Social distancing - NOT amateur radio

In the UK we currently have a 2m "social distance" law because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The photo shows my wife in the garden yesterday with an old work friend.

Visit - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned yesterday, we had a visit from one of our sons and grandsons. Here is one of our grandchildren playing the piano.

4m on the IC-705

Some weeks ago ICOM Japan announced that they would not be including 4m in the European version of the IC-705 as previously stated.

Enquiring into whether or not this would be included in a future firmware upgrade, they were unable to say.

They may have just run out of time or decided that making just one export version makes more commercial sense.

Sunspots - Saturday June 20th 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=2.

Visit - NOT amateur radio

Today we had a social distanced visit from one of our sons and grandsons. Our grandson's favourite meal is meat and potato pie (see photo).

Eire to Slovenia on 8m - a first

Another first for the 8m band is reported by Southgate News.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/june/first-contact-between-ireland-and-slovenia-made-on-the-40-mhz-band.htm#.XuyVJojYrrc

See also https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2020/06/first-contact-between-ireland-slovenia.html

International Museums Weekends - new rules

There are new rules for the International Museums Weekends coming up.

See http://www.radio-amateur-events.org/IMW/

Possible IARU-R1 8m and 5m proposals?

Yesterday, I think on Facebook, I read about the possibility of a proposal being made to the IARU about the possibilities of allocations at 8m and 5m in Region 1.

8m especially could be really interesting sandwiched between 10m and 6m.  Even very limited access at low power would be worthwhile as this is a band where real radio science could occur especially with Es and MS.

Already, these allocations are available in Eire and a few other countries have given special permission for  some to access 8m.

It requires someone to write the paper.

10m WSPR TX (500mW to the indoor loop)

Since about 0800z, I have been on 10m WSPR. No spots of me yet.

UPDATE 0835z: Just G8NXD (447km) spotting me so far today. Odd range.

UPDATE 1945z: 12 spots of my 10m 500mW WSPR

6m FT8

For about 20 minutes (now 0816z) I have been on 6m FT8 with the usual 10W and V2000 vertical omni antenna. So far, 29 stations have spotted me all within Europe. On RX 11 stations spotted here. Although some are calling Japanese stations, none are being spotted here.

UPDATE 0930z:  2 QSOs and 63 spots of me so far (all European apart from Canary Is.). On 6m FT8 RX 76 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1134z: Now 144 spots of my 6m FT8 10W with best DX being EA8BFK (2881km).

UPDATE 2040z: Now 338 stations have spotted me today on 6m FT8 with the best DX spot being by D4VHF (4518km) in the Cape Verde Is.. QRT soon.

Sunspots - Friday June 19th 2020

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=0.

2m FT8

At about 1325z I switched to 2m FT8 (10W and the big-wheel omni antenna). So far, 12 stations in 4 countries have spotted me with best DX DF6PW  today on 2m FT8(562km).  It is currently 1343z.

UPDATE 1455z: Currently 16 stations in 5 countries spotting me with 1 QSO. Just 3 stations spotted here on 2m FT8 RX so far today.

UPDATE 2118z:  19 stations spotted me today on 2m FT8.  Now QRT.  2 QSOs.

Dead fox cub - NOT amateur radio

Every month my brother does part of the bird count on the Kingsbridge Estuary in Devon. On this month's count he spotted this dead fox cub.

Rallies

The following rally announcements came to me earlier. The Ballygilbert one does not say cancelled which I find odd. Definitely worth checking before travel.

As before, this is how I received the messages and the background may make these hard to read on some screens

Saturday 20 JUNE : BANGOR & DISTRICT ARS RALLY

Ballygilbert Presbyterian Church Hall, Ballyrobert, Co Down BT19 1UM. Doors open 11am to 3.30pm. Entrance fee is £3. More from Norman Newell by email to normannewellgi3ymy@hotmail.com.


Sunday 21 JUNE : CANCELLED next date 20th June 2021

17th WEST OF ENGLAND RADIO RALLY. Cheese & Grain venue, Market Yard, Bridge Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BE. Doors open from 10am to 2pm. Adult admission £3, accompanied children under 14 are free. There will be inside and outside trade stalls and an RSGB bookstall. A cafe serving hot & cold food will be available. Shaun, G8VPG on 01225 873 098 or by email to rallymanager@westrally.org.uk www.westrally.org.uk


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

Pixie and Micro-80 transceivers

Some years ago I built a Micro-80 transceiver for 80m CW.

