Northern Ireland Elections - NOT amateur radio

One thing is certain - I am no politician. Also, I have not been closely following what led to the breakdown of the power sharing alliance in Northern Ireland.

As an "outsider" looking in I think far more things unite its people than divide. It is a staggeringly beautiful place - better than Eire in my view - and I just hope that after the elections today, the parties can find a way to work together for the common good. Sectarianism is so yesterday. Break down the old barriers and work hard for all the people. If you fall back to sectarianism, you have only yourselves to blame.

Catholic? Protestant? Who cares? What matters is the best for Northern Ireland and all its people.

4m in the USA

Although the prospects of an amateur 4m band in the USA remains a distant dream - the FCC seem very very slow allocating 137kHz and 472kHz - Southgate News reports that the 3kW ERP 4m beacon in the USA, in FM07 square, has been granted clearance to continue for another 2 years. 6m openings to the USA occur by Es most summers, but 4m is much harder. This is a useful propagation indicator.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2017/march/4-metres-and-wg2xpn.htm#.WLgpUoXXJMs

4m is a band I have hardly tried. I do recall working ZB2VHF with a few watts of AM by Es back in my university days as G3OUL from Liverpool - 1969? These days there are lots of European countries on the band and I would think it a decent band for inter-G QSOs. I recall doing one 4m contest in my early days at Pye Telecom. It was April 1971 and we were in the back of a Land Rover. It was freezing! We used a converted Pye AM Cambridge and a 3 el I seem to recall.

Euro - NOT amateur radio

For some time, I have predicted that the value of the Euro will fall. It has not happened yet.

When the UK signs Article 50 to formally start exiting the EU I expect the uncertainty may reduce the value of the UK Pound against several currencies, including the Euro. I suspect this will be a blip and by the end of 2017 the Euro will be well down against the UK Pound and US Dollar.

Not being a monetary expert, I could be totally wrong, but to me the EU is like a pressure cooker. The pressure (for change) is increasing and at some point this will hit crisis point.

I voted to "remain" in the UK referendum but I fail to see how the Euro (or the whole EU) can last without big changes. To me, the pressure for change is growing ever stronger. The German economy has most to lose.

Rally

MARCH 4th 2017 : LAGAN VALLEY ARS ANNUAL RALLY AND HAMFEST

Doors open at 11am. All the usual traders are expected to attend. Details from Victor, GI4LKG, Andrew, MI0BPB or Jim, GI0DVU, all QTHR.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

Dalham - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday we did a short walk at nearby Dalham, not far from Newmarket. As mentioned before, this is a "chocolate box" village with lots of well tended thatched cottages. Sadly, I think the pub is struggling these days.

Sunspots and 10m - Thursday March 2nd 2017

It seems like 10m has woken up after the winter. Even with my poor 10m antenna I have copied South America on every day in the last week. Even my 2W JT65 on 10m has been copied in Argentina.

Solar flux is 80 today and the sunspot number a respectable 55. A=36 and K=4.

Monitoring 6m MSK144 RX

After an amazing evening monitoring 472kHz (630m) WSPR and a great afternoon on 10m JT65 I am monitoring 6m MSK144 today.

This mode, even with a very modest 6m station (mine is a V2000 vertical omni fed with lossy coax and an FT817), seems to bring in stations from across Europe by random MS and aircraft reflection.

At present, my count is 15 countries spotted in the last few weeks, even without a meteor shower. Most times the bursts are short but the signals are strong.

UPDATE 1022z: G4MOI (67km) is the first spot today on 6m.

UPDATE 1107z: EA5/G3XGS (1581km) just spotted. I think this is my furthermost DX by this mode so far on 6m. Random MS I presume.

See https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html .

472kHz WSPR RX - amazing

This band is amazing: I have only been on for a few hours with my earth-electrode "antenna" yet already I have copied 7 countries including Spain and Italy. My FT817 is deaf too!!

Unique 472kHz WSPR RX so far this evening

UPDATE 2226z:  Another unique spot brings the total of unique 472kHz WSPR RX spots to 14 this evening.

DX on 10m JT65

DK3GI (799km) is the only station spotted so far today on 10m JT65. I am still hopeful of some real DX later.

UPDATE 1540z: I see that several Europeans have been spotted here as well as LU8XAF (13413km) way down in Argentina. I think this is the most distant spot on 10m JT65 this year.

UPDATE 1548z: Today so far on 10m JT65. Let no-one tell you 10m is dead! My antenna is poor too.

 

UPDATE 1740z: My own 2W has been spotted by LU5CQC (11211km) in Buenos Aires. There are loads of South Americans coming through on 10m JT65.

Nuts - NOT amateur radio

This morning, we did a short walk at Dalham, near Newmarket. This is a "chocolate box" village with many beautiful thatched cottages. The church is way up the hill, some way from the village (perhaps the old squire had bad legs?) through a long avenue of trees. The bottom part of this avenue was covered in nuts as the photo shows.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalham .