Stations spotting my 10m QRP this morning

UPDATE 1153z:  Spotted VK0DS (14844km) in Antarctica. 314 stations spotted here and I have been spotted by 216 stations.

It dates back to the 1500s and is currently owned by Peterhouse College. 

Message to self,"keep your eyes open in future".

 The following have been notified to me. The usual caveats apply: always check before going any distance.

• Sunday August 18th - Rugby Amateur Transmitting Society Annual Radio Rally, Rugby, CV23 9PY. Contact rally@rugbyats.co.uk .
• Sunday August 18th - West Manchester Radio Club Red Rose Summer Rally, Leigh, WN7 2PJ. Contact rally@wmrc.co.uk .

They are currently at the Sunshine Coast, although the weather looks better here! 😊

My latest RadCom arrived yesterday.

One major dealer is advertising widely (the RSGB must really value this income) and I could not help noticing a major antenna manufacturer selling antennas (on the centre pages) via this dealer for £3899.99 and £4199.99!

If this major UK dealer decided to "hang up his boots" and leave the amateur market then RadCom would have to radically change. It would probably have to shrink and come out less often.  The only amateur radio magazine remaining on newsagent's stands would really struggle.

Now, I am not able, nor wish, to say how you spend your money. However, for me, these antennas are not amateur radio. A fan dipole covering all the higher HF bands could probably be made for the cost of a few coffees out. So you might be a few dBs down on a big tower with one of these antennas on the top, but you will probably save a 4 figure sum in the process.

In the end, we have to understand what our hobby is really about.  To me, there are 2 major sorts of radio amateur: (a) those who just get out their credit card and (b) those that experiment. I prefer the latter.

In my view, the writing is already on the wall. I personally see a battle looming between the credit card operators and experimenters.  In my view credit card operators will merge with CB. Experimenters?

 Solar flux is 227 and the SSN 164 . A=6 and K=2.

Up to now I have always used FT8 rather than FT4, especially with QRP.  FT4 is quicker, but not as sensitive as FT8. I can imagine with Es out of season, FT4 might catch some openings that FT8 might miss. 

This would apply for other types of propagation too where very brief openings might occur. I can imagine some F2 DX openings might be very fleeting. FT4 might catch these. I am not sure how many monitor FT4, but I imagine far fewer than FT8. 

One useful future WSJT-X enhancement would be automatic detection of FT8 and FT4 speeds so stations could use either modes in either slots. 

As you know the facet of amateur radio that I most enjoy is QRP.  However, I sometimes wonder what having high power, a tower and a big beam would be like.

In a recent 70cm contest I noticed one station working Scotland and France when I could not even hear them! I can imagine that 1000W, a big beam, and a tall tower would certainly help!

More and more we are losing human interactions.

I can think of several examples: you ring up (almost any business) to be greeted with an AI message like "say in your own words what you want to talk about". With a poor voice I find it almost impossible to be understood. Many supermarkets are replacing checkouts that have humans with auto-tills where you just scan barcodes. You try to talk to your bank and get sent to a call centre on the far side of the planet where you are just a number. Most website chats are just AI bots, not humans.   It goes on and on.

Human beings like talking with human beings. 

For some lonely people it is the only human interaction they get. In my view we are going backwards as a society. Less and less we are able to speak with each other.

I do not submit a log for this but enjoy the activity. It is much easier to copy and work DX on 70cm FT8 than SSB. After working a couple of locals, I was RX only for the rest of the evening and  copied stations all over from France 🇫🇷  Netherlands 🇳🇱 and Germany 🇩🇪 as well as the British Isles. Not bad with 2.5W and a 2m omni antenna.

The map shows the stations copied - with a 2m omni antenna!

 Solar flux is 248 and the SSN 194. A=12 and K=2.

Before I had my stroke I used to enjoy going out to see how far I could get on VLF earthmode. With 5W 6km was spanned, but much further is possible.

This morning, my 2.5W FT8 to the vertical omni antenna is on 6m.  I am wondering, if as on 2m, I am tapping into some sort of troposcatter mode?

As well as the usual G spots I have been spotted in Sicily and Eire. FT8 works with signals even weaker than CW. I guess it could also be aircraft reflection?

UPDATE 1800z: 52 stations have spotted me and I have spotted 31 stations here. See map for stations spotting my QRP 6m FT8 today.

There is no doubt, whatever your views on origin, that moving away from fossil fuels will help in the longer term. We need more, lower cost ways of storing renewables. We need electric cars with better ranges that do not depend on mining rare materials, we need to be able to charge far less frequently, we need electric cars to compete with fossil fuelled cars on price.

My view is that when the time is right, we will all be driving some sort of vehicle that does not depend on fossil fuel. I just hope the turning point arrives sooner than later. Imagine if we all still had film cameras and cathode ray tubes and valves! Things change.

10m seems pretty good on FT8, so I shall learn little. Maybe I shall give 6m QRP FT8 a go?  As the 10m antenna won't be used I could put my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon on.

UPDATE 0806z:  10m QRP WSPR beacon and 6m QRP FT8 turned on at about 0800z. 3 Gs have spotted me on 6m FT8, but no spots of my 500mW 10m WSPR.

With 10W SSB and a 2m big-wheel omni I usually struggle in the 70cm UKAC (activity contest), but I usually manage a few contacts. Last night was different. 

Firstly, the impression I had was there were fewer people on.  This could partly be due to the holiday season and people being away.

Also those that were on I could not work. After about 20 minutes I just gave up having worked nobody! Perhaps the combination of higher local noise and fewer people make all the difference to QRP stations like mine.

I should be on the 70cm UKAC next month. We'll see.

 This photo was seen recently and shows a collection of old broadcast receivers.