More recently I got a Pixie kit for 40m, which was very inexpensive and came with free airmail from China. It went together easily and enabled me to have a QSO with a local ham. It got put away thereafter as it was really an exercise to check out my building skills after my stroke in 2013.

On all these simple, compromise, rigs it is the receiver which is often the weakest link. They often have little selectivity and can easily be overloaded. These days there is far more FT8 activity and both SSB and  CW have suffered. Typical Pixie powers are 300-500mW. This power is more than enough to work plenty assuming you can copy the other station!

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

10m WSPR TX (500mW to the indoor loop)

Since about 0800z, my 500mW WSPR beacon has been on. Nobody has spotted me yet.

UPDATE 2133z:  6 stations spotted my 10m WSPR today. Now QRT.

6m FT8

At about 0800z I turned on my 10W to the V2000 vertical omni antenna. Spotted all over Europe by 15 stations. On 6m FT8 RX, 18 stations spotted. Although several Japanese stations were being called by Europeans on 6m FT8, these were not spotted here. No QSOs yet.

UPDATE 1025z: Now 1 QSO on 6m FT8, 45 spots of me and 107 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX with best DX A45XR (5843km) in Oman.

UPDATE 1232z:  Best spot of my signal was by VE1PZ (4501km). In all, 65 stations have spotted me.  On 6m FT8 RX 130 stations have spotted me today on 6m FT8 with best DX W7JW (6805km).

Sunspots - Thursday June 18th 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

6m FT8

As the storms seem to have moved on, I have turned on 6m FT8. So far, 27 spots of my 10W to nhe V2000 omni vertical.

10m WSPR TX (500mW to the indoor loop)

At about 1335z my 10m WSPR beacon has just been turned on. I waited for the thundery weather to pass. For now, all seems quiet.

Earlier, I took a look for my friend Ted G4NUA's 20m WSPR beacon based on the Raspberry Pi.  Even though he is quite close (15km?) there was no sign of his 100mW 20m WSPR beacon, even though he has been copied far and wide. I was using my indoor loop which works pretty well on 20m.  Lots of signals copied, but not Ted.

UPDATE 1350z:  3 spots of my 10m WSPR beacon by OZ7IT (853km). My drift is still quite large as the beacon is still settling. Drift has gone down quite a lot already.

UPDATE 1525z: Thunder and lightning so all disconnected. Quite a few spots when I went QRT.

UPDATE 1735z: As the storms appear to have moved away, I have reconnected everything. No spots since reconnecting.

Gecophone 1920s crystal set

When I retired in 2008 my leaving gift was a 1920s crystal set called the Gecophone. It works well considering it is almost 100 years old. On mine, it received BBC Radio 5. It is some time since I last tried it.

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

Granddaughter - NOT amateur radio

A photo of our elder granddaughter taken last weekend.

Previous Life - NOT amateur radio

In 2008, after many years in the empire that started as Pye Telecommunications, I retired. Over the years its name changed as did the products we designed and made.

I ended up in Sepura designing world beating Tetra radios that were widely used across the planet.

At one time I worked for Philips Paging where we made vast quantities every day in places like Mexico and Singapore.  For a time I worked in California for Philips Paging. My abiding memory of California is the always blue skies! In Mexico, the factory was very modern, but just outside the gates there was poverty everywhere.

There is a good website on the history of Pye Telecom.

See http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/index.html

Sunspots - Wednesday June 17th 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=2.

20m WSPR RX

An old friend, Ted G4NUA, built a 20m WSPR beacon using a Raspberry Pi. It produces 100mW. He has already had spots from the USA over 5400km. He is about 13km from me. Still not spotted him yet. I am using my indoor loop antenna.

UPDATE 2127z:  Overnight, I shall stay on 20m WSPR. At the moment, just a few Germans being copied. Hoping to copy G4NUA tomorrow early.

10m WSPR (500mW to the tiny indoor loop antenna)

The 10m WSPR beacon was turned on just after 0800z. Already 4 different stations spotting me at 0828z.

UPDATE 1440z: 19 stations across Europe have spotted my 10m WSPR beacon today so far.

