20 Feb 2020

160m FT8 RX

At about 2130z I went on 160m FT8 RX for the overnight period. As of now (2135zz) 26 stations, all in Europe, have been spotted.

UPDATE 2205z: Now 60 stations so far spotted, all European.
Stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX
so far this evening so far

2m FT8 RX

For most of the day I have been on 2m FT8 RX. Then it hailed so I unplugged everything.
2m FT8 RX today 

Kids will be kids - NOT amateur radio

Today we went with some of our grandchildren to Ely. We ate in the Almonry that has been serving food since the 1200s (very old!), went to the cathedral and ended up at Oliver Cromwell's house. Then it hailed and rained heavily!
Rolling down the slope

Sunspots - Thursday February 20th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A=14 and K=3.

19 Feb 2020

Hare Park, Chippenham - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday, we went of a walk at Hare Park, Chippenham near here.  As the photo showed yesterday as well, there are plenty of snowdrops!

Grabber issues

For most of the day, I have been struggling to automatically save screen shots to my webpage. As of now I have not found a way. In the end I shall succeed.

2m FT8

For most of the day I have been on 2m FT8 RX.  It is now 1950z. So far 38 stations in 7 countries spotted. Earlier in the day I was briefly on 2m FT8 TX.
Stations spotted on 2m FT8 so far in the last day

Sydney, Australia lightning - NOT amateur radio

Coming in to land on a plane in the middle of the worst lightning storm must have been pretty hairy as this BBC video shows. Many years ago I landed at London, Stansted in a thunderstorm: I was glad to be on the ground!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-australia-51555851/sydney-storm-thunder-and-lightning-thrash-australian-city

160m FT8 overnight

Last night I was again on 160m FT8 RX. With 367 stations spotted, it was a reasonable night.
160m FT8 RX overnight 

Sunspots - Wednesday February 19th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A=14 and K=5.

18 Feb 2020

160m FT8

Not long ago I QSYed to 160m FT8 RX. So far over 100 stations spotted, although none from North America yet.
160m FT8 RX spots to 2240z 

2m FT8

Now on 2m FT8 for the day. My initial CQ (10W to the big-wheel omni) was spotted by 10 stations in 4 countries, but no QSOs. Best DX was a spot by GI6ATZ (479km). Fewer stations spotted on RX thus far. At  the moment I am RX on 2m FT8 RX only.

Still looking at how to put online what I see on WSJT-X.

Southgate News

As regular visitors know, I often include links to stuff on Southgate News. Quite frequently they include things of interest and where this happens I try to point visitors to take a look. They seem to collect news items from several sources, so not everything is relevant.

I am not a great fan of Tony's 10m news.

See http://southgatearc.org/

Making WSJT-X screengrabs public

As mentioned yesterday, David G0LRD has a very useful feature on his QRZ.com page. If you go to the link provided you can see what 2m FT8 looks like at his QTH. I have already used this to see if my signal is OK. At the moment, I am not sure how he does this, but it looks a good feature.

Now, in the past I used Spectrum Lab to create a VLF grabber. I need to find out the best way for me, as I am definitely not a software expert!

If I can save the WSJT-X page image to Dropbox and make this public I think I can do it. I'll investigate. If not, I shall have to ask David! It would be good to be able to do this for any mode and any band that I am on.

HELP!!! Can someone please tell me how to automatically save screenshots or active windows panels to Dropbox?  I know how to do this with "prt sc" but want to do this automatically. Basically I need to do this regularly, without manual intervention, whenever WSJT-X is on.

160m FT8 overnight

Even though I was late getting on the band last night it wasn't a bad night with plenty of North Americans spotted. Nothing from the Caribbean or South America though.
160m FT8 RX stations spotted overnight 

Sunspots - Tuesday February 18th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A =7 and K=3.

17 Feb 2020

160m FT8

Rather later than usual I have QSYed to 160m FT8 RX. This happened at 2240z.

80m ferrite rod TX antenna

Jay W5OLF has kindly said keep the antenna. So, later in the week I shall try to resonate it on the correct WSPR and FT8 frequencies and try some NVIS and other TX tests.

Nearly every American I have dealt with has been kind and generous. Jay, thank you!

Football money - NOT amateur radio

Writing in The Times newspaper today, Matthew Syed argues that owners and not clubs should be banned. Recently, a famous UK soccer team was banned from a European competition for 2 years for breaking rules. Syad states (allegedly) that one of Manchester City's owners, a wealthy middle east sheikh, has not attended a club game since 2010!

