2m activity contest (December)

Although I cannot stop on long because of my poor voice, I try to come on the 2m UKAC sessions with my 10W SSB to the big-wheel omni antenna. I only worked a couple of stations in the short time I was on, although I am sure many more would have been worked had I stopped on longer.

AI dangers

There is no doubt that AI will have a huge impact on the lives of everyone in the future. It will get better and better and will have impacts for good and evil.

In many ways I have been impressed with AI. For example I asked it to colourise an old black and white photo of my dad in his RAF uniform during WW2. The colourisation was excellent.

On the downside I asked Gemini to "make a picture of Roger G3XBM" as an experiment. I tried this both in "fast" and "thinking" modes.  On both attempts the person looked nothing at all like me. It created a radio shack (far more extensive than mine, HI) and a plaque with my callsign, but the person was totally wrong. I suppose it has to find a photo of me to learn from.

This is one of the dangers of AI. People may believe what they are being told. Often it will be correct. At the same time it can be very wrong! For now, it is best to treat AI with some caution knowing it can go "rogue" and give totally false results. It can only be as good as the sources it learns from.

8m FT8 RX (Thursday)

 I have QSYed to 8m FT8 RX on 40.680 MHz using my end-fed long wire.  We'll see if I spot anyone today.

UPDATE 1626z:  No spots. At the moment 8m is disappointing.

10m 500mW WSPR (Thursday)

 My beacon was turned on just after breakfast.

UPDATE 1016z:  Just 2 stations in the Canary Isles spotting me so far.

6m 5W FT8 (Thursday)

 My gear has been on since just after breakfast. 

UPDATE 1914z:  So far, spotted by 5 English stations.

Christmas cheer

 

Rather than 1 large Christmas tree we have 3 small ones. This one in the lounge we have had since 2019 and has fibre optic "leaves" and is always changing colour.

Thursday plans

 As the sunspot count is so high I shall stick with 6m QRP FT8 and 10m QRP WSPR.

Sunspots - Thursday December 4th

 Solar flux is 209 and the SSN 227 (high) . A=33 and K=5.

2m FT8 activity contest UKAC (Wednesday)

This is a contest I do not submit an entry for. I gave a few (very few!) CQ calls and was copied in southern Eire. There is no doubt there is a lots of activity.

Stations that spotted my 2m 10W FT8 this evening

UPDATE 2102z:  Now QRT. Worked 4 stations in the 2m FT8 UKAC contest.

QMX out portable on SSB

 The QMX is a popular SOTA radio as it is very compact and works on SSB with a firmware update.

10m 500mW WSPR (Wednesday)

My stand-alone beacon was turned on at about 1015z.

UPDATE 1333z: 19 stations spotting me.

6m 5W FT8 (Wednesday)

 My gear (5W to the V2000 vertical omni) was turned on at about 1015z.

UPDATE 1324z:   18 spots so far. See map.

2m UKAC activty contest (December)

Really, this is too hard for me now. 

After about 30 minutes I find my poor voice struggles these days in contests. I had to stop.  

I worked a new square for 2025 in the form of JO03, but I really could not manage any longer.

Sunspots- Wednesday December 3rd

 Solar flux is 200 and the SSN 177. A=9 and K=2..

Sun through the trees

 

This was at nearby Anglesey Abbey earlier.

That season again!

Every year seems to go faster than the last. 

We put our tree up just now. 

I swear its only 5 minutes since we took it down last time!

10m 500mW WSPR (Tuesday)

My beacon has been on since about 0945z.

UPDATE 2100z: 15 spots. See table. Now QRT.

6m 5W FT8 (Tuesday)

 My gear was turned on at about 0945z. 

UPDATE 2056z: 13 posts. QRT.

Tuesday plans

After  breakfast I shall probably go out 6m QRP FT8.

Google spam filter

 

Yesterday I had a very painful lesson. Google puts in SPAM things it thinks are SPAM.  Usually it is correct . 

Daily I get told all my photos are about to be deleted -  but occasionally it gets things wrong.

G3ZQQ had apparently sent me an email that must have ended up in SPAM and been deleted. He sent a second yesterday that ended up in SPAM. Luckily I saw it and marked it as not SPAM.

The answer seems to be always check. I usually do see if anything is in SPAM by error, but his first email must have been deleted before I checked.

UPDATE Monday 1945z:  Since writing this I had an email claiming illness and asking if I shopped at Amazon. Definitely SPAM!! Now back in SPAM! Caveat emptor. There really was a reason it was in SPAM.

Rain

For the last 3 years, I have measured the amount of rain daily. This has been the driest of the three years. For the last few years we have had about 760mm of rain. This year we are on target for about 650mm.

