Westgate, Canterbury - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows the 1379 Westgate in Canterbury, UK. This is the oldest intact medieval gate in the country.

We stayed near here earlier this week.

Canterbury Cathedral is covered in scaffolding.

New ICOM IC-705 video

Apart from the price, many of us are lusting after the new 10W HF, VHF and UHF radio about to be released by ICOM. In my view this will become a classic in the mode of the FT817. ICOM has tried very hard to make a radio that many of us will want to buy.

2m FT8

As it is Saturday morning, I decided to try 2m FT8.  A recent 2m FT8 CQ was widely spotted from as far apart as Cornwall and Germany . Best DX was a spot by DF6PW (562km) with 1 QSO. On 2m FT8 RX 5 stations spotted so far.

As usual, using 10W and the big-wheel omni antenna.

UPDATE 1127z:  Recent 2m FT8 CQs  have been  spotted by 14 stations in 3 countries. On 2m FT8 RX 14 stations in 2 countries spotted so far.

Stations spotted on 2m FT8
RX so far today

UPDATE 1314z:  31 stations in 5 countries spotted so far today on 2m FT8 RX. An average day today so far. I suspect many of these stations are via aircraft scatter rather than tropo.

Stations spotting me today 

on 2m FT8 TX so far

UPDATE  1416z: 21 stations have spotted me so far today as shown on the map. On 2m FT8 even with 10W and the omni antenna, Germany is in reach every day! FT8 has transformed 2m for me.


UPDATE 1607z:  My most recent 2m FT8 CQ was spotted by 18 stations in 5 countries. So far today, 25 stations in 6 countries have spotted my 2m FT8 TX (10W) today.

Old Lapthorn? - NOT amateur radio

This "photo" is probably about 160 years old. It is on a hand tinted metal plate found when clearing my mother's house when she died some years ago. I had no idea it existed. She looks like a distant relative - maybe my great great grandmother. She certainly looks like a Lapthorn.

Some years ago I met a Lapthorn who moved away from South Devon (where most Lapthorn's are found and where I come from) in the 1700s: he looked just like my uncle!!

We can trace our family history back to the mid 1500s continuously and know we were around in the South Hams of Devon in 1427. We were probably around much earlier in these parts, in prehistoric times.

160m FT8 overnight

Quite a decent session with 670 stations spotted including 10 in North America plus some in the Caribbean and South America.

160m FT8 RX overnight
- stations spotted 

Sunspots - Saturday February 15th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A=3 and K=0.

160m FT8

As I am now back home, I chose to go on 160m FT8. My initial 10W FT8 CQ was spotted by no-one. On 160m FT8 RX 12 stations spotted so far. A more recent CQ was spotted by 2 G stations. As usual, I am using my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

UPDATE 1740z: Now 67 stations spotted on 160m FT RX. Best DX is RW0AR (5585km).

Rallies

My apologies if the rally data is hard to read. In the last few weeks the text I simply import has a white background that many users find hard to read on a web browser. Manually, I could attempt to change this, but it is too time consuming.


Saturday 15 FEBRUARY : BALLYMENA ARC RALLY

Ahoghill Community Centre, 80 Cullybackey Road, Ahoghill BT42 1LA. Doors open at 10.30am and admission is £3. There is free parking on site. There will be traders a Bring & Buy and a prize draw will operate. Light refreshments will be available. Tables are free but must be pre-booked by email to HKernohan@aol.com. More details from Hugh, GI0JEV on 0282 587 1481.


Sunday 16 FEBRUARY : RADIOACTIVE RALLY

Nantwich Civic Hall, Cheshire, CW5 5DG. Free car parking, doors open 10.30am. There will be a Bring and Buy, as well as traders and an RSGB book stall. A single raffle ticket is included with the entrance programme; additional tickets available. Catering is provided on site. Contact Stuart Jackson on 0788 073 2534.


Sunday 16 FEBRUARY : LOMOND RADIO CLUB BRING-n-BUY EVENT

John Connolly Centre, Main Street, Renton G82 4LY. Doors open at 10am. There will be a Bring & Buy, traders and refreshments will be available. Contact Bill at mm0elf@blueyonder.co.uk.


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

A VERY long time ago! - NOT amateur radio

This is a photo of me in 1968. I had hair then!

Sunspots - Friday February 14th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A =3 and K=2.

OFCOM updates

On the OFCOM website there is more earth shattering news. They now have a new chief executive and director of emerging technologies. Guess it keeps them busy.

Canterbury Cathedral - NOT amateur radio

As we were in Canterbury and it was raining, we visited the cathedral. The photo shows the cloisters. There was lots of scaffolding around.

Sunspots - Thursday February 13th 2020

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

St Pancras - NOT amateur radio

We went to Kent to see one of our grandchildren on the stage. We stopped at St Pancras for a coffee. The photo shows the roof. The Eurostar trains to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam leave from here.

