Lyrid Meteor Shower

Space Weather reports we are in the middle of the Lyrid meteor shower. Compared with some showers, this is not that big. A solar storm is passing.

10m FT8 RX

Yesterday was remarkable with 11 South Americans spotted on 10m FT8. After a brief period calling CQ earlier, I reverted to 10m FT8 RX. As yet, no spots (at 0822z) here on 10m today.

UPDATE 0838z: G7BXU (124km) spotted. Aircraft?

UPDATED 1454z: Lots of Southern Europeans spotted earlier on 10m FT8 RX. Could this be Es? Also South Africa and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean spotted on 10m FT8 RX this afternoon.

Rally reminder

One of our "local" rallies is today. Sadly, I am not going, but this is a reminder for those able to go.

22 APRIL 2018 : CAMBRIDGE REPEATER GROUP RALLY

Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton, Cambridge, Cambs CB22 6RN. There is free car parking at the venue, Doors open at 9.30am with traders gaining access from 7.30am. Entry is £2. There will be a talk in station on the air. There will be traders, a Bring & Buy and an RSGB book stall. Catering will be available on site. Contact Lawrence M0LCM on 07941 972 724, or email rally2018@cambridgerepeaters.net www.cambridgerepeaters.net.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

Sunspots - Sunday April 222nd 2018

Solar flux is 75 (quite high for this part of the solar cycle) and the sunspot number 34 (remarkably high for where we are in the solar cycle). A=12 and K=2.

Summer migrant birds - NOT amateur radio

Well, just one house martin seen here so far. No swallows, no sand martins. I have heard lots of chiffchaffs. Several reports of cuckoos locally, but not seen or heard one. So far, a disappointing spring on the bird front. Swifts usually arrive here in early May, although I suspect these will be later arriving, in any number, this year. Screaming swifts are a major part of a UK summer. In June, swifts are one of the most common birds seen here.

SAQ (17.2kHz VLF CW) on air May 1st 2018

Apparently, the historic alternator CW VLF station SAQ Grimeton, Sweden, is being fired up on May 1st. This is the first time since 2016. I have a QSL card from them, which came many years ago.

See http://alexander.n.se/?lang=en

Ephemeral Spring - NOT amateur radio

Spring is ephemeral. At the moment, we have fresh green leaves and blossom. Sadly, in a few weeks this will all be gone.

10m FT8 RX

Yet again I am monitoring 10m FT8 RX. Yesterday was good with lots of real DX and already today Germany and Holland have been spotted.

UPDATE 1125z: Currently 6 unique stations in 4 countries, all in Europe, on 10m FT8 RX so far today. Best DX spotted today is OE3KLU (1233km).

UPDATE 1625z: Now 11 stations in 4 countries spotted on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 2020z: Unbelievable! No less than 11 South Americans spotted on 10m FT8 RX this evening. In addition, a couple of stations in the Canary Is. Is this TEP or F2 layer or Es layer linking with TEP further south?

Sunspots - Saturday April 21st 2018

Solar flux is 73 and the sunspot number 14. A=47 and K=3.

UK rally

22 APRIL 2018 : CAMBRIDGE REPEATER GROUP RALLY

Foxton Village Hall, Hardman Road, Foxton, Cambridge, Cambs CB22 6RN. There is free car parking at the venue, Doors open at 9.30am with traders gaining access from 7.30am. Entry is £2. There will be a talk in station on the air. There will be traders, a Bring & Buy and an RSGB book stall. Catering will be available on site. Contact Lawrence M0LCM on 07941 972 724, or email rally2018@cambridgerepeaters.net www.cambridgerepeaters.net.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

A bit out of touch?

Only today I found out that the GB3PY UHF repeater is moving (or has moved?) to new frequencies to avoid interference. This was announced last December, and only now have I found out! It must be ages since I last had a QSO via a repeater as you can tell.

See http://www.cambridgerepeaters.net/2017/12/gb3py-frequency-change/

Optical kit

One of my Facebook memories today is of testing my 481THz optical kit in the garden of the old QTH. In those days I was fit and well. These days, field work has proved impossible although I still hope to restart one day. The photo is here as a reminder (to me!).  And, no, I was not looking at that attractive girl up the street!

