15m timelapse.

Here's most of the day today on 15m, as it progressed:

 

OFCOM - we won!

Despite the government's insistence that they install a 'safe pair of hands' to run OFCOM, the UK regulator, Paul Dacre has pulled out of the running.

Out of the running.  Paul Dacre won't head OFCOM.

 

It seems the government backed down when the legal pressure group, The Good Law Project, issued a pre-action letter to the government, announcing that, unless proper and lawful appointments processes were adhered to, an application for judicial review would be made to the courts.

So, whilst we are rid of Dacre's danger, we now wait to see who next might be thrust forward to run this, the most unfit-for-purpose government agency.

Capturing the action

As my followers will know, I am very interested in propagation and how it changes according to various factors.

Thanks to sites like WSPRnet and PSKreporter, which have automatic updates every few minutes, it's potentially possible to capture a timelapse of the day (or days), allowing us to visualise how bands open and close.  

Whilst this sounds a bit cliche, anybody who's new to amateur radio, and even those who are not, can learn a lot about the bands by watching such time lapses.  After all, any traditional text about the hobby will always tend to have a section about the bands and their propagation effects.

But I had a lot of difficulty finding a suitable piece of software to make timelapses.  With renewed effort, I found Debut by NCH Software, which does a very good job and costs a very modest £25-£29 for a licence.  I have no affiliation whatsoever with this software company and have not been prompted or paid to promote it.

With PSKreporter updating every 5 minutes or so, quite rapid changes in propagation are clearly revealed (provided you take a capture at least this often!)

My first, brief test of reception here today at 21MHz produced the result below.  Over a much longer period, it will produce some very interesting results. 
 

Ferrite!

I've got ferrites on a lot of cables, especially those connected to the Raspberry Pi.  But today, I found a spare ferrite and decided to clip this on to the rig end of the USB connection to the soundcard; I already have one at the Pi end.

 

I was quite amazed to see how effective this was at 28MHz. The ferrite is a TDK ZCAT 2032-0930, 9mm inner diameter.  With single board computers, which don't have room for good RFI control, liberal use of these ferrites is much advised.

Raspberry Pi 5

 

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Raspberry Pi single board computers.  They are not the only SBC available - there are now many - but they are still the most versatile and popular by a country mile.

The current latest edition - the 4B model - has only been on the market since 2019, but already, a new, model 5, is on the way.

The question is: will you want to upgrade?  Well, if you're operating portable in any fashion, the answer is almost certainly going to be 'no'.  

 

I wrote at the time I got my first Pi 4B that I thought it was not much of a performance improvement for things like WSJT-X and JTDX.  The Pi 3B is perfectly adequate for that function, and has good power consumption figures - a critical aspect of all portable working.

The Pi 4B is almost required for things like SDR software with things like SDRplay units and the like.  The signal processing load is quite high, and audio stuttering can happen on the 3B, unless the sampling rate is reduced dramatically.  It will work, and work well, but the 4B handles it much easier.

The 4B does use somewhat more power, but it's never proven to be any issue at all in my extensive experience - now daily - of working /P.

The Pi 5 will likely use more power again, given it is rumoured to have a 2GHz processor.  Fine for home use, not so great for portable - though we will have to wait for a real Pi 5 to see if this will be an issue in practice.

The expected use of full-sized HDMI ports, if realised, would be a good thing; the micro-HDMI sockets used in the 4B are too small and prone to damage.  The 16GB memory option will also be a big increase in capability, although the price for that version may well make it less popular.

No mention of USB connections for peripherals.  For radio use, you need at least three, and often all four of the sockets on the 4B.  Dropping these would be a real mistake, so it's fingers crossed on that one!  Then again, production of older Pi units continues for a long time - the Model A, released in 2013 - and all subsequent models are still in production.  So it's not like Microsoft or Apple forcing you to buy only the very latest models.

In the meantime, here's the latest gossip on the Pi 5.

