Since just before lunch, I have been on 15m FT8 with the indoor loop. Apart from a very brief period, this has been RX only. With no spots at all, I suspect something is wrong. I am going to check!
UPDATE 1330z: Nothing untoward spotted, although there was a very high noise level on the band, possibly due to a local source?
In Newmarket the horse is king. On almost every trip we have to stop for horses crossing the road. There are plenty of places where horses train as the photo shows. Newmarket is surrounded with gallops, which are huge grass fields mainly for horses.
In the town you often see two sorts of folks: rich owners and short jockeys!
Every few weeks I try to give an update on activity levels on the geosynchronous satellite, Oscar 100. This is a very unscientific look. My impression is activity is lower than it was. It's certainly not busy. The impression is people, especially in Europe, enjoy the challenge of getting a signal through it, then lose interest.
As I say, this is just my impression based on a quick look at the web SDR at Goonhilly. I may not be correct.
At the old QTH I was active on 137kHz. The photo shows my 140uW ERP QRSS signal at 101km. With a "proper" antenna and decent powers, who knows what is possible? I have not (yet) been on 137kHz TX from this QTH.
It seems the radio control people make wide use of LiPo rechargeable batteries these days. My own experiences go back to 2008 with LiIon batteries and these were like little bombs if not carefully charged and maintained.
It taught me a lesson: never leave a LiIon pack on charge unsupervised. Failures were rare (about 1 in 150000) but if not carefully looked after and charged they could burst into fire. I suspect many laptop manufacturers kept very quiet about failures fearing the costs and damage to reputation of recalls.
I know nothing much about LiPo batteries, but I hope technology has moved on and they are safer.
For rigs like the FT817 and IC-705 I suspect they could make useful external battery packs capable of many hours of use.
What I need are recommendations for LiPo battery packs and chargers, preferably from Amazon Prime rather than eBay. What would you recommend?
At just before 1500z, I QSYed to 2m FT8. My TX is running about 10W. It is now 1518z. So far, 8 spots of me with the best being a spot by EI2FG (565km) in Eire (IO61).
It seems that with FT8 and simple antennas great distances can always be achieved. Most sessions result in stations in 6-8 countries spotting me and these usually include N.Ireland, the Isle of Man and Germany. 2m FT8 rarely disappoints.
