of minor significance, whereas for some it is becoming an existential crisis. In some places there have been devastating floods, or droughts or very powerful hurricanes. If sea levels rise whole nations could disappear beneath the waves.

A fact of life is that poor countries suffer the most. Many of these we depend on for food.  In the long run we will all suffer if we are selfish as nations.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c8jykpdgr08t .

Digital modes compared

This is a link I came across when looking at videos about LongChat (see previous post). I think it was done before FT8 appeared. I think FT8 works down to about -21dB S/N although I have had some decodes at -24dB S/N.

See https://www.pa3fwm.nl/technotes/tn09b.html .

LongChat

This is a mode of message transmission I had not heard about before. It is claimed messages can be sent using extremely low power using chirped signals. I am no expert at all on digital communications!

Sneezing and speed - NOT amateur radio

Two things I have put down to my 2013 stroke may seem bizarre to others. They are my perception of speed (as mentioned before) and sneezing.

For some time I have been aware that my perception of speed is "different" in that I feel I am going 20mph faster than I am. I was not aware of this in a coach until this week. On the way to London in a coach we seemed to be going very fast. In a car this is noticeable when I think I am going over 60mph and look at the speedometer and see I am doing less than 50mph and there is a queue of cars behind me!

The second thing seems trivial, but when I feel a sneeze coming on I always sneeze. I am sure this is different.

These are only mentioned as they are subtle artefacts I think of my stroke. Probably others affected by strokes have noticed other things affecting them.

London sights - NOT amateur radio

London, the capital of England, is a fine city with a mix of old and new buildings. 

Some of the old buildings are known the world over. 

We went there on Thursday with our village theatre group by coach.

6m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

Once my QMX+ initiates, I intend to try 6m QRP FT8 again. Yet again, it has not yet initiated. I hope there is a fix for this in later software or hardware as I am suffering this bug most times I switch the transceiver on. It otherwise is a very good rig that I enjoy using. On early production, I suppose this is to be expected.

UPDATE 1006z: The QMX+ has initiated, but I do not know how long it took. So far just 4 English stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1347z:  Spotted by 21 stations including 1 in Germany.

UPDATE 1645z: Spotted by 25 stations (in Europe) and on RX VO1AW (3801km) spotted.

10m 500mW WSPR (Saturday)

 Since about 0945z I have been on 10m QRP WSPR TX with my beacon. No spots yet.

UPDATE 1009z:  Just 2 Finnish stations spotting me.

UPDATE 2039z:   23 stations have spotted me. QRT shortly.

The Shard: London - NOT amateur radio

This is (I think) the tallest building in London. It certainly can be seen for miles!  

The photo shows a view from outside Southwark Cathedral last Thursday. 

Oscar 100 narrrowband activity

Every few weeks I take a peak at the activity of the narrowband transponder of this satellite. The last time was on a Friday early evening in Europe. 

Activity continues to disappoint me. Whilst for some this has been an introduction to microwaves, I was expecting far more DXers to make use of this. 

As I have said before, I think it is just too hard for many. The main markets of the USA and Japan do not come within the satellite footprint. This means there are no mass market "black boxes".

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .

Sunspots - Saturday November 23rd

 Solar flux is 179 and the SSN 170. A=12 and K=1.

Over the solar peak?

In my opinion we have just passed the solar peak. We can expect a few years of good conditions, but I expect the trajectory to be slowly downwards.

Web archive - NOT amateur radio

Some of my time after lunch was spent browsing the Internet Archive. This is an absolute treasure trove of old material. Some time back I found a snapshot of my very first website dated 1996. If you want to look at old material about anything it is worth looking here. I am pretty sure much old stuff is on this archive.

There is a radio archive at https://archive.org/details/dlarc .

Another site worth a browse is https://www.worldradiohistory.com/ .

It would appear most things from the past may be found if you look hard. I have only scratched the surface.

Mudlarking - NOT amateur radio

Mudlarking is the term for looking for rubbish on the shores of the River Thames in London, UK. The earliest ever banana in London was found as a result of mudlarking.

6m QRP FT8 (Friday)

 If my QMX+ initiates (it hasn't yet!) I intend to try 6m QRP FT8.

UPDATE 0945z: Well, the QMX+ eventually did initiate. Probably this occurred in the first 20 minutes. The secret seems to be just to leave it. I would have expected this to happen within seconds. This is not fatal, but definitely needs fixing or explaining. Otherwise the QMX+ works really well. So far, spotted by 7 English stations on 6m QRP FT8 this morning.

UPDATE 1238z: 19 English stations spotted.

UPDATE 1545z:  30 stations have spotted me. Some are European. F2 backscatter?

