Sunspots - Saturday 19th

 Solar flux is 96 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=2. This is the first time the SSN has been 0 for many years I think.

10m 200mW WSPR

My beacon was turned on at about 0850z.

UPDATE 1600z: Just spots from the Canary Islands, presumably F2.

6m 1W FT8 (Friday)

 My gear was turned on at about 0850z.

UPDATE 0945z:  Just G3XDV (45km) and M1ABK (70km) spotting me. With Es largely now gone, it reminds me that 6m FT8 could be quite an effective mode for inter-G communications. My 6m ERP is probably less than 1W. With higher power and a beam much better results should be possible. Many years ago the RSGB ran evening 10m activity contests to encourage 10m activity in the quiet solar years. It is far easier to get higher ERPs with a beam on 6m.  On 10m with just 10W SSB and a dipole I could regularly work stations well over 100km away. With, say, 50W on 6m FT8 to a Moxon beam this should be easy.

UPDATE 1604z:  5 stations have spotted me (mainly England) including 1 in Eire.

President Trump

You have to make up your own mind about President Trump. 

I have searched for videos about him. As someone pointed out to me, you have to beware of YouTube algorithms that show you negative videos. 

Mind you, despite trying very hard I have found very few positive ones.

Game changer?

The form factor and price of the recently announced Xiegu  G7250 transceiver could be a game changer. Its price is likely to be under £1000 in the UK. 

As always, there are concerns about bugs with the initial releases from China. There were some I understand on the G90. Over time, the Chinese will get there and undercut the Japanese.

Objectives today

As mentioned yesterday, I have had a very little used RSP1B  SDR receiver for some time. 

Today, I want to install free SDRconnect software and start using the receiver seriously.

See https://sdrplay.com/

UPDATE 0905z: SDRconnect installed.

UPDATE 1731z: Steep learning curve! I am trying to get to know how to use it.

Fossils

We go into the Grand Arcade in Cambridge most weeks. We have probably been doing this for about 15 years. Like many, we never looked down. When we did, it was a surprise to see so many fossils! Most floor tiles have fossils in them.

HamSphere - free year

Don’t ask me why, but I have been granted a free one year pass to HamSphere. I guess this will encourage me to try it in the next year. It is 20 years old next year. 20 years is quite a time. 

As you know, I prefer experimenting but I think it’s fine for chatting.

All this brings into question exactly what is amateur radio? For some it is DXCC, others chatting, others ATV, others satellites etc. All we can say is it is very different things to different people

Sunspots - Friday September 18th

 Solar flux is 97 and the SSN 11. A=9 and K=1.

SDRconnect

I have had an RSP SDR receiver for a long time . Apart from a brief test, it has hardly been used. Over the next few months I want to experiment with it with SDRconnect software that I have to download and install.