70cm

Activity levels on 70cm are much lower than a few years ago. On my website at www.g3xbm.co.uk is a page about 70cm operation. This was written several years ago and since then activity levels have reduced. Personally I think this is sad as in many ways it is a more interesting band than 2m. Tropo openings seem better than on 2m.

Kitchen view - NOT amateur radio

This photo appeared as a Facebook memory from 6 years ago. Since then the hedge has grown well, but the view is much the same from the breakfast table. We can view the windmill whilst munching our toast. It is also visible from the lounge window.

Sunspots - Wednesday February 12th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0.  A=5 and K=1.

70cm activity contest

Starting at 2000z is the RSGB organised activity contest on 70cm (UKAC). As my voice is poor, I use 10W and I have no suitable antennas (I use my 2m big-wheel omni) my time is usually well below an hour. Activity levels are far better than normal on 70cm SSB and there is no compulsion to submit a log. I usually do even though I rarely work a great many stations.

Overall, it is fun. To me, this is how contests should be.  Scoring is simple and there are multipliers for new grid squares.

UPDATE 2115z: Despite my QRP and 2m omni antenna, I managed 7 QSOs in this contest. No great DX worked, but great fun for about 40 minutes.

70cm SSB stations worked this evening

Fewer Far East visitors? - NOT amateur radio

Trinity College, Cambridge

At any time of the year, Cambridge has plenty of visitors from overseas. They come to see the historic college buildings, some of which date back centuries. It is all too easy to take them for granted. This year there are fewer Far East visitors, for obvious reasons. I suspect this year we will see a big hit in visitor numbers from the Far East.

160m FT8 RX

Using my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground I have QSYed to 160m FT8 RX. So far, 65 stations have been spotted. Best DX on 160m FT8 RX so far is R6FFB (3236km).

UPDATE  2137z: Been back on 160m FT8 RX for about 30 minutes. 188 stations spotted this evening so far. No North Americans yet.

17m FT8 RX today

As today is my course in Cambridge I decided to leave my tiny indoor loop antenna monitoring 17m FT8. The map shows the stations spotted so far.

Sunspots - Tuesday February 11th 2020

Solar flux is 70 and the sunspot number 0. I think the more active side is facing away from us. A=5 and K=1.

472kHz WSPR RX overnight

As you may remember, the PA in my transverter has been damaged, so I am on 472kHz RX only. Last night was very disappointing with just LA8AV and F1AFJ spotted here.

160m FT8

Since my temporary repair to my earth-electrode "antenna" I have been on 160m FT8 RX. So far 139 stations spotted with best 160m FT8 RX DX being RC9F (3515km) in Perm.

UPDATE 2200z: Earlier I tried looking on 1907kHz for Japanese stations, but none spotted. Now back on 1840kHz FT8. An earlier FT8 CQ (10W) was spotted across western Europe.

UPDATE 2226z: The first North American spotted was K1UO (4973km). 320 stations spotted so far this evening.

160m FT8 RX spots here this evening so far

Visit

This morning I had a visit from Chris M0PZC, who came to see my antennas and tap me for some information. Me?  The advice I could give him was limited, but probably holds good for many:

• Be prepared to fiddle to see what works for you.
• Don't believe the experts all the time. If you want the very best performance towers, beams and high power could help, but for much of the time compromises will do just fine.
• If wider bandwidths like SSB don't work for you because of local manmade noise use narrower bandwidth modes like FT8.
• On HF bands and 6m (probably 2m too) loft-space antennas and a few radials can work well. Get as much vertical wire up (a quarter wave electrically) as you can and coil this up to make a helical quarter wave if need be. Cut the length to get lowest SWR. Here I am thinking of loft antennas, but the same advice applies outside too.
• On 6m and 2m FT8 aircraft scatter, polarisation does not seem to matter.
• On 10m and 6m sporadic-E (Es) a few watts of SSB to almost any antenna (even a wire dipole indoors) will allow you to have European contacts.  Es is best May, June and July in the UK.
• On HF, I have rarely found polarisation matters.
• Go portable if all else fails.

On 160m SSB my noise level is S9, but with FT8 I have no issues at all on RX or TX.

My overall message is just have fun! Find out what is best for you by playing around. Amateur radio means different things to different people - just enjoy what gives you pleasure.

Snap!

Yesterday I reported that my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground suddenly stopped working. An inspection this morning revealed the issue: my wire had snapped.

I did an emergency repair and the SWR on 160m was back to normal. Sadly the output on 630m was still zero suggesting the output FET has been damaged. Until this can be repaired I shall have to restrict myself to RX only on this band.

20m FT8

As I have no working external antennas on HF at present (my 10m end-fed has a high SWR for some reason now), I am using the tiny magnetic loop antenna on the windowsill. Even on 20m FT8 TX the results continue to amaze me. Already this morning, lots of stations spotted me. For a loop just 40cm diameter with thin copper wire this is just flabbergasting. 

