8 Jan 2025

10m 500mW WSPR (Wednesday)

 My QRP beacon was turned on at about 0915z. No spots of me yet at 0929z.


UPDATE 1710z: 
Spotted by 25 stations.

6m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

 My gear was turned on at about 0915z. At 0926z, 3 English spots.

Sunrise- NOT amateur radio

 


This was the sunrise in our close yesterday.

Sunspots - Wednesday January 8th

 Solar flux is 168 and the SSN 113. A=12 and K=2.

7 Jan 2025

10m QRP WSPR (Tuesday)

 Whilst on the 2m activity contest, I turned on the 10m QRP WSPR beacon. At 2047z, no stations had spotted me. I suspect I came on too late.

Magnetic North Pole - NOT amateur radio

 

This was posted earlier and I presume it is correct. It certainly shows how this moves.

Yaesu FTX-1F video

 As mentioned before, the Yaesu FTX-1F (due "early 2025") is meant to be the competitor to the ICOM IC-705 and the successor to the FT817/818 QRP radios. I have not yet heard any more details of specs or price. With the stiff competition, it has to be keenly priced.

I came across this video earlier. Many are trying to show what it can do, but without full specs there are lots of guesses!

A  quick check at  Ham Radio Japan (all in Japanese!) had no more details. I wonder if Yaesu was "testing the waters" to judge interest?  It would not surprise me if Yaesu decided the competition is just too fierce to make any money and drop it even before it is launched. Do you have any more details?

I cannot imagine the IC-905 sells many and makes ICOM any profits.

Amazon algorithms - NOT amateur radio

This has been discussed before I continue to be amazed at how stupid Amazon is with its algorithms and how easy it would be for them to change.

Regularly I get suggestions about what to buy. Here is the thing. These suggestions are almost always based on what I've just bought, meaning it is highly improbable I will want something similar soon. How daft is that!  

Surely the algorithm could be changed to exclude items similar to those recently bought. This is not rocket science!

10m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

My QMX+ was turned on at about 0900z. So far, 37 spots of me at 0929z.


UPDATE 1209z:
316 stations spotted with the furthermost VK6APK (14532km) in Western Australia. My own 10m FT8 QRP has been spotted by 216 stations.

UPDATE 1856z:
580 stations have spotted my 10m QRP FT8 today. Basically, a few watts of 10m FT8 gets all around the planet. 

QRT soon.

"Our" windmill - NOT amateur radio

 

This was "our" windmill next door yesterday.