Kindness

Many times in the last 10 years I have been reminded of the kindness shown to me. 

Complete strangers have offered me help and several have sent me gifts, purely out of kindness, things to make life better. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.  All I can say is the true spirit of amateur radio is alive and well.

It is my belief that there are many more kind people in the world than bad ones. It is just that kindness is, sadly, not sensational or newsworthy.

At some point, I hope that I am able to be as kind to somebody else.

23cm QSO this week?

If he is around, I may try a 23cm SSB QSO with G4BAO. John has a superb 23cm station, so I should certainly be able to copy him. 

My station has an ERP about 40dB less than his. I hope he can copy me! I am still using 2W pep to my 2el beam pointing out of the shack window.

Breaking down barriers

Many years ago in the so called,"cold war", we had many contacts on amateur radio with stations across the world  including many stations that, at that time, were in the USSR.  Some of my best QSL cards are from those years.

I would like to think that these QSOs helped to break down barriers between people. Amateur radio has no interest in politics and never should. We can be black, white, yellow or even green, male, female or in between, left wing, right wing, capitalist or communist. It matters not. We are all just humans with an interest in radio.

Sunshine twins - NOT amateur radio

As teenagers a very long time ago, my wife and I had yellow jackets. Years later we bought some more.

Back in the 1960s my uncle called us "the sunshine twins".  Can't think why!!! 😄

10m FT8 (Sunday)

At 0945z, I turned on my 10m FT8 using the FT-710. So far, spotted by 9 stations and I have spotted 43 stations after just 5 minutes.

Stations spotting me
on 10m FT8 TX
(8W) late morning

UPDATE 1342z: 230 stations have spotted my 8W 10m FT8 TX today (see map). On 10m FT8 RX 698 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1725z:  688 stations have spotted my 8W 10m FT8 today and 1485 stations spotted here. I have not seen 10m this good for many years.

UPDATE 2055z:  1909 stations have been spotted and 817 stations have spotted me today on 10m FT8 with 8W. 

UPDATE 2110z:  QRT.

Oscar 100 narrowband activity

 

Activity levels on the narrow-band transponder of this geosynchronous satellite are still very low with plenty of space. In my view, this satellite is a failure with activity levels way below what was expected.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/.

30 THz experiments

Isn't it great when you read about someone in our hobby doing real experiments that truly explore the boundaries? Such cases are the experiments at 30 THz and above by M0LRH and M7HBL in GQRP SPRAT 193 and 194. Their DX is crossing a field, but to me this is really pushing the boundaries. Excellent!

Sunspots - Sunday March 19th 2023

Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 35. A=8 and K=3.

6m FT8 (Saturday)

As my FT-710 is now working fine with FT8, I am currently on 50.313 MHz FT8  on 6m. So far, (at 1717z) 15 stations have spotted me. On RX I have , so far, spotted nobody, despite a huge number of people monitoring 6m FT8 in Europe. Interestingly, hardy any monitors in Russia. Most monitors are waiting for the Es season before going on TX, it would appear.

UPDATE 1721z:  I guess I could go on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. Don't think I shall bother.

UPDATE 1811z:   18 stations have spotted me (furthermost GW0GEI (308km)) and I have spotted 1 station. Spotting very few on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1825z:  19 stations have spotted me today on 6m FT8 TX (see map).

UPDATE 2005z:   20 stations have spotted me.

Wymondham (pronounced Windum) - NOT amateur radio

Today, we went to Wymondham in Norfolk. This is a delightful market town, not far from Norwich. It has a great abbey. Some of my wife's family lived here once.  It is about an hour away by car.  A friend staying with us drove.

The photo of the meal was taken last year. We visited exactly a year ago.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wymondham .