All the optical kit was homemade and easy to assemble and test in the back of the garage with very basic test gear. Even the software used was free. Over the horizon testing with optical kit was challenging and great fun. Results amazed me.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/optical

10m antenna for the Es season

As we are about to enter the Es (sporadic-E) season in the northern hemisphere, quite a few people will be looking for a quick, simple, effective and low cost antenna for 10m. May I introduce the Homebase-10 antenna?

By scaling the size, it will also work on 6m and 4m too. At the old QTH it was used for many years. You'll be hard pressed to find something as simple as effective. It appeared in Practical Wireless some years ago.

This has been on this blog before, but many will not have seen it I guess.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/homebase

Still no swallows - NOT amateur radio

By now, I have usually seen a swallow back from South Africa. They started arriving in Devon in March, but as yet, I have still not seen one! Numbers are dropping, but this is now very late.

10m FT8

After a very brief TX period, (no reports) I am again monitoring 10m FT8 RX, more in hope than expectation. But, if you do TX, I shall be there, HI.

UPDATE 0634z: Well there's a surprise! DB6LL (651km) in the Hamburg area has already been spotted on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 0816z: No further spots so far today.

UPDATE 1634z: 10m FT8  spots from Indonesia, Middle East, Africa and South America. A good 10m FT8 day without a doubt. Sunspot number? Zero!

Where I was born and brought up - NOT amateur radio

Until I went to university, I lived in the South Hams of Devon. This picture was taken 8 years ago, but it probably hasn't changed much in 1000 years. We know my ancestors owned a piece of land near here in 1428. I can trace the family tree right back to  about 1550 with no breaks. Our family has probably been hereabouts for thousands of years.  BTW, Thurlestone (this place) means "rock with a hole" so Thurlestone Rock has been there a long time!

Sunspots - Friday April 20th 2018

Solar flux is 70 today. Sunspot number remains zero. A=5 and K=1.

New Software

I just downloaded WSJT-X V1.9 rc3 and it seems to work fine with stations spotted from all over Europe on 40m FT8 RX in the last 15 minutes.

Kings - NOT amateur radio

As we are "local" we get cards which give us free entry into the Cambridge colleges. People come right across the world to see sights we take for granted. One photo shows Kings College Chapel and another the Wren Library and some punts.

International Marconi Day

21 APRIL 2018 : INTERNATIONAL MARCONI DAY

To register your official Marconi site station please email crac.imd@gmail.com or visit www.gb4imd.co.uk.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

Where we ate yesterday - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned before we visited Harleston and Diss yesterday. We ate lunch in Harleston in an antiques centre surrounded by old books and ephemera.

WSJT-X V1.9 rc3

A look at the Princeton site shows there is a WSJT-X V1.9 rc3 available. I need to check more often!

See https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html

rc3 means "release candidate 3", so further changes are still possible before it is "officially" released.

40m FT8 RX

Overnight, I remained on 7.074MHz FT8 RX.

North and South America, Caribbean, Asia , Africa and loads of Europeans spotted. Overall, quite amazing.

Even North America spotted in the last few hours.

In the next few hours I shall probably go QRT and download the latest version of WSJT-X.

Sunspots - Thursday April 19th 2018

Solar flux has risen to 71, although the sunspot number is still zero. A=6 and K=1.

Diss - NOT amateur radio

Today we visited Harleston and Diss.

In our view Harleston was a dump, but Diss was a charming old town on the edge of a mere. People in Diss that we came into contact with were helpful and kind.

Suddenly, the sun was out and it was hot: the best day this year so far.

40m FT8 RX

As a complete change, I am on 40m FT8 RX this evening. There are lots of stations being received. Best DX spotted so far is A45XR (5794km). Considering my antenna (very low) I am amazed.

UPDATE 2012z: Best DX spotted on 40m FT8 RX is XV3GMI (9739km) in Vietnam.

UPDATE 2035z: Now PY6HD (8101km) spotted on 40m FT8 RX this evening.

Spring? - NOT amateur radio

It has seemed a never ending, dull winter with no spring. Yesterday was different: warm sunshine and the first real day that felt like spring. The next few days are promising too. The collage shows nearby Anglesey Abbey bursting out with fresh green leaves.

Super VHF/UHF/SHF DX via noctilucent clouds?

