2m FT8

As the day draws to a close, I decided to QSY to 2m FT8. Best DX on TX was GI6ATZ (479km).

UPDATE  2025z: Despite TXing OK on 2m FT8 I was puzzled why nothing was being received. After investigating I found an error in my settings. Once corrected, stations were received OK. I called (without success) a PA0, but the best spot was by EI3KD (583km) in southern Eire.

3 year old falls from high-rise and survives

This is the sort of horror story you watch and hope. Apparently the 3 year old was caught in a blanket and escaped without injury.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-china-49175524/china-toddler-three-year-old-falls-six-storeys-and-survives

70cm FT8

The last time I tried 70cm FT8 the results were abysmal with no spots!  I can now run a bit more power on TX, so may well try again tomorrow (Thursday August 1st 2019).

If you want to give it a go, I should be on most of the day on 432.174MHz FT8. Some of the time I shall try TX. I think I shall try horizontal polarisation.

Bell flowers - NOT amateur radio

My wife has a way with plants. I just cut the grass and make a mess!

This bell flower (sorry I do not know the Latin name) is growing on our patio. At the moment, it is looking good.

Clematis - NOT amateur radio

A few weeks ago I accidentally cut back a clematis whilst pruning a plant nearby. The whole stem with flowers was cut back to the root stock. Thankfully it has quickly regrown.

In the long run this "heavy" pruning was probably a good thing. Hopefully, there will be some attractive flowers on it next year, if not this.

Pye PF1 transceivers

My first job in 1970 at Pye Telecommunications was to convert the PF1 transceiver to 12.5kHz channel spacing. I am pretty sure this was a test to see how I got on.

We used 995 signal generators at that time and, boy, did they drift! For the first hour or so they were unusable and you might as well drink coffee and wait.

The PF1 was a 2 unit UHF transceiver widely used by the UK police in the  late 1960s. Some were converted to 70cms. I remember putting a 2m super-regen RX in a PF1 RX case.

This challenge was set by Mike Gotch who was later G0IMG (now SK). Apparently Mike was a pirate in his early days. In later years he was a keen 6m man.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf1
See also http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/

6m FT8

As the storm risk locally is low, I am about to turn on 6m FT8, mostly RX. It is getting late in the Es season, so it will be interesting to see what comes through.

UPDATE 1019z: Initially I went on TX with 12 spots of me. My best spot was by OY1OF (1163km). On 6m FT8 RX just 3 spots so far with best being F6HGB (985km). Certainly not much early Es here today.

UPDATE 1122z: Now 7 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX today. Best DX spotted is OH8BXT (1916km).

UPDATE 1255z: Now 15 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Wednesday July 31st 2019

Solar flux is 67 and the SSN 0. A=8 and K=3.  Still poor.

Politics - NOT amateur radio

Although I am not basically a political animal, the shift to the right in many countries bothers me. I well know that socialism does not hold all the answers, but extremism can so easily morph into fascism and hate.

In my view, we need moderate governments in which the will of the people is well represented. In many countries there is a knee-jerk reaction to the parties on the right that promise a lot, and which mostly cannot be fulfilled.

Simple regen RX

On my main website is the circuit of a very simple regen RX. I think mine was on 40m, but the same idea would work on most LF and MF bands. At higher frequencies the drift might be excessive. It is hard to make something simpler that will hear as much.

I seem to recall the late G3RJV (SK) referring to this in a PW magazine column some years ago.

There is a bigger schematic on the website. Click it and the image is bigger.

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

See also https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/feter-80m-qrpp-cw-transceiver