Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
In the shack
June 28th, 2014 | 
Author: This is a photo of me in the shack just before lunch today. Since lunch, I have had to disconnect everything because of an approaching lightning storm. At the last count (flashes to thunder) it was about 2km away but I think the storm is now moving away.
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| G3XBM in the shack today |
For storm maps see http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en . The storm seems to have moved off: I can still hear thunder (to the east) but no nearby lightning. We have heavy rain, which will do the garden good.
Just a moment ago there was a flash and thunder almost overhead. This showed up on the lightning map. Storms still rolling around. I shall not reconnect the antennas and radio gear for a while yet.
Maplin sold
That font of all knowledge 🙂 Steve G1KQH has just informed me that Maplin has changed hands for £85M. Although not a frequent customer, I do use their shop in the Beehive Centre, Cambridge.
Not sure what it will mean for the business. One of the two stores in Cambridge is always busy, the other less so. Maybe less profitable shops will close? A bit like Jessops?
Not sure if they still sell them,but I used to buy their small aluminium boxes for QRP projects.
Cashback on Yaesu products
It doesn’t surprise me but G1KQH has told me that Moonraker (and others?) is offering the FT817ND for just £459.95 after a Yaesu cashback deal. I paid £499 from MLS for cash a few months ago.
Based on the favourable change in exchange rate much lower prices should be expected soon. And, of course, the replacement for the FT817ND is nowhere to be seen.
BTW, I recommend you don’t buy patch leads from Moonraker – the ones I bought were useless at both ends with intermittent joints. I guess they just buy these in, but it would be good if they actually checked some as well! All I am saying is Moonraker (and others?) should periodically do quality checks on products they sell. There really is no excuse in the 21st century for selling poor quality goods. I did complain to Moonraker who offered me money back or exchange. Exchange for the same quality? No thanks. Andrew G6ALB kindly replaced the coax connectors at both ends – a decent solution. I guess buying a rig from them is low risk. Patch leads? Definitely dodgy unless you know the supplier checks stock for quality.
A contigious 60m band?
OFCOM is consulting on the agenda items for the World Radio Conference WRC2015 which takes place November 2015. See http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/wrc15/ .
The proposal is to support moves to allocate 5250-5450kHz to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis. This would replace the messy channels currently available. I recommend you write to OFCOM to support this move, which would give us a new ham band at 60m – ideal as the current sunspot cycle declines.
If allocated, it could be a few years before available.
10m, then 6m, WSPR
Overnight, I remained on 10m but the only spots were by Es were from Norway, France, Spain and Germany plus G4KPX( local). No Es “super DX” here sadly!
At around 0904z I moved back up to 6m WSPR. with 1W ERP. G0OQK (98km) was spotted 3 times (so far) with moderate drift or Doppler , G4IKZ (18km) was spotting me at good strength and OH7AI (2000km) spotting me by Es at 0928z at -21dB S/N for the best DX so far today.
Sunspot count is 72 and 20-30MHz propagation “normal” so I’d expect F2 DX N-S today on 10m.
Field Day 2014 – June 28-29th
It’s almost the fourth weekend in June and you know what that means — Field Day 2014 is just around the corner!
Download: Field Day 2014 Information Packet
Are you planning to participate? If so, tell us about your operating plans in the comments below.
(And good luck!)
My European Vacation
Next weekend is the 50th Anniversary of the IOTA Program. A celebration and conference will be held at the Beaumont Estates in Windsor, near London. I have participated in IOTA for over 20 years and will see a lot of old friends there.
I also want to activate a few summits as time allows, which brings me today's highlight. Even though I am jet lagged, I managed to activate Altberg, HB/ZH-015, which is worth 1 point. This summit has been activated 613 time counting my activation today. When I saw that, I thought this must be a drive up and an easy one at that. While this is not a difficult summit, it does require a 2 mile +/- roundtrip and 300 feet elevation gain. Very nice trail and a nice walk.
We had an interesting encounter with three elderly guys on the trail. None of them spoke a word of English and the only German I know it Guten Tag and no spreichten Duetsche. So imagine me trying to explain what I was doing on their mountain. I did finally get the concept across that I was a ham. I'll mispell this but is something like amateurfunk. We had all heard that word. The next obstacle was to explain my morse key. The term "morse code' met with blank stares, but when I said, "you know dit dit a di di dit". Ah, "morse' ya. They were having as much fun with it as I was.
My XYL, but with her camera, so we can't download them to iPads, but I did take a picture of my travel right. An MTR, 13' telescoping pole, 9V battery, ear buds and a micro key. I managed 12 QSO's and activated my first EU summit and my first HB9 summit.
I can't figure out how to get a picture from my iPad to the blog, so pictures will have to wait untill later.
I will try to post regularly during my trip.
