How simple?

Many have wondered just how little do you need to communicate on HF?  Well, running really simple rigs is a compromise often with the receiver being the weakest link. For ideas, try my main website. Use these ideas as a starting point. Half the fun is experimenting to see what works.  Specifically:

https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/80m_xbm80
https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/feter-80m-qrpp-cw-transceiver
https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/chirpy

Hawaiian false alarm - NOT amateur radio

So the people of Hawaii got a (false) message saying "take cover, incoming missile". For several minutes they all expected to die. In the end it turned out that the message was sent by mistake and all was well. It makes you wonder what you would do.

I like the suggestion that everyone in Hawaii should have a drink of their choice at the expense of the Hawaiian government!

More seriously, some will have had strokes, seizures or heart attacks as a result of this (false) message. This was no joke and whoever sent the message deserves the sack.

Antarctic WSPR beacon

Thanks to Southgate News comes a link about a multi-band WSPR beacon and RX in Antarctica. Although my own 500mW 10m WSPR has already been copied in Antarctica some years ago, this will be very useful.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/january/wspr-beacon-on-the-way-to-the-antarctic.htm#.Wlteykx2vIU

Snowdrops - NOT amateur radio

These were at Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridge a few days ago. Another month and there will be snowdrops everywhere!

Back to normal - NOT amateur radio

It looks like the hackers and bots have gone away for another few weeks as blog visits were back to normal yesterday. I think there is little of interest here, unless you are a geek!

10m FT8

After a few minutes on TX, I am now on 10m FT8 RX. No spots as yet.

UPDATE 1042z: Best DX spotted so far on 10m FT8 is OZ1LXJ (805km).

UPDATE 1355z: Just one more G station spotted on 10m FT8 today so far. Very quiet.

UPDATE 1603z: Just one more G and PG0DX (411km) spotted. These could be aircraft reflections.

UPDATE 2000z: No further spots today.

Sunspots - Sunday January 14th 2018

Solar flux is 70 today and the sunspot number remains at zero. A=7 and K=4.

Transatlantic on 472kHz

Last night, with the shack PC on battery power I copied 20 uniques, which is a record with my unbelievably bad antenna and ground. Honestly, you would be hard pushed to make you antenna any worse! The FT817 is also starting to get deaf at 472kHz (630m).

So, I was very pleased to spot N1BUG (4940km) twice last night in the early hours. This is the first time I have spotted any North Americans here at this QTH on WSPR on MF. Believe me, if I can spot across the Atlantic with my setup so can you!

New EbNaut decoder for VLF amateur DX

Paul Nicholson, a very good UK VLF SWL, has created some new software:

"Updated EbNaut decoder for Windows, now at version 0.8

 http://abelian.org/ebnaut/software_ms.shtml

This version does 16K23A which is a useful polynomial
for short messages combined with a large CRC.

The Linux program is up to version 0.9 now.

 http://abelian.org/ebnaut/software_linux.shtml

The only significant change is the use of DSW re-balancing
of the list decoder stack.  This may reduce decode time
a little when using very large list lengths.  It is most
useful when measuring the distance spectrum of a polynomial
where a degenerate tree often develops.
--
Paul Nicholson"

Back to 630m WSPR RX

At about 2130z I returned to 630m WSPR RX with the shack PC on internal battery power so the noise floor is lower. Already 5 unique stations spotted including ON7ZO (355km) who I am sure is new.

UPDATE 2210z: Now 10 unique stations including another new one for me - EA3AER (1142km).