This is the trouble with some sports these days: it is more about profits than gamesmanship. Owners can be detached and have little knowledge of, or interest in, the game.

Personally, I would like to see limits on ownership and caps on wages for players. If this results in smaller profits so what? Surely there is enough untapped talent around.

I would like to see a ban on owners purely interested in personal gain. No idea on policing, but I have a hatred of people in it for personal gain. Soccer is a game, not a business.

Angry sky - NOT amateur radio

This morning, the sun was shining. Now it is changeable with some sun then angry clouds. A few moments ago the sky behind "our" windmill looked very dark and threatening. Now we have blue sky again!

Giddiness - NOT amateur radio

Whilst at Chippenham Park to see the snowdrops before lunch I was able to compare how I felt last year with this.

Driving there and back feels much more stressful than it was. 45mph feels to me like 60mph! I feel more tired and giddy than I remember a year ago. It is hard to tell whether these things are just old age or as a result of my 2013 stroke.

I feel older than I did. Now that is a daft thing to say! What I mean is I feel older in myself. Yes, I know we all get older all the time!  😀

Snowdrops - NOT amateur radio

Today we went to Chippenham Park near us to see the snowdrops. There were plenty out as well as daffodils, but they will soon be past their best.

2m FT8

At about 0920z I QSYed to 2m FT8. My initial CQ was spotted by 6 stations including 2 in Cornwall.

As usual running 10W to the big-wheel.

UPDATE 1453z:  Recent 2m FT8 CQs (10W) were spotted by 16 stations in 5 countries. On 2m FT8 RX quite quiet with just 11 stations in 4 countries spotted so far. I guess some people are at work.

UPDATE 1606z: G0LRD has a very useful real-time FT8 grabber allowing me to see my 2m FT8 signal in real time. It looks relatively clean, although it is hard to be sure when it is very strong.

See http://82.71.9.63:8080/cap/

Stations spotting my 10W
2m FT8 today to 1705z
UPDATE 1705z: Now 21 spots of my 10W 2m FT8 signal today. I have been called several times in the last hour, but sadly no 2-way QSOs.

UPDATE 2043z:  Now 30 stations in 6 countries spotted my 10W 2m FT8 today.

160m FT8 overnight

Overnight was another good session on 160m FT8 RX. Plenty of stations spotted in North America and South America as well as elsewhere. Overall 408 stations were spotted.
160m FT8 RX overnight
- stations spotted here

G3XBM history

Although this has been on before, some may be interested in how I got into the hobby. Even now, nearly 60 years later I still get fun from it.

Amateur radio means different things to different people. Some just like chatting, some ATV, others repeaters, others satellites, others QRP, others moonbounce and so on.

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

Evolving language - NOT amateur radio

At one time the over-use of "like" and going up at the end of sentences really grated on me. Then I realised that speech and language have always been evolving and that I should just shut up. I guess as we become more global, language will be increasingly evolving. Oh, I really am a grumpy old man!

60m beacon

Southgate News reports that the 5MHz Westmorland beacon is to close, leaving just GB3RAL active in the UK on that band. I guess these days people can use FT8 or WSPR to check propagation. Personally I prefer FT8 to beacons. WSPR would be better still, but there is less activity.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/february/uk-5-mhz-beacon-to-close.htm#.XkmeiI6TK00

Sunspots - Monday February 17th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the sunspot number 0. A=3 and K=1.

16 Feb 2020

160m FT8

At about 1700z, I QSYed to 160m FT8. Already, 10 spots of my 10W to the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground with the best DX being DG9BBC (522km).

UPDATE 1740z: 15 stations have spotted my 10W FT8 TX so far with best DX spotting me being OE9GHV (869km). On 160m FT8 RX 61 stations spotted so far.

UPDATE 1815z: 17 stations spotting me this evening on 160m FT8 TX (10W).

UPDATE 1935z: Now spotted by 26 stations on 160m FT8 TX (10W) with best DX being EA1JO (1167km).  On 160m FT8 RX 204 stations spotted with best DX spotted being RW9JZ (4318km).

UPDATE 2027z: My recent 160m FT8 CQ (10W) was spotted by 23 stations in Western Europe. See map.
Stations spotting my last 10W 160m FT8 CQ 
UPDATE 2056z: After spotting 284 stations on 160m FT8 RX, I have moved to 1908kHz RX in the hope of spotting a few Japanese stations in the next few hours. I shall move back to 1840kHz FT8 RX overnight.