In the next few months noctilucent clouds are often seen. There is a possibility that these are responsible for the very long 6m paths that regularly open from western Europe to Japan in the early summer. These openings are as regular as clockwork in the early summer, and then they just stop. It is a very long way on 6m and the conventional wisdom that this is multi-hop Es to me seems very unlikely. Last June, several Japanese stations were spotted on 6m JT65, even on my omnidirectional vertical.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/noctilucent

Digital mode frequencies (Region 1)

If you are like me, you will be unsure of the commonly used frequencies in Region 1 for various digital modes. I found this link helpful as a reminder.

See http://www.qsl.net/sv1grb/psk31.htm

Sunspots - Wednesday April 18th 2018

Solar flux is 68 today and the sunspot number 0.  A=4 and K=2.

2m UKAC Results

The results are out for the 2m UKAC activity contests organised by the RSGB. In the low power section I am 66th out of 132 places. Considering I only use 5W to an omnidirectional antenna and usually stay on for around 30 minutes, I am quite happy.

Beetle - NOT amateur radio

This very iridescent beetle was seen earlier today at Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridge, UK. It is probably a very common sort.

10m FT8 RX

After a very brief period on TX, I am again on 10m FT8 RX. Not unexpectedly, no spots. At least I try!

UPDATE 1042z: No 10m FT8 spots here today so far.

UPDATE 1134z: G7BXU (124km) near or in Reading spotted. This could be tropo or aircraft reflection (Heathrow stack?). Nothing else so far today.

UPDATE 1156z: Now G4YBI (83km) to the east of London spotted. This is already 100% better than yesterday.

UPDATE 1629z: No further spots here today on 10m FT8 RX. Not exactly promising, but I'll monitor until about 0830z "just in case" there is some real DX. Then I'll try a different band for a while.

UPDATE 2024z: No further 10m FT8 spots today, so time to go QRT.

End of season on 472kHz?

Last night I was on 472kHz WSPR RX. Only 3 different stations were received, whereas earlier in the year I copied 12-15 different stations in the same sort of period and with the same gear and antenna. My conclusion is the "season" is ending and there are now fewer stations active. I guess many will return later in the year.

2m FT8 RX - not today

As you will have seen from earlier posts, 2m FT8 has been a true revelation. The 15 second TX periods mean even very short openings are now seen. As a result, unheard of DX (at least for me!) is being copied even with my omnidirectional antenna. When I do go on TX (maybe for 3 minutes a day) I am regularly copied over 300km despite only using 2.5W QRP.

6m - magic band

In the Es season, this is a great band allowing a long way to be worked with QRP and simple antennas. This summer, it is likely to be even better with FT8. Although FT8 activity on 6m is currently well down on 2m, I suspect this will soon change once we see some E-layer DX.

Last spring and summer, quite a lot of real DX (outside Europe) was copied on 6m JT65. This year, I shall probably concentrate on FT8 to see what can be spotted.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/6m_op

Ant (of Ant and Dec) - NOT amateur radio

Allegedly, Ant (a UK TV star) has been fined £86k and banned from driving for being over the drink-drive alcohol limit. He is very sorry for his actions. Sadly, his reputation has been badly dented.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-43786771

The Liner-2

This was the very first 2m SSB rig available in Europe and it revolutionised 2m.

I first got mine second-hand in the mid-1970s and was amazed how far one could work on 10W of SSB, especially as before I'd only used a few watts of FM or AM. Stations that I could never imagine hearing, let alone working, suddenly were within my grasp, even with just a dipole or HB9CV antenna. This was the experience of many in those exciting early days of SSB in Europe when activity was around 145.41MHz.

The Liner-2 had plenty of faults! It was basically a modified 10m rig and produced lots of spurii, especially if the power was pushed up. Many used it with a 9 element Tonna antenna and a 30W linear. Having said all that, I was able to work some amazing DX with a simple, indoor antenna and the Liner-2 barefoot.

There was also a 70cm version produced by Belcom, although I never owned one or even saw one.

In its day, it was a trailblazer. We have come a very long way since then.

Sunspots - Tuesday April 17th 2018

Solar flux is 69 today. The sunspot number is zero. A=3 and K=1.

472kHz WSPR RX

After a very disappointing day on 10m (28MHz) FT8 in which just a single G was spotted, I have now moved to MF RX. The shack PC is on battery power which should be good until early morning with a nice quiet noise floor.

As yet, no spots, even after 20 minutes. I am beginning to think some of the regulars have gone QRT until the autumn.

UPDATE 2102z: Just a single spot of PA3ABK (306km) so far this evening. At least the gear is working!

UPDATE 2124z: Now DK2DB (685km) spotted.