North Norfolk Railway - NOT amateur radio

This must be aa very British thing, but we have loads of preserved railways mostly run by volunteers. The NNR has trains running from Sheringham to Holt. At £35 each for the round trip, I will give it a miss! 

Towers and beams

We have a very diverse hobby. My "thing" is getting around the world with simple, low power gear and simple wire antennas. Luckily we are all different and different aspects appeal to different people. Some like chasing DX and like high power, towers and big beams. My neighbours would have a fit! 

10m WSPR TX

A number of years ago I designed and made this very simple TX for 10m WSPR based on low cost GQRP Club crystals on 14.060MHz. If you have suitable crystals you could easily duplicate it. There is still plenty of WSPR on 10m. If you want more power just add more PA transistors in parallel! 

On my main website is the circuit (untried as I recall because of my stroke) of the full transceive version. 

Castle Acre - NOT amateur radio

This is a delightful village on the way to North Norfolk. We stopped here for a coffee and bite to eat. 

Sunspots - Friday September 11th 2020

 Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=2 and K=1. 

Rose Crescent - NOT amateur radio

Rose Crescent is a car free street in Cambridge. Usually it is thronged with foreign visitors at this time of year. This year many are staying away. It still looks good. 

Sunspots - Thursday September 10th 2020

 Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=1 and K=0.

Covid-19 videos - NOT amateur radio

Some months ago I was recommended the YouTube videos made by Dr John Campbell as a good source of data on Covid-19. Although I have only watched some, these do seem to be a good place to find decent data. As an example see the latest video.

 

17m FT8 RX

At the moment (0812z) I am on 17m FT8 RX using the small indoor loop antenna. One spot of a station in European Russia so far RA9DZ (3795km).

UPDATE 0952z:  13 stations spotted so far with RW0CR (8024km) in the Far East as best DX.

UPDATE 1837z:  42 stations in 4 continents spotted today on 17m FT8 RX so far.

UPDATE 2052z: 50 stations in 4 continents spotted on 17m FT8 RX in the last day. QRT soon.

D-star internet access?

OK, I admit my ignorance. 

My question is, "can I access D-star using a computer only?". 

At present I have no D-star equipped radios and was wondering if, like Echolink, one can access it using a computer? If you know the answer, please let me know. 

As far as I know for DMR this is not possible.