Sunspots - Tuesday December 2nd

 Solar flux is 196 and the SSN 175. A=10 and K=2.

10m 2W FT8 (Monday)

My gear was turned on before breakfast.

UPDATE 0904z:  53 stations have spotted me.

UPDATE  1926z: 488 stations have spotted me today. Even with 2W 10m FT8, spots from across the planet. See map. 

Advent service

 

Yesterday we went to a sung Advent service in the next village. 

This village is special having 2 churches in the same churchyard. The service was sung by the excellent Cambridge Voices .

Solar Activity

Near the start of the month my favourite site for solar data is updated. I have not checked yet but this is usually done early in the month. It is worth taking a peek so we can see how the cycle is progressing. 

We are on the down-slope, but conditions on the higher HF bands are likely to remain good for a few years. 

It is my view that with modes like FT8 we will find 10m open more than we thought.

See https://www.solen.info/solar .

UK weather

We live in the part of England where it is most dry. 

Yesterday was a glorious day here with bright blue skies and cold. 

That's the trouble with UK weather. One day it can be lovely and the next dull and wet.

Simple VHF receiver by Charles Kitchen

Charles Kitchen N1TEV is a well known designer in the USA and across the world. 

This is a circuit for a VHF receiver that can be adjusted to decode SSB, CW and NBFM in addition to AM.

See https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/tis/info/pdf/9712039.pdf .

Keeping an eye on CB

 Although the CB bands are just below the 10m amateur band it is often busy on CB when 10m seems dead. This suggests it is a lack of activity rather than poor conditions. Hopefully FT8 will help to show us 10m is still good on some paths.

In the meantime, it may be worth keeping an eye on the CB bands.

Sunspots - Monday December 1st

 Solar flux is 180 and the SSN 108.  A=16 and K=1.

10m 500mW WSPR (Sunday)

 Briefly I went on 10m 500mW WSPR. No spots. Now QRT.

6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

Late Sunday, I went on 6m FT8 with 5W to the V2000 vertical omni antennas. 5 English stations spotted me. Now QRT.

My favourite band - 10m

Over many years, I have had most fun on 10m. Initially, I was on SSB, AM and FM on that band with a low wire dipole. Of course, on 10m antennas are small and CB antennas usually work.

These days, because of my poor voice following my 2013 stroke, I use digital modes like FT8 and WSPR mostly.

DXCC was worked on 10m QRP SSB with a simple wire dipole over 40 years ago, so DX chasing is no longer important. I am more interested to see where my QRP is reaching. That's one of the joys of our hobby: there are so many different ways to enjoy it.

Before my stroke I enjoyed experimenting. I still do, but restrict myself to what I can do at home that does not require soldering or fine motor skills!

A real experimenter

Thanks to DX Explorer, I was pointed to the website of LA6NCA who is a true experimenter. I had not visited his site before. It also looks like he has a good range of test gear. Certainly a site for inspiration.

See https://www.laud.no/la6nca/

DX Explorer website

Just now I was watching a video on this website. Then I realised it was derived from one of my designs!  I am flattered and hope he really has fun. He is eventually making a tiny PCB for it.

Ely cathedral from the meadow

 

This was last week on a lovely cold and sunny day.

8m FT8 RX (Sunday)

Today, I am on 8m FT8 RX, more in hope than expectation, using my end-fed long wire antenna. I have no idea of the polar plot on 8m, but it has been used to copy CT, EA and G on 8m FT8.

UPDATE 1455z:   No spots.

Time and consciousness

We think of time as absolute, but we experience time differently when we sleep deeply and indeed as we age.  It may be that our understanding of time is totally wrong.

5MHz operation

Some years ago I tried WSPR on this band. 

As I recall I used the coax up to my 2m big-wheel antenna and a mains ground. It worked and I got quite a few reports. The auto-ATU in the rig was used to match the random antenna.

Unfortunately, this part of the spectrum is controlled by the military in the UK. As a result, the UK has a fragmented set of allocations and has never adopted the WARC allocation. Although we are allowed more power and more spectrum, I personally would prefer a contiguous, if narrower, allocation at lower power.

To me, it is all too confusing. I suspect many do not use the band because they are confused by the allocations. There is a band plan on the RSGB site.

See https://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/hf/5mhz/ .

Sunspots - Sunday November 30th

 Solar flux is 160 and the SSN 74. A=20 and K=4.

2m ultra QRP FT8 (Saturday)

 Although at 3.2mW I can see my 2m FT8  signal at the grabber at G0LRD, at 26km I cannot see myself on PSKreporter. I shall increase my power until I am I decoded.

UPDATE 1815z:  Increased to 6.4mW. No decode.

