18 Jul 2017

Spectrum Pollution

Southgate News reports on Don Beattie's speech at Friedrichshafen in which he drew attention to the extreme pressures of noise pollution (getting worse) in many areas. It is no use having spectrum allocated to the Amateur Radio service if the spectrum is unusable.

See http://iaru-r1.org/images/PR_Communications/FHN-opening-address---G3BJ.pdf

Electric cars: the future? - NOT amateur radio

I like the idea of electric cars. Less pollution, economic, quiet. However, I am still concerned about range between charges.

Some models now claim ranges of up to 300 miles. I wonder if this is like mpg claimed figures which rarely match "real world" conditions. I expect these figures are in summer, new battery, no lights on, no air-conditioning, just a driver, no luggage. I also expect replacement batteries will be very expensive.

Unless there is a major breakthrough in battery technology that comfortably does 300 miles in real world driving, I do not think electric cars will really take off.

For some time I have wondered if the answer might be smaller batteries and power charging from a buried cable in main roads. The battery would only be used "on its own" on minor roads.

There is lots of research into batteries and lots of money invested.

QRP and QRP Club

More from Oleg:


EURAO

Until I saw a posting on the Southgate News page I had never heard of this organisation. I had to resort to Google to find out who they were! Apparently there is a meeting with the IARU late this year.

See http://www.eurao.org/en/welcome

10m WSPR TX - early spots

My little 10m WSPR beacon (500mW) is being widely spotted around Europe by Es this morning. It looks like today is going to be a good day both on 10m and 6m.

With good Es so early I am wondering if 4m or even 2m will be open for Es?

6m JT65

Quite a bit of Es this morning on 6m. This is early, so bodes well for the day. 2 hours ago I was briefly on 6m JT65 TX and was copied in southern Europe. Most of the time I am RX only on 6m JT65.

UPDATE 0904z: Best DX on RX (ignoring my pirate supposedly in "Indonesia") is UN6T (5211km) in Kazakhstan. I am pretty sure this is genuine as he was widely spotted in Western Europe and the Middle East.

UPDATE 1734z:  I was out this afternoon, so went QRT and disconnected the rigs and antennas in case there were storms. These now look unlikely until later, so everything is on again (10m WSPR TX and 6m JT65 RX). There seems to be a lot of Es about.

Sunspots - Tuesday July 18th 2017

Solar flux is 84 today (still quite respectable) and the sunspot number 13 (down). A=27 and K=3.

17 Jul 2017

QRT on all bands

At about 2122z I went QRT on all bands and turned off the PC. Storms permitting, I intend to be back on around breakfast time tomorrow. I shall probably be active again on 10m WSPR TX (500mW) and 6m JT65 (mostly RX, but occasional TX with 1W ERP).

Puerto Rico on 6m JT65

A few hours ago KP4EIT (6830km) was spotted here and by a few others in the UK and Europe. I am pretty sure this was genuine. Otherwise it has been a very quiet day on 6m JT65 with just one station in Sweden spotted this morning. The Caribbean station was spotted calling CQ just once.

Baking - NOT amateur radio

Last night our "Kent" son and grandchildren came to stay briefly before they go off to Australia to see their relatives on my daughter-in-law's side. This is one of my granddaughters busy baking.