Chippenham Park, Chippenham, Cambs - NOT amateur radio.

This afternoon the sun was shining and we fancied a different walk, so we visited Chippenham Park (sometimes called Hare Park), at Chippenham, Cambs. This is a private property but it is open to the public on certain days. The spring flowers were out. Kings Edward VII and George V came here for shooting parties in the early 1900s.

Don't confuse this with Chippenham in Wiltshire. This park is surrounded by a wall that would have cost a small fortune when it was built centuries ago. The wall is many miles long

AmateurRadio.com

There is some good stuff on these pages. Today, for example, are some tips on how to organise RF connectors. I fall into the "disorganised" category just shoving mine in a drawer, although I do not have that many.

See http://www.amateurradio.com/  .

Solar data link working

See http://www.solen.info/solar/ .

I was very pleased to find this link worked fine today. I find this site a great resource. I hope others do too. Maybe they had a short-term issue? 

Looking at the data, the smoothed sunspot number has almost halved since the peak. 10m conditions are still quite good on many days though and it is far too soon to give up on the band.

Sunspots and 10m - Sun Feb 28th 2016

Solar flux is 90 today and sunspot number 37 (K=2). The propagation forecast for 10m remains "poor" again. I have been on 10m WSPR (was on 40m WSPR) since about 1015z.

UPDATE 1032z:  Unsurprisingly, no 10m WSPR spots, as yet, apart from an exchange with local G4KPX (14km).

UPDATE 1148z:   Only Gs on 10m WSPR this morning. G8VDQ (93km) has just been spotted. 

Return to 40m WSPR

Since returning to 40m WSPR (from 10m WSPR earlier this evening) I have been spotted in the USA several times and have spotted XP3A (3206km) in GP44de a couple of times. This is Nuuk in Greenland.

Kit Building Page of Chuck Adams, K7QO

A useful page explaining kit building techniques at K7QO.

See http://www.k7qo.net/k7qo-kits.html.

Only Gs on 10m here today

Today has been disappointing on 10m WSPR with just G stations copied so far. I shall stay on the band until after dark, but I fear no DX spots will be exchanged on 10m WSPR today. This is a great pity. I am sure a lot has to do with fewer stations and not conditions. I'll be back on 10m tomorrow after breakfast.

UPDATE 1900z:  G4CUI (172km) has been spotted several times this evening by what looks like aircraft reflections on 10m WSPR. I shall probably QSY shortly but I have not yet decided onto what band.

UPDATE 1620z: So far on 10m WSPR just one non G spot by EA8/LA3JJ (2870km) around lunchtime. I also spotted him. I assume this was single hop F2. The question is will we see any USA spots on 10m WSPR later?

Windmill - NOT amateur radio

This is the view from our lounge window. The photo was taken through the glass. The wind is from the east, so cold. The windmill is nearly 200 years old.

The buildings on the right are our local museum open Thursdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays Easter-October. Our grandchildren love it. The windmill forms part of the museum.

See http://www.burwellmuseum.org.uk/ .

Heathkits

The resurrected Heathkit company has launched a dual band antenna.  As much as I want them to succeed is this the best they can do?

They absolutely have to produce decent kits at decent prices or they will not survive. Their offerings so far do not exactly set the world alight. No, the offerings so far have not excited me. Years ago I started out with a Heathkit  Electronics Workshop. Years later I had an HW8 which gave me loads of contacts with small wire antennas.

Please, think of your potential customer base, think about prices, and look at your competitors. I have no doubt a few loyal USA customers will support you, but far far more is needed in the competitive world of the 21st century.

Amazingly low cost Chinese kits

See http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/262131628596?adgroupid=13585920426&hlpht=true&hlpv=2&rlsatarget=pla-131843262066&adtype=pla&ff3=1&lpid=122&poi=&ul_noapp=true&limghlpsr=true&googleloc=1006598&device=c&chn=ps&campaignid=207297426&crdt=0&ff12=67&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff14=122&viphx=1&ops=true&ff13=80

There are some amazing bargains on eBay. The link above is for a full Pixie 40m CW transceiver kit with sockets, PCB, IC and crystal all for £2.30 delivered free. There are other kits available including the Frog which is more expensive but has more power and a better RX. Last year I bought a 40m Pixie kit from a different Chinese supplier and it worked well first time on the air.

You'd be very hard pressed to buy the crystal for the price of the full kit delivered free.  With these sort of prices it is hard to go wrong.