What a long way we've come

When I was a teenager I wanted a Codar AT5. This was a 160m and 80m 12W AM TX. Today the IC-705 is about the same size and covers 160m to 70cm transceive with all modes, plus D-star, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and much more. The AT5 is featured on my main website. 

Baconsthorpe Castle Norfolk - NOT amateur radio

Just outside the sleepy village of Baconsthorpe in Norfolk is this hidden gem - Baconsthorpe Castle. It is about half a mile north of the village down a tatty farm track. There was hardly anyone there! It is maintained by English Heritage. 

Blickling Norfolk - NOT amateur radio

Today we visited Blickling Hall in Norfolk. It is owned by the National Trust and has extensive gardens and a lake. 

IARU preparation for WRC 2023

The IARU is already getting ready for the next World Radio Conference in 2023. It would be good if the first steps were taken leading up to an allocation at 8m.

See https://iaru-r1.org/

 

Sunspots - Saturday September 12th 2020

Still no sunspots! Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0 still. By now I was expecting some sunspots. A=3 and K=2.

Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk - NOT amateur radio

Felbrigg Hall remains closed, but the gardens, grounds, café and toilets were all open. The photo shows the plants mostly in the walled garden. 

North Norfolk Railway - NOT amateur radio

This must be aa very British thing, but we have loads of preserved railways mostly run by volunteers. The NNR has trains running from Sheringham to Holt. At £35 each for the round trip, I will give it a miss! 

Towers and beams

We have a very diverse hobby. My "thing" is getting around the world with simple, low power gear and simple wire antennas. Luckily we are all different and different aspects appeal to different people. Some like chasing DX and like high power, towers and big beams. My neighbours would have a fit! 

10m WSPR TX

A number of years ago I designed and made this very simple TX for 10m WSPR based on low cost GQRP Club crystals on 14.060MHz. If you have suitable crystals you could easily duplicate it. There is still plenty of WSPR on 10m. If you want more power just add more PA transistors in parallel! 

On my main website is the circuit (untried as I recall because of my stroke) of the full transceive version. 

Castle Acre - NOT amateur radio

This is a delightful village on the way to North Norfolk. We stopped here for a coffee and bite to eat. 

Sunspots - Friday September 11th 2020

 Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=2 and K=1. 

Rose Crescent - NOT amateur radio

Rose Crescent is a car free street in Cambridge. Usually it is thronged with foreign visitors at this time of year. This year many are staying away. It still looks good. 

Sunspots - Thursday September 10th 2020

 Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=1 and K=0.

Covid-19 videos - NOT amateur radio

Some months ago I was recommended the YouTube videos made by Dr John Campbell as a good source of data on Covid-19. Although I have only watched some, these do seem to be a good place to find decent data. As an example see the latest video.

 

17m FT8 RX

At the moment (0812z) I am on 17m FT8 RX using the small indoor loop antenna. One spot of a station in European Russia so far RA9DZ (3795km).

UPDATE 0952z:  13 stations spotted so far with RW0CR (8024km) in the Far East as best DX.

UPDATE 1837z:  42 stations in 4 continents spotted today on 17m FT8 RX so far.

UPDATE 2052z: 50 stations in 4 continents spotted on 17m FT8 RX in the last day. QRT soon.

D-star internet access?

OK, I admit my ignorance. 

My question is, "can I access D-star using a computer only?". 

At present I have no D-star equipped radios and was wondering if, like Echolink, one can access it using a computer? If you know the answer, please let me know. 

As far as I know for DMR this is not possible.

Hard times ahead?

For a long time I have expressed my concern about the future of our hobby. One of the first things could be dealers stopping adverts. This may already be happening (see link). 

With fewer adverts, national magazines will struggle. Amateurs will (on average) get older still and buy fewer radios. More dealers will close. Some will leave the amateur market. Magazines will get fewer and those that remain will be smaller.

The very nature of our hobby will change. It has already started.

One thing to be aware of is warranties. If a company ceases trading will warranties still be valid?

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/september/waters-and-stanton-advertising.htm#.X1imeWjYq00

Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

A few days ago we went to Cambridge shopping. Compared with normal there are few foreign visitors. Streets that are normally busy with Far Eastern visitors are quiet. Let's hope this get back to normal in 2021.

North Norfolk Railway - NOT amateur radio

One of my Facebook memories today was this photo of 11 years ago at the North Norfolk Railway in Sheringham. It shows my wife with one of our grandchildren who becomes a teenager in a few weeks. 

Sunspots - Wednesday September 9th 2020

 Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

Decorating - NOT amateur radio

We are having 3 rooms decorated. Our intention is to do a few rooms every year. The worst thing is clearing things away in readiness like all the photo albums shown in the photo.

432MHz activity contest

Every month there is an activity contest on 432MHz (UKAC). Activity is mainly SSB. Running 10W to my 2m big-wheel omni for an hour I managed 6 QSOs as shown on the map.  This is a friendly contest.

After an hour I had enough according to my voice!

137kHz transverter

A few moments ago I found this photo of my 137kHz TX transverter. It must date from 2012.  ERP at the time was 140uW, although the transverter put out about 24W in to 50 ohms. The antenna was not very efficient. Mind you, it proves that even <1mW ERP can span useful ranges.

