10m

 At about 1230z, I QSYed to 10m FT8 RX with the indoor Wellgood active loop.  No stations spotted as yet.

UPDATE 1510z:  Still no spots on the Wellgood active loop.   Now QRT on 10m. Not sure if this is conditions or the loop NF being too high.

Sunspots Zoom lecture

 Last night the Cambridge Radio Club (CDARC) has another very successful Zoom talk. This time it was about sunspots and given by Martin G3ZAY who has written the HF column in RadCom for some years. Being on Zoom we were joined by a member in Canada. I am a great fan of Zoom lectures, which are far better than I ever expected.

Round Church, Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

There are very few round churches in the UK. 

Cambridge has one.  I think it is now a brass rubbing centre.

St John's College Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

This photo was taken yesterday in Cambridge.  It was taken from outside the Round Church.

15m FT8 RX with the Wellgood active loop RX antenna

For about 2 hours I have been on 15m FT8 RX with the Wellgood active loop RX antenna on the shack window.

So far today, 276 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost VK4ZC (16530km) in Australia. 

Even as high as 15m (21MHz), the Wellgood loop on the shack window works really well and I have made no attempt whatsoever to optimise it. It is just stuck on with Blutak! I shall have to try it on 10m!

UPDATE 1225z:  359 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Saturday November 27th 2021

 Solar flux is 92 and the SSN 52. A=4 and K=1.

160m FT8 RX (Friday)

Since about 1935z, I have been on 160m FT8 RX with the Wellgood active loop on the shack window.  Furthermost is UX0KR (1795km). So far, 37 stations have been spotted. It is now 1944z.

The Wellgood active RX loop

As you can see, I have used this quite a bit in the last week. It was designed by George Smart M1GEO after he accidentally cooked his Wellbrook active loop! 

Overall, it works very well, but I wonder if it is less good with weak signals on the higher HF bands. Mostly, EU stations are copied, but where the RX noise figure dominates, maybe it is less effective?

See https://www.george-smart.co.uk/projects/wellgood_loop/ .

Autumn - NOT amateur radio

It has turned much colder in the UK and we can see we are now in autumn. This photo shows the leaves in our garden.

40m FT8 RX

Until I went on 20m at about 0900z, I was on 40m FT8 RX. Overall, the furthermost was FS4WBS (6632km). Once again, I was using the Wellgood active RX loop on the shack window.