OFCOM

OFCOM is consulting on some short range wireless devices operating in the 800 and 900MHz regions. See their website for further details.

UK election day, Dec 12th - NOT amateur radio

If you live in the UK, today is the day we vote in a General Election. For the first time in nearly 100 years this is being held in December with dark evenings. Many in the UK are bored with BREXIT and leaving the EU.

The election outcome is very unpredictable. If the ruling Conservatives win an outright majority, they will press ahead with their BREXIT deal. As likely is a hung parliament with minor parties holding the balance of power.

UPDATE 1104z: I have voted. Deciding where to put my cross was not easy.

Sunspots - Thursday December 12th 2019

Solar flux is 71 and the sunspot number still 0.  A=6 and K=1.

160m FT8 today

This evening and overnight, I think I'll stick with 160m QRP FT8 using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. In the last 30 minutes already 23 stations have been spotted with best DX being RW0AR (5585km) in Asiatic Russia.
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UPDATE 1900z: On 160m FT8 RX 144 stations spotted so far this afternoon. With 2.5W TX just 1 G spot so far. In the last day 773 different stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX. Quite staggering.

UPDATE 2017z: A 2.5W FT8 CQ just now was spotted by 4 stations in 3 countries (no QSOs) with best DX being a spot by DK1BN (540km). On 160m FT8 RX now 200n stations spotted in the last 6 hours.

UPDATE 2045z: WU1ITU (4831km) in Maine,USA, is already coming though! 244 stations spotted here on 160m FT8 RX in the last 6 hours.

What IS a QSO?

Earlier I had an interesting email from a friend in the village about what was a QSO. To him, unless there was a 2-way voice contact it was not really a QSO. He did not like FT8 contacts because these could be done PC-PC without a human even being present. These days, using systems like Echolink, one can talk to handheld stations on the other side of the world.

His email got me thinking. I use FT8 mainly because I use QRP and my voice is poor these days. I can still use voice modes, but it is hard work both for me and those at the other end!

Having said that, I like being able to assess conditions with WSPR and FT8. These systems work with weak signals and are far better aids to seeing if a path is open than SSB or CW can ever be. For a start, using the internet databases, there are lots of people monitoring and they are all monitoring the same small chunks of spectrum. Last night, for example, there were 17 FT8 QSOs on 160m in just 2kHz of spectrum. Being weak signal modes, brief openings are caught. On 2m FT8 I can be consistently copied at great range with 2.5W to a simple omni antenna. On 2m QRP SSB I struggle to work over 200km. With FT8 double or more distance is possible with QRP irrespective of conditions.

To me, Echolink QSOs are not "real" QSOs as most of the way the internet is the bearer.

I guess all we can conclude is a QSO is different for different people. Old timers (like me?) still like DX contacts by "real" radio, whereas these days this is arguably unimportant. To me, the challenge is propagation. For some it is the joy of just talking to people.

Tax Returns - NOT amateur radio

About this time I get around to submitting a tax return to the UK's Inland Revenue. In the USA I think this is the IRS. I forgot my Government Gateway ID and spent about an hour going around in ever decreasing circles. You would think they would put this on last year's tax return! No, this is too obvious. In the end I found the old one and successfully logged in.

Next year I think I won't have to do a tax return although I expect I still will have to tell them about gift aid. Not everyone has to do a tax return. In the past it was necessary if you had income from shares or houses. I have neither.  I hate doing tax returns.

160m FT8 overnight

Amazing! Since turning on 160m FT8 RX early last night I have spotted 691 stations in 5 continents. On 160m FT8 TX I was spotted 13 stations in 5 countries with the best spot by DK2LO (650km) with 2.5W.  The earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground certainly works for me!

Stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX using 

the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground

Sunspots - Wednesday December 11th 2019

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=2.

160m FT8

For a change, I am trying 160m FT8 with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. An FT8 CQ was spotted by no-one, but I was blown away by the high number of stations spotted on RX. There were so many! Best DX so far on 160m FT8 RX is UA4HBW (3300km) in Samara. In about 30 minutes 51 stations already spotted on 160m FT8 RX. Quite staggering.

Stations spotted on 160m
FT8 RX in first hour

UPDATE 1947z:  17 stations occupying just 2kHz of band! Best DX on 160m FT8 RX now R9GM (3499km) in Perm. 127 stations spotted already in the first hour on 160m FT8 RX.  A recent 2.5W FT8 CQ on 160m was spotted by 5 G stations with best being G0KTN (211km).

70cm activity contest tonight

Starting at 8pm UK clock time is the 70cm activity contest, held monthly. As I have no 70cm antennas up currently, I use the 2m big-wheel omni antenna 10W SSB. Despite this compromise set-up I often get over 100km despite being on for far less than 1 hour, because of my poor voice.