Solar flux is 158 and the SSN 132. A=5 and K=1.
24 May 2022
23 May 2022
1970 university photo - NOT amateur radio
It seems hard to believe that this photo is 52 years old. It was taken in 1970 in my final year. In those days I had hair!!
Corfu Beer
8m beacons
There is a growing interest around the world in the 8m band for propagation research.
The band is between 10m and 6m, at the transition between HF and VHF. Sadly, the few beacons there are there are on different frequencies and modes.
In my view, they would be far more use if they all included an FT8 sequence and were all on a single USB dial setting (different audio tones so they are not on top of each other). They could be on 24/7 and widely monitored with ease by many.
Personally, I think we would all benefit from this. Propagation research would be greatly advanced.
FT8 works with weaker signals than CW, WSJT-X software is free, and even very brief openings get spotted.
22 May 2022
Ultra simple RX for 80m or 40m
This is one of the most simple designs that you will ever find for 80m or 40m RX. It will readily scale to 160m or 60m. I went on to make a transceiver version based on an idea from W2UW (SK). Imagine that - a complete transceiver using just 1 FET (see the FETer).
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/80m-or-40m-regen-rx .
Corfu food - NOT amateur radio
My wife had sea bream caught in the morning and I had slow cooked lamb shank.
Both were perfect as was the tzatziki Greek starter of yoghurt and cucumber.
70cm activity contest
Results for this activity contest organised by the RSGB have just been published.
See https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/vhfresults.pl?Contest=432MHz%20UKAC&year=2022 .
EI7GL's blog
John's blog always seems to have interesting stuff on it. He has news of the 40 and 60 MHz bands as well as much more. On the web version of my blog is a link to the EI7GL blog is on the right.