Although I have not used AM recently, partly as a result of my poor voice, I can see the attraction of the mode. It lends itself to home brewing and in the past I have designed and made several AM rigs. At one time they were practically giving away ex PMR AM rigs.
The Fredbox and Sixbox are examples of AM rigs I have designed and made in the past.
Southgate News has announced the formation of an AM Amateur Radio Society.
My thanks to Steve G1KQH for pointing this out.
My 10FT8R RX (homemade) for 10m FT8 RX was turned on at 0739z with the indoor loop. Later today I hope to create a schematic for this 4 transistor RX, which works well.
UPDATE 1540z: No spots.
UPDATE 1700z: Just 1 spot so far - G4NBS (22km). I notice David G0LRD has spotted 67 stations today on 10m FT8.
The RSGB has published the results of the April 2021 contest. Despite limited time, limited power and just a 2m omni antenna, I have climbed in the results. I only come on for the fun and never expect to do anything!
See https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/vhfresults.pl?Contest=432MHz%20UKAC&year=2021 .
OFCOM has announced the final results of recent auctions of 700MHz and 3.6GHz spectrum. See the OFCOM website for details.
A few days ago I queried where this was.
For some reason the email went into spam (not any more!) and I was informed the kit is in the UK and on its way to me by UPS. It must have shipped by air.
This is a 4W SSB transceiver for 10m FT8. With the Es season just upon us, it could be very effective.
We still see swifts, although these are later to arrive. To me they make a late spring or early summer evening. Usually you hear their screaming, look up and see them overhead hunting. Swifts are about, although I have seen and heard none yet.
Cuckoos used to be commonly heard, although I heard none last year. They tend to lay their eggs in the nests of willow warblers. Just occasionally they can be heard. More rarely, they can be seen on wires overhead.
See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/swallow/ .
In the northern hemisphere we are entering the Es season. With Es, stations up to about 1500km can often be worked on 10m, 6m and 4m (and occasionally 2m). The most common times are May, June, July and August, although Es openings can occur at any time.
Often quite low power is needed and signals can be very strong. Es tends to happen just as well in sunspot minimum years as sunspot maximum.
Occasionally openings can occur over far greater ranges, although I suspect many of these are a different E layer mechanism.
Es is great fun.
The photo shows the old wind pump at Wicken Fen. It is often thought of as a windmill although it is a pump not a mill.