UPDATE 1829z: Increased to 12mW. Decode appeared on PSKreporter (just).

UPDATE 1837z:  Increased to 25mW. Decoding, but not reliably. I think both G0LRD and I have big-wheel omni antennas.

UPDATE 1900z: Increased power to  35mW. No decodes this time.

UPDATE 1917z:  Increased power to  45mW. No decodes.The other variable is S/N at the RX.  What I am looking for is what level I need to get reliable and repeatable decodes.

UPDATE 1928z: Increased power to 55mW. It would appear that I am being defeated by local noise. No decodes.

UPDATE  1940z: Increased power to 60mW. No decodes.

UPDATE 1958z:   Increased power to 65mW. 2 people now spotting me.

UPDATE 2117z:  Increased power to 100mW. A surprise QSO with M0WDN at 100mW with a 15dB attenuator in the input of the RX!! The S/N at G0LRD seems to vary widely suggesting he was pointing a beam in a different direction. I have now gone QRT. 

Getting harder?

In all the years I have been involved in amateur radio (it started in 1961!) my main interest has been QRP (low power). 

In recent years the local noise level especially in urban areas has gone up, mainly because we have more gadgets and chargers. These often use switched mode power supplies which can produce a lot of noise. Taken together these can increase the noise floor. The result is weak signals can be buried in the noise.

Sadly, this means QRP operation can be harder. 

The problem is not so much the low power but the noise floor at the receiving end. If you have an electrically quiet QTH, you can still dig these signals out. Such sites are becoming rarer.

Probably there is a power below which it gets much harder.  At very low power it is easy to be clobbered by a stronger station as well. 

Thinking of the future, I suspect 5W QRP will be a good choice.

Trump pardons drug trafficker

Some times (many times actually) I question the motives of US President Trump. 

Allegedly, he has just pardoned the former president of Honduras who was jailed for 45 years on drug trafficking charges. I find this at odds with the "make America great again" movement and keeping drugs out.

Many Americans voted for him, so I would be interested to hear their views.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1kpm0rvxepo .

15m 100mW FT8 (Saturday)

At 1217z, I changed from 100mW 15m WSPR to 15m 100mW FT8. Now, FT8 is about 10dB worse than WSPR, but there is more activity on FT8 these days.

UPDATE 1340z:  Just. one spot of me by SP9WTC (1480km). Maybe I am being clobbered by a stronger station? Also, I suspect it is increasingly likely that QRP signals are now buried in noise, making QRP operation harder than it once was. Even with a 15dB attuenuator in circuit right next to the rig I am spotting 119 stations. This suggests an effective power of low watts if they were running 100W.

UPDATE 1708z:   Well it helps if you use a 15m antenna!  I discovered I was using my 2m big-wheel antenna rather than my end fed HF antenna. So I am surprised to have got any spots with 100mW 15m FT8.

Swaffham Prior

This is the next village from us going towards Cambridge. 

It is unusual having 2 churches in the same churchyard (don't ask me why!) and 2 windmills. 

It is a sleepy village on a rare "hill" overlooking the fen.

100mW 15m WSPR (Saturday)

For a complete change I am trying 15m 100mW WSPR.

UPDATE 1117z:  Just 6 spots from a station in Austria.  These days, although less sensitive,  there seems to be far more activity on FT8  than WSPR.

UPDATE 1212z:  Still just 6 spots of me from OE3GBB/Q (1233km). If I was starting out, I think you are more likely to have success with QRPP on FT8 rather than WSPR. QSYed to FT8.

Saturday plans

 Today I think I will try 15m WSPR at 200mW or less.

Ely Cathedral sun

 Earlier this week we went to Ely. 

The cathedral is at the top of the “hill “ and can be seen for miles around.

This was the sun shining through a stained glass window.

Sunspots - Saturday November 29th

 Solar flux is 132 and the SSN 87. A=22 and K=3.

2m 5W FT8 (Friday)

At about 1715z, I QSYed tp 2m FT8 with 5W to the big-wheel omni antenna.  

So far 12 stations have spotted me with the furthest EI2FG (565km). 

I am convinced this is some kind of scatter.

Stations spotting my 5W
FT8 to the omni

UPDATE 1841z:  Since about 1835z I have been vertically polarised with my V2000 vertical omni. This is fed with CB RG58 coax, so I would guess the ERP is similar. It seems to make little difference which rather supports the scatter theory.

UPDATE 2125z:  22 stations in 6 countries spotted my 5W FT8 this evening. See map. Now QRT.

Talent

One of our friends made and decorated these cup-cakes by hand. 

If I had tried to decorate them, they would have looked a mess!