6m 5W FT8 (Thursday)

My gear was turned on at about 1145z.

UPDATE 1745z:  16 stations have spotted me.  All are in the British Isles.  See  map.

The Tenner QRP CW transceiver

This was a 500mW CW transceiver that I designed and built some years ago. 

It is also on my website. 

It has worked plenty of DX.

FTX-1 and IC-705 head to head

In the end, if you are choosing between these two transceivers, it will be a personal decision based on the way you operate. 

Another factor is price with the IC705 considerably less expensive than the FTX-1 in the UK. In this video, both are compared. The IC-705 has more features built in.

Personally, I would not pay the extra for the FTX-1.  If it was the same price as the IC-705 it might be a harder decision!

Village centre?

In our village, Burwell, we have no real village centre, with shops in various places. 

Perhaps the village centre could be considered as near our local co-op shop where there are a few shops together as in the photo. 

Thursday plans

 Later, I will continue with 500mW 10m WSPR and 5W 6m FT8 probably.

Sunspots - Thursday November 6th

Solar flux is 147 and the SSN 76. A=28 and K=3. 

Wars

We live in more uncertain times with people seeming more angry than they were, In many nations the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. 

In my view, this widening gap between rich and poor is a pointer towards revolution, when the poor say "enough is enough".  Sadly, rich billionaires control most of the media and ways by which people communicate.

I really hope revolution in many nations can be avoided. I hope that those voted into high office look beyond "feathering their own nests" and look to really improve the lot of the common man.

What is happening in the USA is a poor advert for democracy. What is happening in Russia is troubling too.

10m 500mW WSPR (Wednesday)

My beacon has been on since about 1130z.

UPDATE 1324z:  No spots. 

6m 5W FT8 (Wednesday)

My gear was turned on at about 1120z.

UPDATE 1634z: 30 stations have spotted me . See map. It seems that almost all times I go on 6m QRP FT8 TX, I get spotted in mainland Europe.

Making the Pixie better

The Pixie is available as a 40m transceiver extremely inexpensively from China. It is a low power transceiver, but the receiver is a real compromise often suffering from overload from broadcast stations and with poor selectivity. These mods by VK3YE 9 years ago make it a bit better. 

If you are after a really low cost way of getting into amateur radio,  this may be it. There have been several variations of it down the years.

The Pixie and Micro80 are also on my website.