50th wedding anniversary

A few days ago I showed us with our grandchildren. 

The photo shows us with our sons and their children in our back garden. The windmill is behind on the right.

FT7 HF transceiver

 I got mine second hand in 1979. It was a 10W SSB and CW rig covering all bands from 80-10m (no WARC bands then!), but with limited 10m coverage. With it, and wire dipoles, I worked DXCC QRP SSB on 10m. It ranks as one of the very best radios I have ever owned.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/yaesu-ft7 .

6m FT8 RX

After a very brief period with 2.5W TX (3 G spots), I am again on 6m FT8 RX with the V2000 vertical omni antenna. So far, nobody spotted on RX.

UPDATE 0901z:  3 RX spots so far with the furthermost DK8NE (702km).

UPDATE 1202z:  62 stations spotted so far, all in Europe and Africa, probably Es.

UPDATE 1412z:  74 stations spotted on RX today. As far as 6m is concerned, there is still Es about, but there seems to be less of it.

UPDATE 2107z:  124 stations spotted on 6m FT8 today with the furthermost KP4EIT (6834km) in Puerto Rico. I am convinced this is E layer, but not multi-hop Es. We have some other E layer propagation that we do not yet understand. Now QRT.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Saturday)

Since about 0818z, I have been on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW W5OLF TX beacon. No spots of me yet today.

UPDATE 1155z:   4 unique stations have spotted me, with many multiple times.

UPDATE 1323z:  7 unique stations spotted. Yesterday, FY5KE (7110km) in South America spotted me an incredible 78 times! What I find amazing is just how strong signals can be. For example DL2JA (919km) was getting my 500mW at +2dB S/N. This suggests he could have copied my if I was running less than 1uW.

UPDATE 1801z: 12 unique stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1939z:  29 stations have spotted my 500mW with an incredible +15dB S/N from DK6UG.

UPDATE 2024z:  30 stations have spotted me with the furthermost FY5KE (7110km). QRT soon.

Pasties - NOT amateur radio

One of my memories was the taste of certain pasties in Plymouth. These were made by Ivor Dewdney. 

They do pasties by post - very tempting. However, this service is currently unavailable probably as a result of the pandemic.

Pasties were the food of miners in Cornwall. One half was savoury and the other half sweet. The format allowed miners to hold their whole meal in their hands.

Lovely!

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/non-amateur-radio/pasties .

Concentration - NOT amateur radio

This photo shows one of our grandsons concentrating on something. 

I have no idea what it was. It looks like he was on granny's iPad. I think one of the reasons he likes coming here is so he gets fewer nags! 

"What happens at granny's house stays at granny's house".

Sunspots - Saturday July 31st 2021

 Solar flux is 76 and the SSN 0.  A=6 and K=1.

10m beacon list

These days, I prefer to look at FT8 and WSPR activity, but some still prefer to monitor beacons. 

This link was on John EI7GL's blog. It shows 10m beacons as well as other HF and MF beacons.

See http://dl8wx.de/BAKE_KW.HTM

Budding musicians? - NOT amateur radio

Two of our grandchildren yesterday.  Budding musicians?  

This granddaughter is very keen on ballet and is very good.

6m FT8 RX (Friday)

Most of the morning I've been on 6m FT8 RX with the V2000 vertical omni antenna. So far today 54 stations spotted at 1245z with the furthermost HZ1SK (4759km) in Saudi Arabia.

UPDATE 1742z:   271 stations spotted here so far. Mostly EUs via Es.