The map shows the stations spotting me (10W) this morning on 20m FT8 with the tiny loop.

Old friends - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday we had our old neighbours around. They lived next-door and were good people.

Oscar 100

As many will know, periodically, I take a peek at the webSDR at Goonhilly, Cornwall, to check activity on the narrowband transponder. This is just an impression and highly unscientific! My quick look yesterday evening in the UK suggests activity levels broadly similar to last time. There were about 9-10 active SSB stations.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Sunspots - Monday February 10th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A=7 and K=1.

Earth-electrode "antenna" damaged?

Suddenly on 630m, the antenna current meter read 0uA. A check on 160m showed high SWR too.  It looks to me like there is damage to the earth-electrode "antenna". Maybe the feed from the far earth may be broken. I shall have to check in the morning.

Return to 472kHz WSPR TX (less than 10mW ERP)

Using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground I have returned to 472kHz WSPR TX.

As the ground is very wet following the storms, it is very likely the ERP is below 10mW and the size of the loop in the ground is smaller than usual. The antenna current measures lower. If the soil conductivity is higher the signal cannot spread out so much as the effective loop area is smaller.

So far, just 4 spots by G0VQH (15km).

UPDATE 1815z: Still just spots from Jenny G0VQH. May later I may get more spots?

UPDATE 1935z:  QRT. Is the earth-electrode "antenna" damaged?

What is enough?

OK, so if you are chasing that last remaining DXCC entity I can imagine a big beam on a high tower and plenty of power might help. However, recently I have been wondering what constitutes "enough" for mere mortals.

As you will probably have read in earlier blog posts, I use about 10W and often far less. On HF I have no external antennas, so have had to make do with a tiny magnetic loop antenna on 20m, 17m, and 15m. I am sure it would be better on higher bands, but these have seemed dead when I tried. On 630m, 160m and 80m, I have used the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. On 6m, 2m and 70cm I frequently use the V2000 omni vertical. On 2m and 70cm, I sometimes use the big-wheel horizontal omni. I have no beams on HF, VHF or UHF.

What the last few days have taught me is simple, compromise, antennas and low power are perfectly fine most of the time. Yes, I am sure more power and better antennas would give better results, but simple antennas and low power will give you lots of fun.

Storm Ciara - NOT amateur radio

At the moment, we have strong wind and rain as a result of Storm Ciara.  At this time of year, this is unusual. Strong winds are more common in October.

Gusts of wind up to 90mph are battering some parts of the UK. It is not as bad here, but I reckon the gusts are up to 60mph. At the moment trees and the like are OK.

20m FT8 again with the magnetic loop

As of a short while ago, I am on 20m FT8 with the small, indoor, magnetic loop and 10W. Already 3 spots of me, but no 2-way QSOs yet. I am still amazed how well this tiny loop works!

UPDATE 1340z: So far today, 16 spots of my 10W to the tiny, indoor, magnetic loop with best DX SM2UHF (2016km). A reminder that the loop is about 40cm across using 1mm copper wire and is just sat on the shack windowsill.

UPDATE 1456z: 19 people have spotted my 20m 10W FT8 to the tiny magnetic loop antenna so far today. On 20m FT8 RX, 143 stations spotted so far with best DX KF0RQ (7489km) in Colorado, USA.

2m FT8 using the big-wheel omni

At about 0900z I QSYed to 2m. Although no stations yet spotted and no QSOs resulted from my recent FT8 CQs, I was spotted by 8 stations in 2 countries with G7RAU (461km) in Cornwall. As stated in an earlier post, I think I see DX by a mixture of "flat band tropo" and aircraft reflection. In the past I have received very similar numbers of stations with the vertical omni as with the horizontal.

UPDATE 0938z: Just 2 stations in 2 countries so far spotted on 2m FT8 RX. Best DX on2m FT8 RX is GD6ICR (397km).

UPDATE 0957z: 8 stations in 3 countries have spotted my CQs (10W to the big-wheel) so far on 2m FT8 today. Best DX is EI3KD (583km).

2m FT8 (10W) spots 

of me so far today

UPDATE 1224z: 19 stations in 4 countries have spotted me so far this morning. An M station called me shortly after I went back to RX only, so we missed a QSO. On 2m FT8 RX 16 spots in 4 countries so far.

Local landmark - NOT amateur radio

Our local church dates from Saxon times over 1000 years ago. It can be seen from miles around.

160m FT8 overnight

Not a bad night but not the best either.  728 stations spotted with North and South America in the log.

160m FT8 RX overnight 

Sunspots - Sunday February 9th 2020

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=1.

Ely cathedral - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday we visited Ely Cathedral. It is very, very old. The photo shows the light inside.