Sunspots - Friday March 11th 2022

 Solar flux is 127 and the SSN 90.  A=10 and K=3. 

Rally

 As far as I know, this rally is on. My advice is always check with the organisers beforehand!

Sunday March 13th - Hamzilla Radio Fest in Sandwich, Kent. See www.hamzilla.uk .

DP0GVN (Antarctica) on 10m WSPR

The German Antarctic Research base has been copied several times today on 10m WSPR.

See https://www.awi.de/en/expedition/stations/neumayer-station-iii.html

Anglesey Abbey earlier - NOT amateur radio

Today has been a lovely spring day so far. We went for a walk around Anglesey Abbey earlier. The snowdrops are mostly over but the daffodils are still not at their best. 

10m WSPR QRP (Thursday)

 At the moment I am on 10m WSPR with 2.5W for 20% of the time. So far, 3 unique stations have spotted me (furthermost TA4/G8SCU 3010km) and I have spotted one G.

UPDATE 1330z:  So far today, I have been spotted by 7 stations and I have spotted 10 stations.

UPDATE 2130z:   18 stations have spotted my 10m QRP WSPR today and I have spotted 22 stations (see chart). I shall try FT8 tomorrow.

Architypal Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

Cambridge is world famous for its college buildings especially King's College Chapel which is known across the planet for its Christmas carols. The photo shows King's a few days ago. 

Sunspots - Thursday March 10th 2022

 Solar flux is 115 and the SSN 89.  A=5 and K=1.

70cm FT8 activity contest

Starting at 1900z is the RSGB organised UKAC 70cm activity contest. 

A brief 2.5W TX period to the 2m big-wheel omni antenna resulted in nobody copying me. 8 stations have already been spotted prior to the contest (booking their spots?) with the furthermost PE1ITR (360km).

UPDATE 2150z:  45 stations spotted. 2 QSOs, spotted by 5 stations on 2.5W QRP to the 2m big-wheel.

Cambridge bridges - NOT amateur radio

These are some of the bridges over the River Cam in Cambridge.  

You may have to click on the image to see the bridges more clearly.

Mimosa - NOT amateur radio

 

This was seen yesterday not far from King's College, Cambridge.

15m FT8 RX with the indoor loop

At just after 0900z, I turned on 15m FT8 RX using just the tiny indoor loop antenna used yesterday on 17m. So far, 20 stations spotted in just a few minutes.

UPDATE 0933z: 51 stations spotted with several in Japan.

UPDATE 1637z:  446 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX today. 

UPDATE 1706z: 491 stations spotted on the tiny loop antenna on 15m FT8 RX today.

UPDATE 1835z:  526 stations spotted. QRT soon.

Cambridge Bridge of Sighs - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday, we walked over the Bridge of Sighs in St John's College, Cambridge. The photo shows the view. 

160m FT8 RX overnight

Overnight I stayed on 160m FT8 RX with the untuned 10m antenna. In all, 285 stations were spotted with several from across the Atlantic. 

Sunspots - Wednesday March 9th 2022

Solar flux is 115 and the SSN 93.  A=6 and K=1.

160m FT8 RX

This evening I am on 160m FT8 RX with the untuned 10m antenna.  So far, 161 stations spotted on RX. 

Lightbeam communication

This was much easier than I thought. 

Although my "thing" is NLOS (non line of sight) over the horizon digital comms, I have tried line of sight speech communications. People have managed much further than I have.

One of the beauties is the gear is all homemade. Even the test gear was homemade and simple.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/optical-nanowaves/line-of-sight .

Cambridge sun - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows the view towards King's College Chapel earlier.  

It is all too easy just to accept this view that people come halfway around the world to see.

The punts were on the River Cam outside King's. It is quiet now, but much busier in the summer.

Plenty of cider - NOT amateur radio

This photo shows an event in Devon about 100 years ago. Not sure what they were celebrating, but plenty of cider ready! Cider was made locally on farms and was a popular drink. 

17m FT8 RX with the loop (Tuesday)

At 0615z, 17m FT8 RX with the indoor loop antenna was turned on. This antenna sits on the shack windowsill. See photo. Just one station spotted at 0640z.

UPDATE 0843z:   63 stations spotted on 17m FT8 RX with the furthermost JA3APV (9407km).

UPDATE 0926z: A brief QRP TX period resulted in nobody spotting me. 90 stations spotted on 17m FT8 RX today so far. My antenna is a modified Whizz loop with central heating pipe instead of wire for the loop. This makes tuning harder (sharper), but the loop is more efficient. I am sure a big beam would be better, but the tiny loop actually performs pretty well!

