Reviews - NOT amateur radio

It seems that almost everything you do on the phone or internet now is followed up by a request for feedback asking how good they were. Being a cynic these days I refuse to complete these. Some may well be genuine, hoping to get feedback so they can do better, but I suspect many sell your details on so you can be targeted with junk mail and junk phone calls.  So, I just delete these. Call me a boring old fart, but I am not increasing my chances of being a target.

If I get very good or bad service I am quite happy to write an email. Many years ago I wrote to the MD of Dell. Within days I had a phone call back from their head office and my PC was fixed. Sometimes this works. The last thing big companies want is adverse publicity. When you get very good or very bad service you tell people. They prefer you to tell others when things are good.

4m QRP transverter

It is some years since I was active on 4m.  Several years ago now, I designed and built this transverter as I had no gear for this band. I worked a few stations in a 4m contest with it and just a wire dipole.

Of course, these days the IC7300 from ICOM covers 4m.  These days there are lots of EU countries on the band, so it can be good in the Es season.

Years before I recall working ZB2VHF with 4W of AM in my university days by Es.

At some point I intend to get on 4m again.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/4m_tvtr .

Birds

One of our grandsons in Australia. He loves all animals and looks in his element with these birds.

Perseid Fireballs?

This weekend the Perseid meteor shower peaks. According to Southgate News relaying a post on spaceweather.com the Perseid shower produces more fireballs than any other shower.

See http://spaceweather.com/  .

Nostalgia - SW interval Signals

Well I am pretty sure I've posted this link before, not that it matters.

When I started in the 1960s my first experiences were with short wave broadcast stations.  There was no such thing as TV live from the USA or Australia. Skype and FaceTime were in the far future.

Radio Australia would fade in and out. Radio New Zealand was a good catch. Many broadcasters had English language services. On the hours and half hours we'd listen for the interval signals. Many communist nations tried to blast us with propaganda. All I wanted was a QSL card!

Anyway, grab a drink and listen to the past. Enjoy.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/interval.

In Australia - NOT amateur radio

At the moment a couple of our grandchildren are in Australia visiting their Australian grandparents with their mum and dad. The photo was taken on Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Islands. The grandparents live in Brisbane.

PF1 UHF

In my professional life I worked first for Pye Telecom. My first ever job (I think it was really a test of my capabilities) was converting the PF1 (a small UHF portable with separate RX and TX) to 12.5kHz channel spacing. In those far off days we had 995 signal generators and these took hours (really) to stop drifting! The task was completed OK as I recall.

The task was set by Mike Gotch , G0IMG, who is now a SK. At the time I had no idea Mike was interested in amateur radio. Apparently years before he had been a pirate and got caught! In the early days of UK CB he was a keen DXer and I last worked him on 6m I think.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf1.

6m MSK144 RX

As the Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend, I intend to stay on 50.280MHz MSK144 RX all weekend. Certainly here in Europe this frequency is much more used than 50.360MHz recommended by WSJT-x v1.8. So far, 9 countries spotted in the last 12 hours on 6m MSK144. Best DX so far is LA7DFA (1312km).

Sunspots - Saturday August 12th 2017

Solar flux is 70 today and the sunspot number 11.  A=7 and K=2.

Insurances (car and home) - NOT amateur radio

House and car insurances - call me a grumpy old man, but a couple of phone calls to the SAME insurance company and I get £172 off.

If they wanted to keep me why not offer the best prices to start with? Don't answer, as I know the answer already. They assume most won't bother and will just pay up at the inflated prices.

Personally I find this STUPID. This is an immoral racket preying on the old and vulnerable.

Insurance companies - you should be ashamed!