Cowslips - NOT amateur radio

On our walk yesterday we saw these cowslips. We saw very few people.

481THz speech communications

Long before my 2013 stroke, one of my favourite things was optical communications.

Although my keenest interest was weak signal "over the horizon" signals, so called non line of sight (NLOS), I had one QSO with speech over a path of about 11km with G4HJW using the kit shown in the photo. Sadly my stroke put an end to my optical experiments.

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

Sunspots - Monday April 6th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=1.

New chicks - NOT amateur radio

Apparently our son and grandson have now got 4 freshly hatched chicks. They emerged from their eggs in the last few days with the last one hatching just a few moments ago. Life goes on.

Walk - NOT amateur radio

This morning we went for a walk on a very quiet country lane. Very few people were seen. The countryside is coming alive again after what has seemed a long winter.

10m WSPR TX

Again I am on 10m WSPR TX using 500mW to the tiny indoor loop antenna. Local G4KPX does not seem to be on. No spots of me yet today.

UPDATE 1310z : G4KPX is monitoring and has spotted me several times No DX spots of me though.

UPDATE 1336z: What is needed now is a stand alone 10m FT8 beacon instead of WSPR!

UPDATE 1910z:  QRT. No DX stations spotted me.

2m FT8 (10W)

As usual, I am on 2m FT8 using 10W and the big-wheel omni antenna. So far today 29 stations have spotted me with the best DX being GI6ATZ (479km).

UPDATE 1305z: 41 stations in 4 countries have spotted me in the last 24 hours on 2m FT8 using 10W.

UPDATE 1932z: Now QRT. In all, 46 stations in 5 countries spotted my 10W in the last 12 hours on 2m FT8 TX. It's hard to think that this is 2m with 10W and an omni antenna! These sort of distances seem to be possible at any time and in any conditions. Also polarisation seems to make little or no difference.

Home - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows our home and front garden a few days ago. The photo was taken on April 2nd.

Ornamental cherry - NOT amateur radio

In our back garden is an ornamental cherry tree. We had this trimmed last year.

At the moment the leaves and blossom are just appearing.

When out, it is a very attractive tree with red fruit, sadly inedible.

Heathkit HW8

Many years ago I owned an HW8 transceiver from Heathkit. This had a direct conversion receiver and a QRP HF CW transmitter. With simple wire dipoles it worked some remarkable DX.

I think it was sold back to its original owner when I bought an FT7 in 1979. In its day it was a fine rig.

Mine was totally unmodified, but there are plenty of "improvements" on the net. In my experience, this was a great transceiver as it is. I am not sure how easy they are to find nowadays.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8