UPDATE 1610z: 524 stations spotted so far on 17m FT8 RX with this system. I am amazed how well this loop does considering it is tiny, fixed and indoors. Must try it on 15m FT8 tomorrow What has surprised me is not a single station from South America has been spotted.

UPDATE 1830z:   650 stations spotted on 17m FT8 RX today. 17m seems a good all round band, until the evening at least.

UPDATE 2154z:   695 stations spotted with the tiny loop on 17m FT8 RX in the last day.

Sunspots - Tuesday March 8th 2022

Solar flux is 118 and the SSN 84.  A=9 and K=2. 

17m FT8 RX (Monday)

At 2008z, I turned on 17m FT8 RX using the tiny loop antenna on the shack windowsill. So far, 4 USA stations spotted. I suspect the band is just closing.

UPDATE 2117z:   9 stations spotted.

UPDATE 2140z:   It seems the band has now closed.  QRT soon. I may try again tomorrow morning.

UPDATE 2207z:   Not quite closed!  There are still Ws coming through, so I have left things running a bit longer.

Spring blossom - NOT amateur radio

A sure sign of spring is the appearance of blossom on the tree near our post office. It looks great right now, but it will soon be gone.

Loop TX antenna

Last year, I used this tiny antenna on many HF bands. 

It is only about 50cm across and sits on the shack windowsill, but worked remarkably well on FT8. 

I must try it again on bands like 17m.

SW broadcast interval signals

 See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/sw-interval-signals .

This was created a long time ago, so I hope the links still work.

10m FT8 RX (Monday)

 At the moment I am on 10m FT8 RX. Plenty coming through. 

UPDATE 1710z:   500 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX today.

UPDATE 1926z:   603 stations spotted. Stragglers are North and South Americans mainly. QRT soon.

Oscar 100 activity

Every few weeks I take a peek at activity on the geosynchronous satellite Oscar 100. Activity levels are similar to the last time I looked: not high and still plenty of space. 

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .

Sunspots - Monday March 7th 2022

Solar flux is 116 and the SSN 82. A=18 and K=3.

Low pass filter design

With my upcoming permit to test on 8m, I may need to add external low pass filtering to ensure my TX is totally clean. There are several circuit calculators on the Internet. The one below is an example. It seems daft to buy one when a simple one can so easily be made.

See https://rf-tools.com/lc-filter/ .

Radio amateurs in Ukraine

Since the recent troubles began, radio amateurs in Ukraine have been asked to keep off the air on TX. This has largely been observed. 

Whatever your views, innocent civilians are being killed or displaced. I hope a peaceful way can be found to stop the bloodshed.

Even at the height of the Cold War, radio amateur chats with stations behind the Iron Curtain continued. In a small way, we all tried to break down barriers.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2022/march/ukraine-maintains-ham-radio-silence-in-state-of-emergency.htm#.YiTBi4rP3rc .

East Anglian Churches Blog - NOT amateur radio

For many years I wrote a blog about the East Anglian churches we had visited. For several years we have been unable to visit new ones, but I hope to visit more this year. 

Our grandson has rung bells in 11 different towers now. He rung in the one in the photo (Isleham) this morning. 

See http://eachurches.blogspot.com/ 

Elecraft

Over the years I have owned a couple of Elecraft kits. One was the T1 auto-ATU and one was the K1 QRP CW transceiver. The latter is now discontinued. 

These days, they sell the KX2 and KX3 rigs as well as the K4 transceiver. Elecraft transceivers are usually very high specification products. 

Some years ago I did a webpage on the K1.

See https://elecraft.com/ for the main Elecraft site.

Needlework exhibition - NOT amateur radio

Ely Cathedral currently has a needlework exhibition on. I didn't go, but my wife did.  The photo does not do it justice.

See https://www.elycathedral.org/ .

6m FT8 QRP (Sunday)

At about 1030z, I turned on 6m FT8 with 2.5W and the V2000 vertical omni. After a brief period on TX (2 G spots)  I am now RX only (just 2 G spots).

UPDATE 1313z:  8 stations spotted with the furthermost CT2HXM (1422km) .

UPDATE 1604z: 11 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX today. The latest DX is IU3MDI (1137km). I am not sure of the propagation mode.

UPDATE 2100z:   13 stations spotted. QRT.

Salcombe NOT amateur radio

This photo shows where I come from in South Devon yesterday. I spent my childhood years here. 

