PSKreporter maps

 Most days I us this to see where my 5W 6m FT8 reaches. Hopefully this is just a temporary glitch, but mid afternoon in the UK on Sunday, this was not working,

Yes, the world is going mad

Usually I do not buy a Sunday newspaper preferring to watch TV and go on the internet. Today, for a change, I bought one.

On one of the pages was a photo of a model wearing some clothes: a tweed jacket over £12k, a tweed coat over £12k , some shorts £1.3k, and a shirt £1.23k. 

All told, this outfit would be approaching £30k. Does anyone actually buy this crap? All I can say is there must be some very, very, stupid people around. 

I also think this is grossly immoral when people are starving.

UK dealers

At one time there were many UK dealers, whereas now there are far fewer. 

In the end these are businesses whose aim is to generate profits for their shareholders. To succeed, you have to provide customers with what they need at a price they can afford.

Sometimes rigs seem to be at daft prices, yet people still buy for something they must have. Those dealers that remain on the scene are desperate to please their customers as they may stay loyal in the future. One of the most successful UK dealers is MLS who have a video on their origins.

One thing I always say is will they still be around to honour their guarantee?

In the past I have dealt with several UK dealers that still remain.

Shack

This is most of what I need at present.  Currently I am not on 8m or 630m.

Just out of shot is my 10m WSPR beacon that is about the size of a pack of cards on the shelf below producing 500mW.

Also out of shot it the small PC used for FT8.

The IC-705 at 5W to the V2000 vertical omni has been spotted across the planet on 6m FT8.

Postcards

People are sending fewer this days. We sent a few, but most people keep in touch and send pictures by digital means. These are the physical ones we posted .

10m 500mW WSPR TX (Sunday)

 My beacon has been on since just after breakfast.

UPDATE 0929z:  Spotted by 5 stations with the furthest EA8BFK (2880km).

UPDATE 2015z: Spotted by 8 stations with the furthest  ZD7GB (7611km).

6m 5W FT8 ( Sunday)

My gear was turned on at about 0815z.

UPDATE 0959z: Spotted by 22 stations.

UPDATE 2010z:  Spotted today by 39 stations. See map.

Apple 🍏 Day

Our neighbour next door has an old orchard and far too many apples! 

Every year he has an apple day when the neighbours can have as many free apples as they want. It’s a lovely occasion.

Sunspots - Sunday September 7th

 Solar flux is 146 and the SSN 108. A=26 and K=0.

10m 500mW WSPR (Saturday)

My 10m QRP WSPR beacon has been on since just before breakfast.

UPDATE 1356z:  9 stations have spotted me today

6m 5W FT8 (Saturday)

My gear has been on since just before breakfast.

UPDATE 1936z:  71 stations have spotted me. Mostly continental Europeans. See map.

QSL Card bug?

In the last few months I have received several QSL cards by email which were useless as the QSO was dated 0000-00-00!

Caveat emptor!!

Back home

After our brief trip to Amsterdam by Eurostar (through train from London), we are now back home, so the usual things have to be done like unpacking, washing etc 😢. 

We love Amsterdam and have been there many times. 

Even though there are cobbles and trams and lots of bikes 🚲 as well as driving on the wrong side of the road (!!) I actually found it easier than the last time.

Sunspots - Saturday September 6th

 Solar flux is 149 and the SSN 128.  A=8 and K=3.

Saturday plans

 Now we are back home I plan to go on 6m QRP FT8 and 10m QRP WSPR tomorrow. 

Amsterdam Centraal Station

We came home by Eurostar today. 

In continental Europe they can have “double decker” trains as they do not have the height limits we have in the UK.

Begijnhof, Amsterdam

This is a quiet oasis of calm and tranquility in the heart of a busy city. We have been here often.

Sunspots - Friday September 5th

 Solar flux is 172 and the SSN 150. A=10 and K =1

Amsterdam flower market

 

They certainly like their bulbs in Amsterdam! This was the flower market earlier this afternoon.

Swimming in the Singel Canal, Amsterdam

 Imagine my surprise when I saw these people swimming past my hotel window this morning.  The Amsterdam canals must be pretty clean.  I guess they come early to avoid the boats.

Best value transceivers?

 Like most things, in the end it comes down to personal choice and budget. 

If you are after a 100W rig the Yaesu FT710 is hard to beat and includes an automatic ATU and 4m in Europe. It can also be widebanded with just button presses with no uncasing or hardware mods.

At the new lower price the ICOM IC-705 is hard to beat as a 10W radio. There are lower cost products from India and China 🇨🇳.

Oscar 100 narrowband

 

It seems ages since I took a look at the webSDR by the BATC at Goonhilly in Cornwall. It would appear nothing much has happened on the narrowband transponder although I wonder if there is any free software to decode the DATV transmitted through it on the wide band transponder? Or if anyone has a website of screenshots?

Sunspots - Thursday September 4th

 Solar flux is 180 and the SSN 128. A=12 and K=2.

