Tropo opening!

After all this time I still have it! I can still predict a tropo opening on 144mhz by watching the weather. High pressure over England and Europe 1024mb, warm temperature and mist and fog...all the ingredients for a good tropo opening on 144mhz, 432mhz and even 1296mhz.  I was right! Last night was quite incredible. Could here lots of stations from Europe on 144mhz, so decided to have a go with my Yaesu Ft817 with just 5 watts of rf.

A lot of the stations that could be heard were running high power, some with 700 watts and HUGE arrays of antennas. What chance would I have with my little 5 ele yagi?  Not bad really...

First I worked F6CTT in France (who I have worked before) in IN97HV, then HB9EOW in Switzerland JN37JC, followed by DK7CM/P in Germany JO40FF.
I am really pleased with flea power...a super Autumn opening!

In the past, Autumn tropo lifts were the best, usually around the first or second week in October as I recall from my old log books.
These kind of opening inspire me to do something, like more power or bigger and higher antennas. Running QRP (low power) makes everything a challenge, which I enjoy even if it does get a bit frustrating, When you get that reply back from the call and complete that QSO it is sooo satisfying!

Out of office!

 

The English is clear enough to lorry drivers - but the Welsh reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."

So go on...how many times have you sent a e mail only to be replied by that awful 'out of office' standard message?
How many times have you seen 'after a hard day at the office...' on TV during adverts and other news items?

Well...get real people! Some facts...

Most people don't work in an office.

Nobody has a hard day at the office!

They are the most boring places on earth, I worked in one for a year and it drove me mad, kept looking at the clock and was bored out of my skull!

There are people that work at the coal face (or in my case, chalk face) and people that sit on their arses in front of a computer.

I have spent all my life on my feet working hard either in a workshop or a classroom. Why does the media assume that everybody works in an office?  Does it just sound good or do they really believe that most of Britain work in offices?

Try this...

After a hard day on the building site...

After a hard day working in a supermarket...

After a hard day working in a classroom...

After a hard day working on the bins...

Get real people!

Born in July!

An interesting article about the Royal baby who was born in July like me!

When I left school I was still 15 because my birthday is 25th July, I started working as an appentice on August 3rd so I was just 16!  I was always the youngest in the class right through both primary and secondary schools. I was still 15 when I took my GCE's and I didn't do well! I was a 'late learner' now I have a degree and lots of other qualifications, but it took time for me to achieve.
My son Paul had an even bigger disadvantage as his birthday is 27th August, if he had been born five days later he would have had an extra year of education. Like me, Paul was always the yougest in the class! They don't take account of that in SATs and GCSE's but do when tests are assessed and then weighted with cronological age, sometimes called the 'Standardised Score'.

Still, at least my birthday is in the middle of Summer!

Being born in July.

Summer babies face the so-called "birth-date effect", which means that children born in June, July and August are statistically likely to perform less well than their older classmates.

Summertime might be when the living is easy, but learning is more problematic.

This gap is still measurable all the way through primary and secondary school, GCSEs, A-levels and university admissions. There is no point at which these sunshine-month youngsters ever catch up with their older winterish peers.

A few years ago, Cambridge Assessment (an exam board rather than a namesake of the new baby) carried out a major overview and concluded that summer babies were "strongly disadvantaged" and that evidence of this age-related gap "stared out of qualifications data".

By the end of primary school the difference on average is 12%, a substantial difference in the data-obsessed measurement of primary school performance.

An analysis of more than half a million GCSE candidates found a consistent pattern of summer-birthday teenagers performing less well across all subjects.

A Freedom of Information request this year showed that the chance of going to Oxford or Cambridge was 30% higher for someone born in the autumn rather than July.

The difference is so stark that the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that summer-born children should get extra exam marks.
Mind the gap
But why should there be such a persistent difference?

The IFS suggested that it could be about a lack of confidence and they linked this to younger children being more likely to be unhappy at school.

Nivivo 405 line camera

I found this interesting photo of the 405 line black and white video camera that I had back in the 70's. I always called mine a 'NEV' camera, but couldn't find any trace of it on the internet. It looks very similar with the Vidicon sensor, boards and connectors. I can also see a 'C' type lens the same as mine.

I used it during the days when I was experimenting with 405 line television on 70cm with amplitude modulation. It worked well, but later became a problem with intermittent faults. In the end I decided to rebuild the boards using modern transistors. I'm not sure if I built the boards on Veroboard or made printed circuit cicuits of my own...such a long time ago!
I also don't remember what I did with this camera. Gosh...I wish I had kept some of the old stuff!

