Rallies this weekend

 The following rallies have been notified to me. As usual, it is advisable to check before going any distance.

Saturday March 2nd - Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Annual Rally, near Belfast, BT26 6AR. See www.lvars.uk .

Sunday March 3rd - Exeter Radio and Electronics Rally , EX4 8PX. Contact g3xvi@yahoo.co.uk

P***ing in the wind? 10m 500uW (0.5mW) WSPR (Thursday)

My QRPP 10m WSPR is on again, although I have not had any reports for a few days.  I just leave it running ...... in hope! 

The fact I got any reports at all amazed me.

UPDATE 1845z:  No spots.

6m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

My 2.5W 6m FT8 to the vertical omni V2000 antenna has been on since about 1030z.  So far, 8 English stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1425z: 10 stations have spotted me so far and 3 stations have been spotted here.

UPDATE 1601z: 12 stations have spotted me today.

Squirrels - NOT amateur radio

We have lived in our present home for about 10.5 years. It is about 300m from where we used to live and where we had lots and lots of squirrels. Until this morning, despite there being lots of trees, we had never ever had a single squirrel in the garden. I cannot understand why. This morning we had our first. Apart from a few areas most are grey squirrels.

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

630m QRP WSPR overnight

 

21 stations spotted my 10mW ERP overnight. No great DX.

Norwich

Norwich is a fine city with a wonderful Norman cathedral built of many stones, some of which came from Caen in Normandy centuries ago. 

It has a magnificent castle overlooking the city.

Sunspots - Thursday February 29th

 Solar flux is 180 and the SSN 127. A=6 and K=0.

8m amateur band?

For many years, I have advocated a tiny amateur allocation around 40.680MHz primarily for radio science research. Here in the UK, the RSGB seems dead set against this, whereas in some countries an allocation has been made.

Frankly, I think the RSGB's position is stupid. 

Surely the main purpose of amateur radio is research and self training. In the UK, if we want do research at 8m it costs us £50 annually unless we keep to ISM powers (10mW ERP).

The latest excuse is space radar to help investigate climate change, yet the latest WARC says:

"that spaceborne radars are intended to be operated only in either uninhabited or sparsely populated areas of the globe, with particular focus on deserts and polar ice fields, and only at night-time from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. locally."

Surely the RSGB could put a good case to OFCOM for a few kHz in the ISM 8m band, NoV, limited power and modes, by application only, no-interference...

Is this likely?  Probably not. 

Instead we can go on 80m with 1kW, with commercial gear to talk about gardening. Am I annoyed? Yes.

RSGB - wake up!!

More on the SDRplay RSP1B SDR receiver

In the last few days I have not found time to play with, and familiarise myself, with the RSP1B receiver. There is a lot to learn, but on the default settings it does a credible job. 

An eHam.com review will have to wait until I have really got to grips with it. My first impressions are that it is a sensiitve on 2m and 70m as my FT817ND, but more artifacts than I was expecting.

Wicken windmill

One of our favourite walks is to Wicken Fen, where we have a bite to eat. Wicken also has a village windmill (shown in the photo).