Passed the solar minimum?

The indications are that we have passed the minimum at last. I hope this is so.

See https://solen.info/solar/images/Cycles_24_25_minimum.png

Ferrite rods as TX antennas

Something similar has been on before, but I make no apologies for this gentle reminder!

Ferrite rods will work on TX as long as the ferrite does not saturate and the material is fine for the intended frequency.

Low power usually means millwatts or low watts. Some years ago I gave it a try with a random ferrite rod (characteristics unknown) on WSPR with great success. To be honest, it was far better than I expected. I think of ferrites as distorting space with the effective size being proportional to the effective permeability of the ferrite.

I wonder what would happen on 7MHz FT8?

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/ferrite_tx
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_core

UPDATE 1344z: Well I had to try 40m FT8 with the ferrite rod on TX!! With no earths connected and no HF antennas here apart from the highly tuned 10m indoor loop, I have 8 spots already using the FT817ND at 2.5W. Best DX spot was  -7dB S/N from F5NK (936km). Highly impressed! This is the first time at this QTH with this antenna.

UPDATE 2003z:  12 spots of me today so far on 40m FT8 with just the tiny ferrite antenna. I guess the biggest problem is being buried by bigger stations on the same frequency without realising.

Gilbert and Sullivan - NOT amateur radio

Every year a nearby village does a G&S production and we usually go. This year they cannot sadly. The photo shows the production some years ago of the "Pirates of Penzance".

Museum visit (2017) - NOT amateur radio

Most weeks in the summer months our local museum next door gets school visits.

At the moment these are not possible. Hopefully they can happen next year. The photo shows one such visit in 2017.

Another shack view

The photo was taken yesterday and shows the operating position in the shack. The tiny WSPR beacon is on a lower shelf and probably not clear.

Sunspots - Tuesday June 16th 2020

Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 11. A=4 and K=1. The sunspot number is still not zero, which may be a good sign.

10m WSPR TX (500mW to the tiny indoor loop antenna)

At about 1300z the 10m WSPR beacon was turned on.  No spots yet.

UPDATE 1630z:  No spots.

UPDATE 1802z:   Spotted in Italy and Switzerland.

UPDATE 2020z:   QRT. In all, 4 unique stations have spotted  me.

Recent lockdown walk - NOT amateur radio

On Friday we did a nice walk around the village of Reach. The photo shows what we saw.

Hepburn tropo forecasts

This is a resource that I rarely use, but it looks useful for looking ahead at VHF tropo conditions.

See http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html

Online 2m FT8 screen-grab

A station near Cambridge, G0LRD, has a very useful screen-grab of 2m FT8 activity as seen at his QTH. I find it useful to check my signal is clean and as expected. He gets me strongly. He seems to see very similar stations to me.

I still find 2m FT8 amazing. My low ERP signal seems to get spotted far and wide irrespective of conditions. I am convinced these are not aircraft reflections as these sort of ranges seem possible at any time even with low ERP. It is so easy that I hardly bother these days.

Soon, I think I should try harder on 70cm FT8 to see what is possible.

See http://82.71.9.63:8080/cap/

What is this? - NOT amateur radio

On our walk yesterday we saw this plant. It looks like a dandelion but is about twice as big.  Any help greatly appreciated.

2 weeks on 10m WSPR TX (500mW to indoor loop)

This surprised me!

I did not expect many to be on 10m WSPR and I was even more surprised how well the indoor loop performs.

In all, 51 stations have spotted me so far in the last 2 weeks on 10m WSPR, despite the 500mW and the indoor tiny loop.

The beauty of 10m WSPR is that I can run this totally separate from the PC using the WSPR beacon TX which is about the size of a pack of playing cards and was designed by W5OLF. It has given me years of great service.

This means I can run 10m WSPR "in the background" whilst going in 6m or 2m FT8 at the same time.

East Cambs net

Every Monday at 1900z (8pm BST) we meet on 144.575MHz vertical FM in the all modes section of 2m for the East Cambs net. Anyone in the area is very welcome. The oldest is 96 but I do not know the age of the youngest!

Gin and tonic - NOT amateur radio

At about 9pm UK local time yesterday I sat out in the back garden with a gin and tonic. Another week or so and the days will start to get shorter again. Yesterday was warm and sunny.