6m FT8 (Saturday)

As my FT-710 is now working fine with FT8, I am currently on 50.313 MHz FT8  on 6m. So far, (at 1717z) 15 stations have spotted me. On RX I have , so far, spotted nobody, despite a huge number of people monitoring 6m FT8 in Europe. Interestingly, hardy any monitors in Russia. Most monitors are waiting for the Es season before going on TX, it would appear.

UPDATE 1721z:  I guess I could go on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. Don't think I shall bother.

UPDATE 1811z:   18 stations have spotted me (furthermost GW0GEI (308km)) and I have spotted 1 station. Spotting very few on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1825z:  19 stations have spotted me today on 6m FT8 TX (see map).

UPDATE 2005z:   20 stations have spotted me.

Wymondham (pronounced Windum) - NOT amateur radio

Today, we went to Wymondham in Norfolk. This is a delightful market town, not far from Norwich. It has a great abbey. Some of my wife's family lived here once.  It is about an hour away by car.  A friend staying with us drove.

The photo of the meal was taken last year. We visited exactly a year ago.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wymondham .

Electric cars and batteries - NOT amateur radio

We are still awaiting a breakthrough in batteries for electric cars. Lithium, used in most (all?) electric vehicle batteries is a rare earth material in short supply. These batteries are expensive and big. There is also the issue of charging.

A breakthrough may be on the way promising much better ranges, less cost, and fast charging times. Until this happens, I cannot see a tipping point when there is a really big take-up of electric cars.  Imagine - far less expensive electric cars, very infrequent charging, long ranges. It will happen.

See https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/electric/solid-state-battery-ev/ .

A Facebook memory yesterday - NOT amateur radio

 This was a Facebook memory yesterday.

Optical tests over the horizon in 2013

This was a test at 481THz in 2013 over the horizon. 

2013 tests below 9 kHz

This was 2013 below 9 kHz. Amazing with amateur power and back garden antennas. Some of these took hours to see! 

Sunspots - Saturday March 18th 2023

 Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 58.  A=9 and K=2. 

OFCOM updates

Every week, OFCOM updates the data it holds on licences etc.. on us. See the OFCOM website for more details.

FT-710 and FT8

As our visitor arrived earlier than expected, I was unable to do the firmware update until Friday AM. I am taking things in easy stages. The CAT now works correctly. FT8 RX works correctly. The PC is doing (yet another!!) Windows update and I will try FT8 TX next.

My brain is like treacle with things that would have been so easy in the past now being unbelievably hard.

Stations spotting my FT8 TX with
10W from the FT-710 on 10m today

UPDATE 1451z: Now working on FT8 on TX and RX. For some reason it refused to work on TX with RTS selected (as they say do), but works when CAT selected in WSJT-X. Odd. 144 stations have already spotted me!

UPDATE 1506z: OK I am lazy!  My TX is currently set to "fix TX frequency" in WSJT-X, meaning I rarely go after others. With 271 stations spotting me, I have not been called by a single station.  ALC is very low and I am running about 10W.

UPDATE 1528z: So far today on 10m FT8  with about 10W spotted by 317 unique stations using the FT-710. May try 12m.

UPDATE  1758z: My 2m big-wheel and coax match on my FT-710, so I am giving 4m a try. I am on 70.154 MHz with about 10W of FT8, although there seems some uncertainty about the 4m FT8 frequency.

UPDATE 1827z:  No spots of me (or others) on 4m FT8. I hope I am on the right spot.

UPDATE 2101z: I gave up on 4m for several reasons: not sure of FT8 frequency, poor antenna, low activity. Now on 6m FT8 and being spotted by quite a few. Furthermost on 6m FT8 is MI0BOT (478km). The convention in the UK is to TX evens, but of course more UK stations will spot you on "odd" periods as they are listening then. Judging by the number of stations on RX (none at all!) I guess most people are just on RX.

Stations spotting me
tonight on 6m FT8 TX

UPDATE 2211z:   QRT now. 14 spots of me on 6m FT8 TX.

Sunspots - Friday March 17th 2023

 Solar flux is 134 and the SSN 84.  A=7 and K=0.