UPDATE 2312z: Back on 1840kHz. A recent FT8 CQ was spotted widely in Western Europe. As yet no North Americans spotted. No Japanese tonight on 1908kHz.

The arrow of time - NOT amateur radio

Our everyday experience is that time moves from the past to the future. This is also the basis of all physical laws I think.

Our whole experience of time may be an illusion. What we think are our memories of the past may not be so.

I often wonder if the arrow of time could be reversed.

UK floods - NOT amateur radio

For about 50 years I have lived in East Anglia. For most of that time, it was the driest part of the UK. For several years now it has been much wetter and milder:  now snow and frosts are quite rare.

Whatever the reason, the climate is changing. My personal view is that this is to a great deal due to our influence. There is a certain wise (?) American who thinks that climate change is all a Chinese hoax.  Only today my brother sent me a video of the floods at his home in Devon.

80m ferrite rod TX antenna

Jay, W5OLF has very kindly loaned me a ferrite rod TX antenna that he had been using with 100mW WSPR as a TX antenna in Texas.

Sadly, on a couple of rigs this seems to peak too high in the band. From past experience adding a large capacity across the 50 ohm winding transforms to a much smaller capacitance across the secondary winding. So, I would have expected the resonance point to have shifted LF. I tried a 220pF across the 50 ohm winding but I could not detect an LF shift! The last thing I want to do is alter the antenna itself. At the moment I am puzzled. Maybe the capacitance needs to be much larger. I shall try this next.

If made resonant, I was going to try this on 80m WSPR and FT8.

Some years ago I was surprised how effective a ferrite rod could be on QRP TX.

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

UPDATE 1105z: I tried 790pF across the 50 ohm winding and the resonance showed no visible change. I suspect Jay has configured this as a vertical Marconi and not as a conventional ferrite loop. The antenna is encased in heat shrink, so I am unsure of his configuration. Both he and I had assumed a "plug and play" situation!

2m FT8

Just before breakfast, I QSYed to 2m FT8. An initial CQ was spotted by 3 G stations. On 2m FT8 RX 5 stations in 3 countries spotted so far.

Still using 10W to the big-wheel omni antenna.

UPDATE 1005z:  At present, 7 stations spotting me on 2m FT8 TX with the best spot being by DF6PW (562km). No 2-way QSOs yet on 2m FT8.  On RX 12 stations spotted so far. It never fails to amaze me how far my simple station gets on 2m FT8 TX.

UPDATE 1128z: Now 21 stations in 4 countries spotted today on 2m FT8 RX. On TX, 21 spots so far of my 10W in 3 countries with 1 G QSO.

UPDATE 1221z:  22 stations have spotted me so far today on 2m FT8 TX.  Three 2m FT8 QSOs today so far.

UPDATE 1410z:   Now spotted by 30 stations in 5 countries so far today on 2m FT8.

UPDATE 1650z: The map shows where my 10W 2m FT8 has been spotted today so far.  In total 5 QSOs and 36 spots on 2m FT8 TX with 10W and the omni antenna.

Weaver's cottage - NOT amateur radio

This cottage in Canterbury dates from 1500.
Weaver's Cottage, Canterbury 

5MHz in France

Southgate News reports that France has authorised the use of the WRC15 60m band.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/february/wrc-15-60m-band-now-authorized-in-france.htm#.XkkKG46TK00

160m FT8 overnight

Overnight I was on 160m FT8 RX again. Overall it was quite a good night with stations spotted in North America and South America as well as several others including Japan last evening. As usual, still using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.
Stations spotted on 
160m FT8 RX overnight 

Sunspots - Sunday February 16th 2020

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

15 Feb 2020

160m FT8

For the last few hours I have been on 160m FT8 using 10W and the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. At 2300z 159 stations spotted so far. An earlier CQ was spotted widely in western Europe.

At the moment I am monitoring 1908kHz in the hope of catching a few Japanese stations on FT8. A few Europeans are operating up there, but nothing spotted from Japan as yet.

UPDATE 2212z: The first Japanese station JA4LKB spotted on 160m FT8. Yet again, for reasons I do not understand, this was not reported on PSKreporter.

UT1FG/MM

A recent 2m FT8 CQ got a reply and QSO with UT1FG/MM. I am not sure where he was located, but it was good to get called by a /MM station on 2m. I did not see this station on PSKreporter. He was calling several German stations later, so I guess he is somewhere in the southern North Sea.

Not an amateur radio tower

I have never had a head for heights! Luckily, this is not one of my amateur antennas!