20m FT8

Overnight I left the 20m FT8 RX on. There were no spots during the night. Since breakfast there had been 10 spots of eastern European stations at 0648z. Still using the indoor loop antenna. 

UPDATE 1245z:  So far today, 110 stations spotted with 2 in the USA.

Sunspots - Tuesday September 8th 2020

 Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

20m FT8

At the moment (1337z) I am on 20m FT8 with 2.5W to the indoor loop, using the FT817ND. Several Europeans spotted on RX, but no spots of me yet and no QSOs.

UPDATE 2023z: RX only on 20m FT8.  258 stations spotted with best DX spotted being PY2KP (9578km). 5 continents spotted today on 20m FT8 with the indoor loop (see photo). The loop is about 0.5m across with quite thin wire.  20m still seems to be open with plenty of Europeans spotted in the last 15 minutes.

UPDATE 2144z: Now 292 stations spotted with the loop and FT817ND on 20m FT8 RX today with the best DX spotted being LU9DCB (11212km). As an experiment I am going to leave the RX on overnight.

15m FT8

Since just before lunch, I have been on 15m FT8 with the indoor loop. Apart from a very brief period, this has been RX only. With no spots at all, I suspect something is wrong. I am going to check!

UPDATE 1330z: Nothing untoward spotted, although there was a very high noise level on the band, possibly due to a local source?

Old magazines - NOT amateur radio

We have a collection of magazines going back to 1883 as the photo shows. 

Racehorses - NOT amateur radio

We live very close to Newmarket, which is the world home of horse racing. It is in Newmarket where we do most of our food shopping.  The town is 4 miles away.

In Newmarket the horse is king.  On almost every trip we have to stop for horses crossing the road. There are plenty of places where horses train as the photo shows. Newmarket is surrounded with gallops, which are huge grass fields mainly for horses.

In the town you often see two sorts of folks: rich owners and short jockeys!

Oscar 100 - very quiet?

Every few weeks I try to give an update on activity levels on the geosynchronous satellite, Oscar 100. This is a very unscientific look. My impression is activity is lower than it was. It's certainly not busy. The impression is people, especially in Europe, enjoy the challenge of getting a signal through it, then lose interest.

As I say, this is just my impression based on a quick look at the web SDR at Goonhilly. I may not be correct.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

What is it? - NOT amateur radio

This appeared on Facebook earlier. Can you spot it?

137kHz

At the old QTH I was active on 137kHz. The photo shows my 140uW ERP QRSS signal at 101km. With a "proper" antenna and decent powers, who knows what is possible? I have not (yet) been on 137kHz TX from this QTH.  

You may find this link of interest. Do not try the links on the side. This was my old site that has not been maintained for many years.  

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp/Home/136k

Sunspots - Monday September 7th 2020

 Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A= 4 and K=1.

Long hair - NOT amateur radio

Our 12 year old grandson insists on having long hair. We can't stand it, but are wasting our time if we protest! This is one battle not worth fighting. He is a teenager in a few months.

LiPo batteries and chargers?

It seems the radio control people make wide use of LiPo rechargeable batteries these days. My own experiences go back to 2008 with LiIon batteries and these were like little bombs if not carefully charged and maintained. 

It taught me a lesson: never leave a LiIon pack on charge unsupervised. Failures were rare (about 1 in 150000) but if not carefully looked after and charged they could burst into fire. I suspect many laptop manufacturers kept very quiet about failures fearing the costs and damage to reputation of recalls.

I know nothing much about LiPo batteries, but I hope technology has moved on and they are safer.

For rigs  like the FT817 and IC-705 I suspect they could make useful external battery packs capable of many hours of use. 

What I need are recommendations for LiPo battery packs and chargers, preferably from Amazon Prime rather than eBay. What would you recommend?

2m FT8 (10W and the big-wheel omni antenna)

At just before 1500z, I QSYed to 2m FT8. My TX is running about 10W. It is now 1518z. So far, 8 spots of me with the best being a spot by EI2FG (565km) in Eire (IO61). 

It seems that with FT8 and simple antennas great distances can always be achieved. Most sessions result in stations in 6-8 countries spotting me and these usually include N.Ireland, the Isle of Man and Germany. 2m FT8 rarely disappoints.

UPDATE 2037z: 22 spots of my 10W so far today. 

UPDATE 2140z:  QRT. 

All comments moderated - NOT amateur radio

As I have had a few dubious comments in recent weeks, I took the (reluctant) decision to moderate all comments.

Although I try to moderate these very quickly it may mean a delay between you posting and the comment appearing on the blog.

Most comments are fine, but a few may have contained malicious links. Please accept my apology for any delay.

Hair! - NOT amateur radio

A very long time ago (1967) I did have hair! This photo was on my University of Liverpool student's union card when I just started in 1967. 

I was a real "country bumpkin" in those days.

10m loop

This photo has been on before I think, but it is the only 10m antenna I currently have and it has worked well with 4W FT8 indoors for the last few months. I have been pleasantly surprised by just how well it has worked. 

VLF earth-mode

Some years ago G6ALB did some earth-mode tests with me. He was running 40W and was a very strong signal with me 3km away in the next village as the photo shows. He is the QRSS signal, not the wobbly line! This was at the old QTH. This was at 8.7kHz.