Sporadic E on 50Mhz

Well today was quite amazing, for the first time ever I was able to work some DX on 50Mhz through 'Sporadic E'. It is amazing listening to stations from the continent on 50Mhz, I have heard it once before, but didn't have a transmitter then.

Today I managed to work some stations using my Yaesu FT817 and 50Mhz halo. Only 5 Watts output from the FT817. The opening seemed to be mainly into JN square which includes France, Spain and Italy, but at it's peak today I could also hear HB9, Germany, Austria and Portugal.

Here are the stations I worked today:

EA3EVL  (JN00AR)  Spain

F6ITD   (JN03SN)  France

I2PJA  (JN45PB)  Italy

OE1WEU (Austria)

IW3INQ (JN65EU) Italy

It was quite tricky working these stations as QSB was very deep and variable, but it was great to experience Sporadic E conditions on 50Mhz for the first time.

What is Sporadic E?

Sporadic-E (also known as Es) propagation is probably familiar to many low-band operators as the summertime "short skip" on 10 meters. It is also responsible for most of the long-distance (600km and greater) contacts on the 6-meter band. Sporadic-E is a type of ionospheric E-layer reflection caused by small patches of unusually dense ionization. These sporadic E-layer "clouds" appear unpredictably, but they are most common during the daylight hours of late spring and summer. Sporadic-E events may last for just a few minutes to several hours; a given event usually affects only small areas of the country at any one time. During June and July, signals propagated by means of sporadic-E ionization may be heard on 50MHz for several hours a day on more than half the days. Sporadic-E is observed on 144 MHz less than a tenth as often as on 50MHz. Signals are often remarkably strong, allowing 50 and 144MHz stations running 10 watts, and often much less than that, to make contacts 1500 km and longer with relative ease.

Plessey SL600 Transceiver

Image of my transceiver along with my 144Mhz transmitter and Hallicrafters SX24 receiver.

Last week I read an interesting article in RADCOM about the SL600 series of chips back in the 1970's and 80's. The article concerned the SL641 or SL1641 VOGAD chip.
Back in the late 70's I built a complete SSB hybrid transceiver for 160m and 80m. It was based on the SL600 transceiver by G3ZVC. The SL600 chips were abundant at the time and I purchased mine from Birkett's. Most were 'untested', but all of them worked a treat and were very cheap! The SL600's came in metal TO5 cans and were supplied by Birkitts with data sheets. (Which I still have)

When I built my transceiver I remember making a PC board for the G3ZVC circuit, but I can't remember if I used it or made descrete boards??  I know that building this transceiver was the biggest construction project that I have ever made. I bought an XF-9B SSB filter and crystals which was the most expensive component and also a new Eddystone 898 dial for the front. (I just love the Eddystone 898 dial!) The transmitter used an EL84 valve in the PA giving about 20 watts PEP output on 160m and 80m. The MD108 diode mixer was a brilliant piece of kit, so easy to use and no tuning.

On reflection, this transceiver was pretty amazing, parts of it were my own designs or adapted from circuits in RADCOM or handbooks. Getting it working was frustrating and I had to re-build parts of it. The VFO caused some problems, as did the power supply which was built on-board the chassis. A lot of metalwork and construction, but the SL600's were great! If I remember right I used a couple of SL610's in the RF stage, but the front end was a bit 'deaf' with the SL610 and I ended up building a pre-selector to improve the reception.

My transceiver (left) with 144Mhz transmitter, SX24 receiver and (above) 432 Mhz tripler and transmitter.

What I don't understand is why I decided to take it all apart, I know I had lots of niggling problems, but the project was worthwhile. I think it was in 1980 when for the very first time I bought an HF transceiver - the Yaesu FT101E (which I still have) I took it apart to concentrate and make more room for my FT101E. What a silly thing to do...I would love to still have that transceiver now just to admire the work I put into it!  Also, why did I not take photos of it!

Yaesu FT817 stand

Now here is nifty little trick for anyone who has a Yaesu FT817 or other portable transciever. Last week I went into 'Poundworld' and spotted a fully adjustable folding stand for an iPad or tablet, so I bought one to support my Tab 2 tablet. Then I realised that this little stand fold up in different ways and is ideal for my Yeasu FT817. Great for a quid! 

Now I need another one for my Tab 2...