Sunspots - Tuesday June 21st 2022

Solar flux is 137 and the SSN 112. A=10 and K=2.

Back lawn in June - NOT amateur radio

The rear lawn is still green, but starting to turn brown. It usually recovers in the autumn with dew and rain. 

8m experiment (Monday)

Just EI9KP (649km) spotting me today. Certainly here, I am seeing no evidence of Es propagation from mainland Europe. The same is true of 10m. As I am spotted by EI9KP on 8m FT8 frequently, I am wondering if this really is Es?

Loose ends - NOT amateur radio

At the moment, I seem to be busy with loose ends. 

Last week, we had my wife's 19th sibling reunion. Rather than take it in turns at our homes we went back to stay in an hotel in Barnsley, where they all grew up. It was a very successful get-together, but my wife said it was her last time in Barnsley. She also says she will never go to Devon again. I am compiling my legacy book of projects.

It looks like we are preparing for the worst!   Any one of us could be dead tomorrow. On the other hand, we could live for many years. We just don't know.

The moral seems to be to live, and enjoy, every day as your last.

10m QRP WSPR TX

 At about 1330z, I turned on my 500mW WSPR beacon. So far, no spots of me.

Thatcher's tag - NOT amateur radio

Thatchers often have trademarks which they leave on thatched roofs to show they did the work. 

Often these are pheasants, but this unusual one of a cat made of thatch was seen recently. 

The case for a small UK 8m amateur band

It is true to say that I am fuming by the attitude of OFCOM and the RSGB to a tiny 8m allocation. Let me explain. 

OFCOM seems dead against an amateur allocation and the RSGB appears to just accept this. Our hobby is meant to be about self-training. In my personal experience of RF development, without any doubt the best RF engineers were those who were intrinsically motivated  and "turned on" by RF. I have read countless CVs of electronics graduates who, frankly, were totally useless. I knew more at 16 than they did!! I learnt more from my RAE course than they did with a degree!

If we are really interested in future RF designers, we should be doing all we can to promote "self training".

These are my proposals:

• 40.680 - 40.685 MHz (5 kHz only). This is in the ISM band and widely used internationally
• Narrow digital only (e.g. WSPR, FT8, CW and no speech)
• By NoV only
• Strictly non-interference
• Power limited if need be.

Personally, I would happily lose 5 kHz from any band in trade. Such a narrow allocation with no speech is very unlikely to attract "more of the same" and foster the true purpose of our hobby.

OFCOM and RSGB, wake up!!

Sunspots - Monday June 20th 2022

 Solar flux is 144 and the SSN 120. A=12 and K=2.

10m QRP WSPR TX

My 10m 500mW WSPR beacon was turned on at 0810z. Yesterday I got 7 unique station spots all in Europe by what I assume is Es. No spots yet today.

UPDATE 1656z:  32 unique stations have spotted me. This looks like a mixture of Es and F2.

8m experiment (Sunday)

My 8m QRP gear was turned on 40.680 MHz USB dial FT8 (first) TX at 0810z.

UPDATE 1153z:  Spotted by 2 stations with 1 FT8 "QSO" with a station in Slovenia. As this is a simple exchange of reports and QTH, I am treating this as completely within the terms and spirit of my 8m licence. I want to know how my QRP signal in received in Slovenia. This is a perfect way.

UPDATE 1839z: Spotted 6 stations in 6  EU countries.

UPDATE 2138z: 7 stations have now spotted my QRP on 8m FT8.