More on Sable Island DXpedition

The dates for this are expected to be March 19-31 2026. I imagine the pile-ups will be massive! I hope to hear them, but my days of chasing DX are gone! I am not sure what modes or bands they plan.

See https://t-rexsoftware.com/cy0s/

OFCOM and satellites

Today OFCOM announced its final decisions about direct to smartphone communication via satellites. This could allow ordinary smartphones to use satellites to communicate giving coverage at sea and in very remote areas. Currently this needs special satellite phones.  I am not sure what antennas will be needed as special satellite phones currently have bulky antennas.

How this develops remains to be seen.

Tuesday plans

 Today I expect to go on 10m 500mW WSPR and 6m 5W FT8.

AD and BC

Has the world gone stupid?  

The "politically correct" phrases are now BCE and CE (common era).  Whether we believe in Jesus Christ or are of some other faith or none, why the heck change it?  

In my view this political correctness gone mad.

Sunspots - Tuesday December 9th

 Solar flux is 186 and the SSN 146.  A=2 and K=0.

Sable Island 2026 DXpedition

Sable Island is a small island of shifting sands in the North Atlantic belonging to Canada. There is a DXpediton there in 2026. I think there are no people permanently living there. 

There are wild horses there. It is continually changing shape.

See https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ns/sable .

Change of plan

 In the end I decided to go on 10m 500mW WSPR TX. 10 stations have spotted me 6 of which were in the USA.

UPDATE 2010z:  Spotted by 12 stations. Now QRT.

zBITX

 You may like this transceiver from India. For the price it is remarkable. It is built around a Raspberry Pi.

Monday plans - no radio?

 As we have to go into Cambridge for some Christmas shopping, I may not go on the radio today.

Museum at Christmas

This weekend, our local museum had a "Santa's Grotto" in the windmill. The children loved it and were told a story (in groups) and were each given a gift. To them it was magical.

In the main museum, there was face painting, mulled wine, minced pies  and much more. We helped with the raffle.

In all, it was a great. happy, occasion for all, especially the children.

Sunspots - Monday December 8th

 Solar flux is 194 and the SSN is 133. A=8 and K=0.

10m 500mW WSPR (Sunday)

My beacon has been on since about 1115z.

UPDATE 1607z:  12 stations have spotted me. See table.

UPDATE 2138z: QRT

6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

My gear was turned on at about 1115z.

UPDATE  1132z:  Spotted by 2 English stations.

UPDATE  1603z:   13 stations have spotted me. See map.

UPDATE 2140z:  18 stations spotted QRT.

That time of year!

The museum and windmill near us is having a Santa’s Grotto weekend. 

We’re helping today.

Sunday plans

 Probably 500mW 10m WSPR and 5W 6m FT8 later.

WSPR?

The impression I am getting is that WSPR is going down in popularity whereas FT8 is going up. I was considering buying a dedicated multi-band WSPR TX and WSPR RX.  I am having second thoughts.

WSPR needs less bandwidth (about 6Hz) than FT8 (about 50Hz) but WSPR is more sensitive by about 10dB. Maybe many cannot make use of this because of local noise. Also FT8 allows 2-way QSOs.

Last evening I tried 40m WSPR  and FT8. On WSPR I spotted nobody, whereas on FT8 I spotted 12 stations in a similar period.

Sunspots - Sunday December 7th

Solar  flux is 200 and the SSN 129. A=16 and K=3.

.

AI crappery

At one time I enjoyed YouTube, but sadly you no longer can be sure that anything is real. 

I watched a very long video supposed to be by Brian Cox. It was clearly not by Brian Cox. Last week I watched a video that was meant to be the thoughts of Einstein.

The message is clear: you cannot know what is real and what is AI. The only thing you can do is assume everything is generated by AI unless you can be absolutely certain of the source.

Is there a universe?

This is a philosophical question. 

Is there any way of proving anything exists outside of ourselves? 

We observe everything through our senses and neurons. What happens when these are no more?  Does the world and universe still exist or is it only there because we observe it?

Ralph Waldo Emerson quote

" Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

This was a quote I cam across earlier from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

ZachTek WSPR transmitter

These are handmade in Sweden, although there is a Chinese rip-off that is available for much less. I think if files are available on the internet there is always a danger of this happening. 

I am not sure what protection registering the design gives, but I guess it must offer some help.

As I understand things, the Chinese rip-off does NOT contain switchable low pass filters, so the harmonic output is unlikely to be very good.

See https://www.zachtek.com/product-page/wspr-desktop-transmitter 

Saturday plans

 Probably 10m 500mW WSPR and 6m 5W FT8, although I am not sure.

Sunspots - Saturday December 6th

 Solar  flux is 206 and the SSN 133.  A=13 and K=4.

Oscar 100

MLS, one of the large UK distributors, is selling the DX Patrol Ground Staion for QO-100. I guess you have to add a GPS external reference, a LNB, a dish and a TX antenna.  

Probably you would still get change from £2k, which is less than the cost of many HF transceivers, a linear and a beam on a tower plus rotator. I guess operators now have confidence in this after many years.

The advantages are many.  The dish is small, fixed and no HF rig is needed. Within the footprint of the satellite DX is always available and without QSB. In many ways I am quite surprised many DXers have not gone for this option already.

I prefer experimentation.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ if you want to take a peek.

Incidentally, I heard recently about someone in the UK working a German station who was mobile on Oscar 100!! I think the station in the car was listening on the webSDR but using the 2.3GHz uplink to the satellite.

I suppose a low(er) cost option is to make or buy a TX transverter and helix and listen on the webSDR.

10m 2W FT8 (Friday)

My gear was turned on at about 1245z 

UPDATE 1330z: So far, 59 stations have spotted me. 

Really low cost kit

Steve G1KQH has brought to my attention a very low cost SSB/CW 40m kit from India. It really is exceptional value. 

As a club project you can even buy 5 kits (yes five kits!!) for $150 total. Individual kits are just $39.

See www.hfsignals.com  .

Friday plans

 Probably I shall go on 10m 2W FT8 later.

Dark breakfast!

In the UK early mornings are dark. Our grandson stays with us on Thursday night as he has an early start on Friday and relies on me to get him up although so far he has been very good for an 18 year old. Thankfully things get better after Christmas.

Sunspots- Friday December 5th

 Solar flux is 220 and the SSN 165. A=32 and K=3.

10m 2W FT8 (Thursday)

 

At about 1830z I QSYed from 8m and instead went on 10m FT8 with 2W. 

UPDATE  2021z:  10 stations have spotted me with the best PU2YFR (9602km). Now QRT.

Future plans

Already, I am thinking about 2026. Sunspots and solar activity should still be good although declining. 

My instincts are to go mainly on 10m QRP FT8, although I shall go on 6m FT8 in which case I shall go on 10m WSPR wth my 500mW beacon that does not need the PC at the same time. 

Still tempted by 8m, TX,  although I think most of the activity would be in the Es season. If I was to reapply for a TX permit, I would time it to coincide with the Es season, so leave any new application until late March, so the permit would be in place in time for the Es season. I may decide not to bother.

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.