Ephemeral Spring - NOT amateur radio

Spring is ephemeral. At the moment, we have fresh green leaves and blossom. Sadly, in a few weeks this will all be gone.

10m FT8 RX

Yet again I am monitoring 10m FT8 RX. Yesterday was good with lots of real DX and already today Germany and Holland have been spotted.

UPDATE 1125z: Currently 6 unique stations in 4 countries, all in Europe, on 10m FT8 RX so far today. Best DX spotted today is OE3KLU (1233km).

UPDATE 1625z: Now 11 stations in 4 countries spotted on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 2020z: Unbelievable! No less than 11 South Americans spotted on 10m FT8 RX this evening. In addition, a couple of stations in the Canary Is. Is this TEP or F2 layer or Es layer linking with TEP further south?

Sunspots - Saturday April 21st 2018

Solar flux is 73 and the sunspot number 14. A=47 and K=3.

UK rally

22 APRIL 2018 : CAMBRIDGE REPEATER GROUP RALLY

Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton, Cambridge, Cambs CB22 6RN. There is free car parking at the venue, Doors open at 9.30am with traders gaining access from 7.30am. Entry is £2. There will be a talk in station on the air. There will be traders, a Bring & Buy and an RSGB book stall. Catering will be available on site. Contact Lawrence M0LCM on 07941 972 724, or email rally2018@cambridgerepeaters.net www.cambridgerepeaters.net.

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

A bit out of touch?

Only today I found out that the GB3PY UHF repeater is moving (or has moved?) to new frequencies to avoid interference. This was announced last December, and only now have I found out! It must be ages since I last had a QSO via a repeater as you can tell.

See http://www.cambridgerepeaters.net/2017/12/gb3py-frequency-change/

Optical kit

One of my Facebook memories today is of testing my 481THz optical kit in the garden of the old QTH. In those days I was fit and well. These days, field work has proved impossible although I still hope to restart one day. The photo is here as a reminder (to me!).  And, no, I was not looking at that attractive girl up the street!

All the optical kit was homemade and easy to assemble and test in the back of the garage with very basic test gear. Even the software used was free. Over the horizon testing with optical kit was challenging and great fun. Results amazed me.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/optical

10m antenna for the Es season

As we are about to enter the Es (sporadic-E) season in the northern hemisphere, quite a few people will be looking for a quick, simple, effective and low cost antenna for 10m. May I introduce the Homebase-10 antenna?

By scaling the size, it will also work on 6m and 4m too. At the old QTH it was used for many years. You'll be hard pressed to find something as simple as effective. It appeared in Practical Wireless some years ago.

This has been on this blog before, but many will not have seen it I guess.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/homebase

Still no swallows - NOT amateur radio

By now, I have usually seen a swallow back from South Africa. They started arriving in Devon in March, but as yet, I have still not seen one! Numbers are dropping, but this is now very late.

10m FT8

After a very brief TX period, (no reports) I am again monitoring 10m FT8 RX, more in hope than expectation. But, if you do TX, I shall be there, HI.

UPDATE 0634z: Well there's a surprise! DB6LL (651km) in the Hamburg area has already been spotted on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 0816z: No further spots so far today.

UPDATE 1634z: 10m FT8  spots from Indonesia, Middle East, Africa and South America. A good 10m FT8 day without a doubt. Sunspot number? Zero!

Where I was born and brought up - NOT amateur radio

Until I went to university, I lived in the South Hams of Devon. This picture was taken 8 years ago, but it probably hasn't changed much in 1000 years. We know my ancestors owned a piece of land near here in 1428. I can trace the family tree right back to  about 1550 with no breaks. Our family has probably been hereabouts for thousands of years.  BTW, Thurlestone (this place) means "rock with a hole" so Thurlestone Rock has been there a long time!