24 Apr 2018

Flowers - NOT amateur radio

The collage shows some of the spring flowers seen recently on walks. Although it is dull today, one feels spring has finally arrived after a long, wet, winter.

2m FT8

After a brief period on TX before breakfast in which my best DX was being spotted (again) by G4RRA (334km) in Devon, which is good (for me) with 2.5W and my big-wheel omnidirectional antenna. Since then I have been RX only on 2m FT8 with 13 unique stations in 6 countries with best RX DX being DK3MZ (472km).

UPDATE 1016z: Now 20 uniques in 6 countries spotted on 2m FT8 so far today.

UPDATE 1238z: Now 28 uniques in 6 countries.

UPDATE 1459z:  Now 42 uniques in 8 countries. Best RX DX DL3DQL (897km).

UPDATE 2016z:   With 55 uniques in the log, it will soon be time to go QRT on 2m FT8 RX. I eventually went QRT at 2040z.

Pye Telecom PF1

My very first job at Pye Telecom was to convert a PF1 RX to 12.5kHz channel spacing. Looking back, this was a test by Mike Gotch (later G0IMG, now SK) to find out what I could do. Mike was an assistant chief engineer back then. When he left he was a keen 6m man.

The PF1 was a UHF transceiver pair that was adopted by the UK police in the 1960s. It had a separate TX and RX unit. The TX was quite low power and had a pop-up antenna. The RX had a plate antenna.

Later, I worked on several Pye Telecom/Philips/Simoco/Sepura portables and pagers. I worked on several intrinsically safe units. Overall, it was a fun career. These days radio is still my main hobby and I am not involved professionally.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf1

Sunspots - Tuesday April 24th 2018

Solar flux is again 74 and the sunspot number 20. A=5 and K=1. So, much the same as yesterday.

23 Apr 2018

Mud - NOT amateur radio

On our walk this morning bluebell hunting we were surprised by the quantity of mud on the paths after a week of hot weather. The photo shows me struggling! I was totally ill prepared with suede shoes and no stick.

2m FT8

2m FT8 in the first few minutes today
As I was getting nowhere on 10m FT8 today, I have QSYed to 2m FT8 instead.

A brief TX period saw my 2.5W to an omnidirectional big-wheel copied by several stations with best DX on TX being F6DBI (501km).

At the moment I am on 2m FT8 RX only with 10 unique stations spotted in 5 countries in just a few minutes.

UPDATE 1817z: Now 28 uniques in 6 countries on 2m FT8 in just a few hours.

UPDATE 2110z: Now 33 uniques in 8 countries today on 2m FT8. And I have only been on since teatime!

UPDATE 2140z: Now QRT on all bands

60m (5MHz) band

More and more countries are allowing their radio amateurs access to the 15kHz wide 60m WRC allocation. Apparently China is granting access from July 1st. This is a small band and hopefully later there might be a wider slot.

As the sunspot activity drops, this band could be quite useful. That is if noise levels allow!

First swallow seen - NOT amateur radio

Much later than last year, I saw my first swallow (migrant bird) here. Numbers seem to be down as by this date they are usually quite common.

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/swallow

10m FT8 RX

After lunch, I went on 10m FT8 RX. As yet, no spots.

UPDATE 1630z: Still no spots today here on 10m FT8 RX.

Bluebell hunting - NOT amateur radio

This morning we drove to Waresley Woods (about 28 miles west of here) to see the bluebells. As the video shows, there were plenty. The paths were surprisingly muddy though. The video has no sound.