10m, West Coast/p

A fairly nice day today, although a little dull.  Not very active on 10m from this latitude, which is always a good time to see how much the coast helps get a signal to interesting places.

Southerly view from today's 10m portable site, IO73se.  Next land in the direction of the antenna is South America!

 

On WSPR, I received nobody at all, except for one fairly good signal that was already mid-sequence as I switched on the receiver.

Transmit was another story altogether.  EI4GEB was my main competitor today (no information on antenna yet).  In the only same time-slot comparison, I was 9dB stronger to EA8BFK.  Due to large Es variations with time, there is no point looking at other, non-identical time slot spots nor, for that matter, at other stations more than a handful of km away, such is the 'hit and miss' nature of Es propagation. 

 

I was epecially happy to get across to HP1COO (what a great callsign!), and at a reasonable strength when nobody at all from this side of the Atlantic was making it.  I had a clear, all-sea path to him, which makes all the difference:

 

 

Over on FT8, although I was hitting the Azores at +7dB with just 3W, and making it across the Atlantic quite convincingly, I wasn't getting any responses to CQs.  After PSKreporter had had some time to digest things, and on interrogating it after getting home, I was very pleased to have got across (-19db)  to Tierra Del Fuego, LU7XZ, at 13247km - remember, from just 3W with a wide bandwidth digimode!  Again, apart from a brief clipping of Brazil, this is another all-sea path.

3W to the world!

And to complete the record, polar mesospheric echoes, which are often good proxies for 28MHz conditions, were next-to-absent today:

G0 and G2 compared

 A very useful set of geomagnetic conditions over the past 48 hours, where we generally saw G0 on 14-15/11/2021, and about G2 on 15-16/11/2021.

This allowed a direct comparison of how the 10MHz WSPR (1W) signal to DP0GVN from Wales varied.  The difference in geomagnetic activity was slight, but the effects are still clear, notably in the couple of hours or so after 00UT, where under G0, there were no spots, but under G2, there were many. 

My signal was propagated at a weaker strength after midnight in the second day, at a minimum of around -19dB, whereas it was a weakest of -15dB on day 1 - a power difference of 2.5 times.  So the change wasn't simply down to difference in timing between the geomagnetic disturbances.

I've placed two days' worth of magnetometry plots above the WSPR data, which is NOT to the same timescale as the WSPR plot.  It is there simply for you to see the difference in the two days.

DP0GVN receiving my 1W, 10MHz WSPR signal.

Meanwhile, EA8BFK first saw an enhancement in my signal, also at 10MHz, and then a significant dip at aroun 00:30UT, quickly restoring by 01:00-01:30UT, and then undergoing actually quite interesting, periodic changes in strength.

EA8BFK receiving my 10MHz 1W WSPR signal (15-16/11/2021).

Eh?

A bit of a strange video from OH8STN today.  He has turned in favour of a Microsoft Surface tablet, as opposed to a Raspberry Pi.

Well, he's entitled to his opinion, and it's his channel.  But I think anyone watching this video should be aware of a couple of, shall we say 'misconceptions' thrown around by OH8STN. 

I know Julian is fed-up of people who say 'no' because he says 'yes'.  That's fair enough, but not when it might make newcomers think they are better off with a product he is either promoting for money, or else just choosing to use from his own standpoint - and I don't know which of those two applies in this latest video.

The Pi is not difficult to configure or operate.  It is literally the same to use as a Windows UI.  Compared to a mid-range laptop, the Pi runs a lot more smoothly.  It will never hang when using data modes and browsing the internet at the same time, for example.  A basic or even mid-range Windows machine often will, or run slowly, trying to do the same.

Whilst some micro-SD cards can be unreliable, choosing a make such as Sandisk or Kingston eliminates this issue.  If SD cards were so unreliable, we wouldn't tolerate them in our billions of smartphones; when did yours last crash?  I've had one terminal SD card failure in maybe 7 years of using a Pi.  And all you have to do to be 'prepared', as OH8STN likes to be, is carry a spare OS disk in the rucksack; they only cost about £5 each, and the Pi will work the minute you switch it on again.

