Intermittent?

When fiddling with the split mode on my FT817ND I noticed no antenna current on 472kHz from my transverter. When I went back some hours later I checked the 3.2MHz oscillator was running by listening on another rig - it was. To my relief the antenna current was normal. Then it disappeared again. My brain was too foggy to investigate, but it looks like an intermittent in the antenna matching. I shall investigate tomorrow and make a few soldered connections.

Finger trouble with FT817ND?

For reasons I do not understand "split" seems to be working again on the FT817ND. I have not done anything, so perhaps it only works from just one of the VFOs? Anyway, with luck, I can be RX and TX on 472kHz WSPR again tonight. Mystery.

Without "split" my operation on 472kHz was restricted to TX or RX sessions. Now, I should be able to go TX for 25% of the time and RX for 75%.

UPDATE 1758z: Well the "split" ICON is back, but I cannot get it to program! This may be me (finger trouble) or a real hardware fault.

Rain - NOT amateur radio

Today looks like it will be "the pits" of a day.  Already it is raining heavily and there is strong wind forecast. A good day to stay home!

MLS "deals"?

As usual, MLS has sent me an email with their deals this weekend. I am not exactly excited.

The FT991A is selling at £1189.95 after a £135 cashback.  Seems to me like a price hike has been slipped in and this is not a great deal.

ICOM IC-705 transceiver

As many already know, I am a keen QRP man and low power suits me fine. In the past, very few radios have excited me, but the ICOM IC-705 does. When it eventually appears in the UK (late 2020?) I can see myself getting one.

It is 5W from the attached battery and 10W from an external PSU. It covers 160m-70cm including 4m in the European version. This is SDR based like the IC7300 and well suited to my sort of operating. My main bands are 10m, 6m and 2m using FT8.

I can see it appearing in Japan first and then in the USA and Europe. I hope they add an auto ATU in the production units as this seems an omission in a rig that is supposed to be used in the field. Maybe they should make it slightly deeper and include this and a better heatsink?

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/ic705

472kHz WSPR TX (10mW ERP) overnight

Last night was good with spots from Norway and Finbar in the north of Eire. Altogether very satisfying. The table is in distance order and shows the stations who spotted me in the last 12 hours on 472kHz WSPR.

Mud - NOT amateur radio

Every year they have a splendid set of dahlias at nearby Anglesey Abbey. However, the grass in front is always badly churned up. In recent years they have tried to address this issue, but failed. This year they restricted access until the end of August, but now it is a sea of mud. They really want gravel, but this will not look as good of course.

10m FT8

Although a recent FT8 CQ call on 10m was spotted by no-one, I have already spotted 7 stations on 10m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1030z: Now 23 stations in 8 countries spotted here on 10m FT8 RX in the last couple of hours. So far, all are Europeans.

UPDATE 1255z: 52 stations spotted this morning on 10m FT8.  A recent 10m FT8 CQ was spotted by no-one, which rather surprised me.

UPDATE 1530z: Still 52 stations spotted, suggesting that whatever sort of opening we had is now over. A recent 10m FT8 CQ again was spotted by no-one.

Sunspots - Saturday November 2nd 2019

Sunspots return!

Solar flux is 71 and the sunspot number 11. It looks as if the more active side of the sun is now visible again.  A=4 and K=0.

Revised solar data

My favourite site for solar data was updated today.  The candidate for sunspot minimum was June 2019. If correct, we can expect conditions to improve, on average, for several years. Of course, it is still too early to be sure.

See http://www.solen.info/solar/