Dessert

 

My wife and I shared this dessert as for one person it would have been far too much. We soon travel home.

Dutch Resistance Museum

 

At the end of WW2 my dad dropped food to the starving people of the Netherlands from a Lancaster plane. I am so pleased he was able to help them. 

Today we visited the Dutch Resistance Museum. It was excellent and shows how brave some people were.

This little book was just one Euro, which is excellent value 

The Fermi paradox

 This is the apparent mismatch between the number of planets that should support intelligent life and the total absence of any evidence that intelligent life exists.To my knowledge we have been looking for about 60-70 years without any success.

Sunspots - Wednesday September 3rd

 Solar flux is 187 and the SSN 175. A=34 and K=4.

Hotel window view

 

This is the view from our hotel bedroom in Amsterdam overlooking the Singel canal.

More Amsterdam

EchoLink

Not having access to my radios I tried listening to my local repeater by EchoLink.  Imagine my surprise finding someone on it!

Sunspots- Tuesday September 2nd

 Solar flux is 202 and the SSN 165. A=16 and K=5. 

Amsterdam

 This is a fantastic city. We have been here 7 times and I have been here for work.

Amazing fact - human brains

Yesterday, I read that the capacity of the human brain has been estimated as 2.5 million gigabytes, which is huge.  When you think of a lifetime of memories it has to be enormous. 

It makes our computer memories look tiny by comparison. I wonder if they will work out how to create artificial memories as large one day? Imagine being able to store this much data!  If possible, perhaps we could have "add on" memories to store, for example, a new language.

You could imagine that memory research based on neural networks (much like the human brain) is rich for exploration. I could imagine that in 50 years' time huge memories might be possible making those of today look tiny.  I imagine that the US and Chinese governments are already working on this.

Imagine the computing power of these mega-computers working in parallel. Frightening.

Sunspots - Monday September 1st

 Solar flux is 217 and the SSN 188. A=8 and K=1.

This autumn

As Es is likely to be much less frequent than in the spring and summer, I shall probably switch to 10m QRP FT8 before long, with the occasional outing on 6m FT8. 

I can imagine 10m FT8  being quite good this autumn.

Solar activity - up?

 In the last few days, solar activity seems to have improved somewhat.  I am not sure if this will alter the smoothed sunspot peak, but it will be worth keeping an eye on my favourite site for solar data.

QR codes

These days, they seem to be everywhere! 

If my dad came back now (he died in 1987) he wouldn't have a clue. This was before the internet really and mobile phones. QR codes would be even more amazing. You wonder what our grandchildren will have when we are pushing up daisies!

It seems I have an option to create a QR code for each page. Not quite sure why anyone would want to do this!  

10m QRP WSPR (Sunday)

 My 500mW beacon was turned on just before breakfast.

UPDATE 0811z:  Plenty of spots by 2 stations in the Canary Islands, presumably via F2.

UPDATE 2006z: Spotted by 9 stations with the furthest again being V51RS (8481km). Now QRT.

6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

My IC-705 at 5W to the V2000 vertical omni antenna was turned on just before breakfast.

UPDATE 2004z:  79 stations have spotted me with the furthest many stations in Finland.   The number spotting me in S.Europe is very small. Now QRT.

New Beofang portable

Beofang are selling their UV5-R mini at ridiculous prices. Steve G1KQH found them at £26 for a pair delivered to the UK. That is £13 each!! 

This is for a 5W dual band handheld!

Sunspots - Sunday August 31st

 Solar flux is 317 and the SSN 183. A=7 and K=2.

ICOM IC-5200 announced

At the recent Tokyo Ham Fair ICOM announced the IC-5200 VHF/UHF mobile transceiver. 

It is still in development, so we might see it in 2026. I have no idea about the sort of price.

Burtrand Russell quote

 He is supposed to have made this quote

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong"

Holiday 13 years ago

 

In 2012 we went on holiday in Slovenia 🇸🇮 which is like Switzerland 🇨🇭 but far less expensive.

10m 500mW WSPR TX (Saturday)

My W5OLF beacon was turned on at 0808z.

UPDATE 1355z:  2 stations in the Canary Isles have spotted me multiple times. Single hop F2?

6m 5W FT8 (Saturday)

My gear was turned on at 0808z.

UPDATE 1939z:  39 stations have spotted me. For the last few days numbers have been declining suggesting, on average, there are fewer Es openings and/or people are leaving 6m now the Es season is drawing to a close.

Late summer cheer

 A while back I planted some sunflower seeds in the ground and a trough. Most are now in flower  bringing cheer to the late summer. 

Sunspots - Saturday August 30th

 Solar flux is 222 and the SSN 195. A=6 and K=2.

Granddaughter

 

This was one of my granddaughters earlier.

10m 500mW WSPR (Friday)

My beacon was turned on mid-morning.

UPDATE 1723z:  9 stations have spotted me.