New QSL Cards

I much prefer paper QSL cards to the electronic options that are available today. I suspect this goes back to when I was a short wave listener in the 1970's and the thrill of receiving a QSL card through the post from some exotic, far away country. These were the days prior to the Internet !

I have almost used up my last set of cards so decided to order a new batch a couple of weeks ago. I change the photo and design of the card each time I get a new set and always use a photo that I have taken. I received a parcel in the post this morning containing 1000 of my new cards. The following is the front of the card.

The photo is one of the Hovercraft used by Hovertravel between Southsea in Portsmouth and Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The photo was taken at Ryde showing the hovercraft starting back on the journey to Southsea.

I understand that this is the only scheduled passenger hovercraft service in Europe.

Good Weather At Last !

Following my comments on Friday about the very poor weather we have been having, we have finally had a good weekend. Contrast the following satellite picture received Sunday with the one received on Friday.  Clear skies at last.



© EUMETSAT (2013)

Poor Radio Conditions and Space Shuttle visit to Stansted Airport

Not much happening on the radio at the moment. Conditions have been very poor with 40m almost unusable for much of the day yesterday and not much better on most of the other bands. I just hope conditions will improve soon. 10m has also been very poor. I monitor 10m using WSPR and most of the time it is only very local stations that I see, and hear my WSPR signal. Not good.

I have been spending time recently scanning all my old photo negatives. I have a very large collection going back to when I started taking photographs in the mid 1970's.

I found a series of pictures I took when an early Space Shuttle visited Stansted Airport in Essex in June 1983, 30 years ago this coming month. This was the Enterprise which did not go into orbit, but was used for a series of captive and free flight tests.

Stansted then was a relatively small regional airport, considerably different to today.

Following two photographs give some idea of the visit.
 







Dreadful Weather and Receiving Weather Satellite Pictures

For almost the end of May, the weather has been dreadful today with temperatures staying around 6 degrees centigrade all day, lots of rain (10mm) and strong winds. The cause has been an area of low pressure tracking from the northeast to the southwest directly across the country.

For monitoring weather I receive weather satellite pictures transmitted by EUMETSAT via the EUMETCast system. With both static pictures and the ability to build an animation over time, the EUMETCast facility provides a fantastic way of watching what is going on, and seeing the cause of the weather we get on a day to day basis.

The following picture is from the early afternoon and shows the core of the low pressure area approaching the Wash, it continued tracking south west for the rest of the afternoon. very unusual pattern for this time of year.



© EUMETSAT (2013)

EUMETCast also distributes a 5 minute updated picture, these can be built up into an animation to show how the weather changes over a period of several hours. Perfect for watching the track of weather systems.

I will provide more details of my receiving system in a future post. For now, an excellent source of information is from the Group for Earth Observation http://www.geo-web.org.uk/ and full details of EUMETSAT services are at http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/index.htm

For decoding and displaying all the data received via EUMETCast I use the excellent software available from David Taylor at http://www.satsignal.eu/

On the Radio, worked one of the many special event stations operating at the moment. GS5NB was operating on 40m from the Ness Battery on the Orkney Islands. See http://www.qrz.com/db/GS5NB for details.

JT65 and will I ever make contact with Hawaii?

One of the data modes I use frequently on HF and have done for about 18 months is JT65. The software I use is the excellent JT65-HF by W6CQZ which is based on the JT65 protocol, the creation of K1JT.

It is amazing the distances that can be worked with low power and a small wire aerial.

It is also good for understanding propagation by using sites such as http://pskreporter.info which displays which stations are receiving your signal.

The following picture is a snapshot of PSKReporter earlier this evening showing where my 20m JT65 signal was being received:

For data modes such as JT65 I use my Kenwood TS2000 feeding into an off centre fed dipole fed by a 4:1 balun and tuned using the internal ATU within the TS2000.

I have worked most US states using JT65 including Alaska which I have not been able to do via any other mode in over 10 years on HF. The key one that is missing is Hawaii. Even when I have seen stations monitoring and reporting on PSKReporter, they have not seen my signal. Hopefully it will be a matter of time and getting propagation right.

So if any radio amateurs from Hawaii read this, I would really appreciate a contact !!

Finally decided to start a blog. Not that the Internet needs yet another Amateur Radio blog, rather it is a means for me to record my activity and hopefully it will be of some interest to others.

Main interest is Amateur Radio, having been licensed originally in 1976 as G8LMY. Now hold the call sign M5LMY. Prior to getting the licence I was a Short Wave listener starting with the commercial bands before finding amateur radio transmissions.

Photography is another interest and the photo in the header is a panorama of one of my favourite places, Portsmouth Harbour. Made from a number of individual photos, stitched together using Panorama Plus from Serif.

Not much activity on the radio today, small bit of JT65 on 20m and worked GW100RSGB on 40m this evening.  This being one of the RSGB centenary stations.