10m QRP WSPR (Friday)

 My 500mW WSPR beacon was turned on at about 0915z. No spots.

UPDATE 0947z:  Spotted by 4 stations so far.  These look like by F2 propagation.

UPDATE 1243z: Spotted by 9 stations.

UPDATE 1603z:   30 stations have spotted me with the furthermost PU5ALE (10191km).

Sunspots - Friday November 22nd

 Solar flux is 166 and the SSN 148. A=8 and K=2.

Tower Bridge - NOT amateur radio

As we were in London to see "Guys and Dolls" at the Tower Theatre with our village theatre group, I decided to take this photo of Tower Bridge as we left. Being in London, there was no radio today.

Shetland again - NOT amateur radio

 

This is another spectacular photo from the Shetland Is by Richard Lewis that appeared on 365project.

Hype?

Lots of people are talking about the new Yaesu FTX-1F transceiver due "in early 2025". Very little is known about it yet (as far as I am aware) and some are describing it as an FT817/818 successor or a replacement to the ICOM IC705. 

At the right price ( I expect they are thinking hard about this) and with the right features it could be all of these, but it could "bomb". Expect prices to drop later.  Also, early products sometimes have software and hardware bugs that get corrected later.

The video below is similar to many. I expect this will be the same until we know more about it ..... and the all important price.

Sunspots - Thursday November 21st

 Solar flux is 163 and the SSN 113. A=8 and K=1.

Electric cars - NOT amateur radio

In the news today was the sacking of 4000 people from Ford because of disappointing sales of electric cars. In my view we will see a major shift to electric cars when:

• Range is much increased.
• There is a move away from LiIon batteries.
• Prices are far lower.

In my view we are not there yet. In a few years things could be totally different. I am surprised that research in battery technology is not enormous as whoever makes the breakthrough will capture the market.

Nobel prizes - NOT amateur radio

Behind this tree in the photo is Old School Lane on which the original Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge  is located. It was here that many Nobel prizes were won.

Getting colder - NOT amateur radio

These last few days it has got far colder here in the UK. In some parts there has been early snow.  Today we had our first frost of the season.

I  have no idea what the long-term weather is for this winter, My wife recently took the photo of these berries.

6m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

 After leaving the QMX+ for 30 minutes it initialised. I  have no idea how long after initial switch on this happened. 

Anyway at about 0735z I went on 6m FT8 QRP with the QMX+.

UPDATE 0925z:   27 stations have spotted me so far today.

UPDATE 1222z:  Spotted by 95 stations. See map.

UPDATE 1613z: VO1SIX (3933km) in Canada has spotted me on QRP 6m FT8 today. In total, 102 stations have spotted my QRP 6m FT8  today.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Wednesday)

My 500mW 10m WSPR beacon was turned on about 0700z. My QMX+ failed to initialise again. I have left it for now to see what happens!

UPDATE 1615z:  46 stations have spotted my QRP 10m WSPR beacon. Furthermost is PU5ALE (10191km) in Brazil.

Sunspots- Wednesday November 20th

 Solar flux is 157 and the SSN 109. A=8 and K=3.

17m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

 Don't ask me when, but the QMX+ initialised. As it is quite late (so 10m and 6m are probably dead) I am on 17m QRP FT8 with about 3W.

UPDATE 2132z:   6 stations (3 in the USA) have spotted me. One station in Georgia, USA copied on RX.

UPDATE 2225z:  11 stations have spotted me.  Now QRT.

Hoswick Bay, Shetland - NOT amateur radio

This brilliant photo by Richard Lewis who lives in the Shetland Isles, Scotland was posted on 365project recently. 

Being so far north, days are shorter in winter. They also get lots of wind and have few trees.

Green fingers? - NOT amateur radio

My wife seems to have a "touch" with house plants with many lasting far longer than we might expect. We have some orchids that have lasted many years. 

She says the secret with orchids is just a thimble of water once a week. Whatever, she has the touch!

10m 500mW WSPR (Tuesday)

My beacon has been on most of the morning. 14 stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1915z:  43 stations have spotted me today. 

QMX+ still failing to initialise

After trying for about 10 times, my QMX+ (which is great once initialised!) has failed to initialise. Probably Wednesday, I shall go on 6m FT8 with the IC-705 instead.

UPDATE  1440z:  Although both the QDX and QMX+ rigs are very good, I am very disappointed that I am having so much trouble with Windows 10. It takes several goes to get the PC to "see" the audio on the QDX and the initialisation of the QMX+ is "flaky" at best: when it works great, but it should not be this hard to get started. I hope this initialisation is better with more recent software. It lets down an otherwise great radio.