DX crystal set

This is a circuit I have never built. It was in QST some years ago and uses a zero bias MOSFET to give better sensitivity. You may want to have a go. Please read the ARRL article below.

See http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/tis/info/pdf/culter.pdf

Reassuring? - NOT amateur radio

Next time you fly in a large passenger jet this sign may reassure you that you are in safe hands. 😉😉

Sunspots - Sunday March 6th 2022

Solar flux is 120 and the SSN 95.  A=27 and K=3. 

2m FT8

After a brief period on TX with 2.5W and the big-wheel omni antenna (2 spots of me, but no QSOs), I am RX only.  No spots yet on RX. This isn't too surprising with a contest on SSB/CW.

FT8 is far more productive than calling the SSB contest stations who are probably running much higher power than me. With my poor voice I find calling other stations quite a struggle these days. I enjoy VHF contests, but they are hard work for me.

UPDATE 2137z:  2 stations spotted on RX: G4NVB (96km) and ON4JES (228km).

2m/70cm contest this weekend

 If you want to work a few more squares, this weekend is a good time. The RSGB 2m/70cm contest runs from 1400z Saturday to 1400z Sunday.

See https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/contest_rules.pl?year=2022&contest=mar144432

Learning CW

Some enjoy CW. Jason M0NYW has been learning it recently and has used some of the 10m CW beacons to improve his skills. CW can work with marginal signals far weaker than SSB ones. You might like to try too.  As these beacons repeat, they can be good for practice. No PCs needed! Just ears!

These are the stations Jason spotted:

        28201.5    SV2HNE/B KN10LL 5W ANT GP 73

        28243       F5ZWE "just repeats callsign"

        28244.6    SV2FQNB KN10FC 5W ANT GP

        28265.3    SV2RSS KN10LO GP/3W 73

        28268       VK8VF "repeats callsign and something else but hard to copy due QSB"

        28269       SV6DBG "V V V DE SV6DBG BEACON KN09KQ"

        28271.6    SV2HQD/B

Often CW rigs are far simpler to make than SSB ones.

Birthday boy - NOT amateur radio

One of our sons has a birthday next week. 

Here he is with his children at our house earlier today. 

Ely swans - NOT amateur radio

 

These swans were at Ely on Thursday.

Old G3XBM logbooks

Some may be interested to see if they appeared in some of my early logbooks. I notice these are in my Google Drive, which you may not be able to see. I shall try and share them, but if you have problems, please email me.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/g3xbm-logbooks

10m FT8

It is now 1002z. I turned the 10m FT8 gear on at 0930z. So far, 92 stations have been spotted on 10m FT8 RX with the furthermost VK6APK (14532km).

UPDATE 1045z:  182 stations spotted with several in Western Australia.

UPDATE 1142z:  South Americans now coming through. 282 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1522z:  480 stations spotted on RX. 

10m FT8 RX today

UPDATE 1921z: 753 stations spotted.  QRT soon probably.

Sunspots - Saturday March 5th 2022

Solar flux is 113 and the SSN 77.  A=10 and K=2.

2m FT8 QRP (Friday)

At the moment I am on 2m FT8.  After a brief TX period (2.5W and the big-wheel) with 1 120km QSO, I am now RX only. On RX 8 stations have been spotted and 6 stations spotted me on QRP TX.

UPDATE 2040z:  16 stations in 6 countries spotted so far on 2m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2315z:  Now QRT. 24 stations spotted this evening. 

OFCOM updates

 OFCOM has updated it website with the latest data it holds. See the OFCOM website.

Pensive swan - NOT amateur radio

This photo shows a pensive swan in Ely yesterday. 

VHF Contest this weekend

This weekend is the RSGB's 2m/70cm contest. If I remember, I intend to pop on occasionally with my 10W and omni, but I doubt I shall put an entry in. It runs for up to 24 hours from 1400z Saturday, although there is a 6 hour section in which you choose which 6 hours you want. The 6 hours can be split up.

See  https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/contest_rules.pl?year=2022&contest=mar144432 .

A popular 2m70cm/23cm transceiver is the ICOM IC-9700.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/vhfuhf-commercial-rigs/ic-9700 .

10m FT8 RX

At about 0920z, I turned on my 10m FT8 system. 12 spots so far with the furthermost VK6OZ (14461km).

UPDATE 1000z:  66 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost VK2AAH (16916km).

UPDATE 1714z:   663 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1920z:  QRT. There were still South Americans coming through.