AmateurRadio.com

YOTA UK is taking place over the weekend of the 19-20 July at in Wolverhampton. Most of the activities will be at the Electricity Club near the City Centre, home of the Wolverhampton Amateur Radio Society. There will also be some outdoor activities in the near-by Baggeridge Park.

• This weekend offers two exciting days of amateur radio activities where you can: 
• Meet other young radio amateurs
• Learn about the Summits on the Air awards
• See how you can work through satellites
• Have a go at using digital modes
• See how easy it is to build portable antennas
• Take part in a Direction Finding competition
• Find out about the latest radio technologies
• Learn how to solder and use test meters
• Complete the Intermediate Practical Assessments
• Build a 20m PSK receiver
• Take the Intermediate exam
• Try your hand at operating the YOTA UK Special Event Station! 

Tickets are only £5 per day with additional cost if you want to build the receiver or take the exam. There is even a BBQ is included on the Saturday evening.

Full details of the timings, directions to the venue and a list of items to bring, will be forwarded by email.

Bookings are limited so book now – Click here

You can also keep up to date by following @YOTA_UK on twitter

YOTA UK is taking place over the weekend of the 19-20 July at in Wolverhampton. Most of the activities will be at the Electricity Club near the City Centre, home of the Wolverhampton Amateur Radio Society. There will also be some outdoor activities in the near-by Baggeridge Park.

• This weekend offers two exciting days of amateur radio activities where you can: 
• Meet other young radio amateurs
• Learn about the Summits on the Air awards
• See how you can work through satellites
• Have a go at using digital modes
• See how easy it is to build portable antennas
• Take part in a Direction Finding competition
• Find out about the latest radio technologies
• Learn how to solder and use test meters
• Complete the Intermediate Practical Assessments
• Build a 20m PSK receiver
• Take the Intermediate exam
• Try your hand at operating the YOTA UK Special Event Station! 

Tickets are only £5 per day with additional cost if you want to build the receiver or take the exam. There is even a BBQ is included on the Saturday evening.

Full details of the timings, directions to the venue and a list of items to bring, will be forwarded by email.

Bookings are limited so book now – Click here

You can also keep up to date by following @YOTA_UK on twitter

There has been no Es here since 1714z. I shall leave 10m WSPR running as it is quite possible there will be Es later, but the last hour has been very quiet on 10m.

At 1816z just spotted G0LRD who is a semi-local at a strong -13dB S/N. A few minutes later he spotted me at -23dB S/N. This may be conditions or that my antenna could be improved or is (unintentionally) directional.

UPDATE 1906z:  Still no more Es here this evening since 1714z. Intrigued why G0LRD is so much better here than me with him. Don’t imagine Dave has a very bad noise issue on 10m at his QTH so it is probably the antenna inefficiency here. I’d like to try a different antenna for 10m but this means antenna work which is very hard currently. The present antenna covers 10, 20 and 40m which is very useful and it does seem to get most of the F2 and Es stations OK. My 2W WSPR has been copied in Australia this year on 10, 20 and 40m.

UPDATE 1926z:    Es still around on 10m. DK6UG (633km) spotting me at -22dB S/N at 1922z which is similar to the report he gave G0LRD. We are both running around 2W.

I have never really spent much time on the Software Defined Radio arena, but the more I keep loo at them they are becoming so interesting. The CommRadio CR-1a communications receiver is a true SDR (software defined radio), but does not require a computer. Enjoy the benefits and performance of state-of-the-art SDR, but in a conventional radio package.

As much as I hate to say, it might be time for me to make a purchase and spend some time playing with these. I really like the size of the rig in comparison to the SunSDR2 (http://nicktoday.com/sunsdr2-sunsdr-mb1-transceivers-software-defined-radios/). Hard to tell until I see them both in person.

Full story: http://nicktoday.com/commradio-cr-1a-another-sdr-looks-interesting/

I like 30 meters very much, and have always made some nice contacts on this band. There are many times I find DX here, and I work them when I can, but I’m finding some long slow QSO’s here too. During the early evening hours, I easily work stations in the mid-western states on this band.

I’ve worked WB5QYG in McAlester, Oklahoma a couple of times lately, and did a quick search of his home town. Mc Alester is in what’s known as “Tornado Alley” where severe storms are always a certainty in the summer months. It’s also the home of the  Oklahoma State Penitentiary . –The local people call it “Big Mac”— That’s the reason for the first picture in this entry.

We have an enormous prison population in this country- more than any other country in the world. Just say’in….those are the facts, and an inordinate number of those are for non-violent crimes. I hope this situation changes because it costs a LOT of money to maintain these places. This is true in all 50 states. West Virginia is no exception, we have more than 7,000 incarcerated in our state.

I wonder how many of these inmates might be interested in radio?  Perhaps a good hobby would have required a better use of idle time and therefore a more productive life, and the decreased need for nationwide prison facilities? If not ham radio, short-wave listening is a good pastime. I know that’s just wishful thinking; but I’m an optimist…..

Too many people today find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many times it’s due to being born in unfortunate places where there’s little opportunity for a decent job, or little opportunity for getting a decent education. Sometimes social obstacles are much too difficult to overcome. The really unfortunate thing about these “casualties of life” is many of them have the intelligence to be productive members of society. To waste a good mind is a terrible thing.

Just noticed that I spotted G4HZW (209km) at -22dB S/N this morning on 10m WSPR. This is a good GDX distance but it does not surprise me. Later this afternoon  G8JNJ/A (184km) was spotted at -24dB S/N.

During evening time 10m contests organised by the RSGB during sunspot minima I could regularly work stations up and down the country when I was using 10W SSB and CW and just dipoles at my end.

209km with 2W WSPR sounds very do-able. Oh for more GDX stations on 10m, and 6m!

UPDATE 1520z:  OZ7IT spotting me on Es at a STRONG -11dB S/N. Even if little GDX is around there are Es openings to be enjoyed at this time of the year.

CX2ABP (11127km) and FR1GZ (9724km) have both been spotted here today on 10m WSPR, so there was/is N-S F2-layer propagation on 10m, as expected.  So far only EA1KV (1304km) has spotted my 2W 10m signal, but it is early days.

I will stick on 10m at least this afternoon but may go back to 6m later chasing transatlantic Es DX.

It is possible that this 10m N-S DX propagation is a mix of F2-layer and Es. EA1KV is spotting me consistently via Es and it could be only F2-layer from further south where the F2 MUF will be higher?

UPDATE 1530z:  More Es about now on 10m. Spots from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. As I recall from previous Es seasons, openings to Scandinavia seem to become more frequent later in the Es season. Is this to do with thunderstorm activity or some more obscure Es connection? PA0O (440km) is also being spotted by me. This could be short skip Es, or even tropo. I notice G4IKZ regularly spots him by tropo on 6m.

10m unique WSPR spots so far today (now 1545z)