Spring - NOT amateur radio

For the first time this year, we enjoyed coffee in the garden. 

Although still quite cold (12 deg C) it was sunny and spring like.  There are buds on the trees.

This is our front garden. We had coffee on the bench just out of the photo on the left.

6m FT8 (Monday)

 At about 1035z, I turned on my 6m FT8 using the FT-710. Almost immediately, 2 UK spots of me.

UPDATE 1053z:   Already 9 English spots of me on 6m FT8 TX.

UPDATE 1146z:   12 spots of my 6m FT8 TX so far.

UPDATE 1254z:   Spotted so far by 15 stations. All were in the UK. No spots on RX.

Stations spotting me today

UPDATE 2056z:  Spotted by 35 stations today on 6m FT8 TX.

Sunspots - Monday April 3rd 2023

Solar flux is 127 and the SSN 54. A=15 and K=2.

6m FT8

Already 18 spots of me (I have been on for about 30 minutes) with the furthermost SP9LJE (1259km). Only G3XDV spotted on RX so far. 

UPDATE 0949z: 20 stations in 4 countries have so far spotted me on 6m FT8 TX with the omni V2000 vertical antenna.

Plans for Sunday

Currently, I hope to be on 6m FT8. It is still a bit too early for the big Es openings but, despite this, I seem to be widely spotted. 

I think I shall give 8m a miss until a bit later in the spring. Then I hope to monitor both FT8 and WSPR at just above 40.680 MHz.

Amateur radio below 9kHz

 

This was 2011. It is a long time since I did experiments at sub-9kHz

4m Homebrew transverter

 

I came across this photo yesterday. 

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/homebrew/4m-transverter .

"Our" windmill - NOT amateur radio

This photo was taken in 2016 and shows our windmill next door.  The windmill is part of the very impressive Burwell Museum that opens next weekend after the winter.  It is open Thursdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays Easter until late October. The views from the fully restored 200 year old windmill are impressive.

15m Pipit transceiver

This photo of my homebrew 15m QRP CW transceiver was found when I was looking through some old stuff. This was an 800mW transceiver. It worked very well and was the only rig used for several months.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/15m-qrp-cw-pipit .

Sunspots - Sunday April 2nd 2023

 Solar flux is 125 and the SSN 23. A=13 and K=3.