Crystal replacement?

Unless you are able to find a low cost source of crystals, they can be very expensive these days. Some people have turned to Si5351 synthesiser boards as an alternative. I believe they can be programmed to provide outputs from kHz to VHF frequencies. But can these work with the programming source  removed so this is a true crystal replacement? Please let me know if you know how. 

If they can be used "stand alone" they become far more useful if they can be easily programmed. The ideal would be easy programming with a PC or Mac or even Android and then essentially a free standing oscillator module.

UK and Covid-19 - NOT amateur radio

The UK is doing pretty well in its vaccination campaign, despite a reactive rather than proactive government that always seems to be just behind, rather than just in front of, the pandemic. At the moment, the popular press is worried that the complete lifting of restrictions in a few weeks could be dangerous.

The concern is new variants of which the focus at the moment is on the variant that was first spotted in India.  Most vulnerable people have been vaccinated. Of those, those who get sick are not likely to be hospitalised or die.

I guess the question is, "what danger does another another wave pose?" . Clearly, if all adults were vaccinated, the chances of the hospitals being overwhelmed decreases markedly. Personally I'd keep some restrictions for a few more weeks. Most things we can do and it would be wrong to throw this away for the sake of a few weeks.

Personally I would ban foreign holidays this year unless people are prepared to hotel quarantine at their expense. At least ban them until all adults that want them are vaccinated. I would also make all hospital and care home workers have to be vaccinated as a condition of employment.

Nostalgia time

In the 1970s most SSB operation on 2m was with the Liner 2. Later, many used the IC-202 from ICOM. This was a better radio with fewer spurii and a better, cleaner TX. Many are still in use to drive microwave transverters. The IC-202 was a lower powered radio, but it could be used handheld.

No synthesisers, lots of wires, no memories, just clean and simple. These were SSB/CW radios with a very good VXO covering 200KHz with each crystal. To most people it seemed like a VFO with smooth, continuous tuning. I also used mine on QRP 10m SSB as well with a homebrew transverter. I have no idea what became of this transverter, but I worked all over the world with 1W SSB and a wire dipole. It used a Plessey SL6440 IC I seem to recall.

I expect they units are still available second hand. They were replaced by the IC-202S and there was a similar radio for 70cm. Once I worked was down in France from a coastal site in Devon using just the IC-202 with its whip antenna.

A quick check on eBay showed one example at just over £200. There are lower cost examples listed as "not working" or "for spares".  Looking on eBay there was also an IC-212 FM version. I don't remember this and wonder if it was ever on sale here in the UK?

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/vhfuhf-commercial-rigs/icom-ic-202 .

10m FT8 Grabber

A reminder that you can see what I am seeing on 10m FT8 by looking at the grabber on my website at https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/10m-ft8-grabber .

Grandchildren - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows our 2 granddaughters earlier studying an album together.

BBQ time - NOT amateur radio

For a change this May, yesterday was gloriously sunny. Most of the month has been dull and wet. We had our 2 sons and all 4 grandchildren for a barbecue.

10m FT8 RX (Monday) with the 10FT8R and the indoor loop

I have been on 10m FT8 RX for about 1 hour with the homemade 10FT8R RX with 4 transistors. It is now 1000z and so far today 25 stations have been spotted.

UPDATE 1037z:  35 stations spotted today so far. Not a bad start today on 10m Es with this 50cm indoor antenna and a DSB RX.

UPDATE 1324z:   49 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1520z:  68 stations spotted today with the 10FT8R direct conversion RX and tiny indoor loop. See illustration. OK, it is a rats nest!

UPDATE 1831z: 115 stations spotted on RX as the map shows.

Sunspots - Monday May 31st 2021

 Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 27. A=6 and K=1.

Local museum - NOT amateur radio

The local museum across the road from us has old fashioned dial telephones. The photo shows 3 of our grandchildren trying to ring each other: they are not used to phones which have to be rotated to dial a number!

Crocheting - NOT amateur radio

One of our grandchildren is very talented. Here he is crocheting. Whatever he does he is good at it - painting, sports etc..