And the major thing for people using a Pi is that they are not using a Windows machine.  Windows is bloaty, updates endlessly and without the option to stop them (which also slows down datamode use during an update). And in the end, you are left with having to buy a new version of Windows, or a new machine altogether - simply because this makes money for MS. Raspberry Pi OS updates are free and adaptable. 

And as for cost, I don't get Julian's claim that it could end up costing the same as a Surface.  The cheapest, rather underwhelmingly-specified Surface Go 3 is £369 in the UK.  The next one up (Pro 7+) is £799!  The Surface has a single USB 'C' connection to the outside world - fine for a IC-705 rig, if you can afford or want one - not so fine if you don't; you may not be able to easily, or at all, connect other rigs to it.  Admittedly, more rigs are now becoming single-USB connection types, but they are still much in the minority.

A Pi system would cost £55 for the board, a 7" screen is now as cheap as £43, a keyboard and mouse about £10.  A USB battery is also needed - about £20 for a decent capacity unit.  Total cost: £128.  If you use a mobile phone for timekeeping (usually the case if you want the internet for spots uploading, etc), then you don't need to get a USB GNSS (GPS) unit - or £7 if you are really out in the non-networked field.  And the Pi sports no less than four full-sized USB sockets.

And the added benefit of the Pi system is that, if the board fails, you can easily reuse the screen by simply connecting it to another one, as you can the keyboard.  So the future replacement cost is then reduced to just the board itself - or £55 instead of £369 at today's prices.  Not that I've ever had a single Pi, from Model A to the latest Model 4B, fail on me, and I've had them permanently in rucksacks, cars, and dusty garages (many runnning 24/7/365 on science projects).

You don't get any of this endless, consumer-based updates nonsense with Raspberry Pi OS.

Heat?  Well, I have a passive aluminium shell for my Pi 4B.  It plods along at about 40 degrees C indoors, and cooler outdoors, even when running datamodes.  So Julian's concerns about heatsinks are certainly non-issues for normal amateur radio use - especially if, like Julian, you are often in a very cold ambient temperature!

So, I'm sorry Julian, I just don't accept your reasons for turning against Raspberry Pi, and I certainly won't be returning to MS products.  You may believe you can more trust your life to a Windows machine, but I, for one, would much rather take my chances with a Pi!

 

 

 

QRZ.com - just not getting it.

Back in June 2020, as some of you will recall only too well, QRZ.com banned my special event callsign page for GB9BLM.  Under immediate and very effective pressure from users, at least one of whom was a (black) lawyer, QRZ.com's owner resinstated my page, issuing all sorts of incoherent and contradictory excuses for his actions. 

I finished coverage of that episode with this post.

Fred at QRZ.com then said that he didn't at all like being labelled a racist.  He had, he said, coloured relatives.

So if we accept Fred at face value, then the extract of QRZ.com's home page, captured 09/11/2021, can't be racism, but just sheer stupidty and insensitivity.  The term 'Indian' (i.e. 'Red Indian') was coined at the time of what was a merciless European colonisation of the Americas, and as such, has long been held by Native Americans to be derogatory and racist.  

I couldn't quite believe my eyes on seeing this.

 

I can't imagine any web site or other respectable outlet in Europe using an anachronistic, derogatory term like this without considerable and entirely justified outrage and condemnation.  

Of course, the image does remind us, if accidentally, that there are still products being sold today that carry the names of Native American tribes.  And there are still, seemingly white-dominated clubs (hardly unusual for this hobby) also using tribal names.  

Not all of America is like this, of course, but far too much of it - including QRZ.com - is.

But to turn this item into something more positive and, indeed, amazing, here's the story of a Scottish lady who recently featured on a TV genealogy programme, and discovered her biological parents were Native American.  It's quite an emotional story.

 

OFCOM. No, it really can get worse!

The sorry state of UK politics - and, potentially, OFCOM, the UK comms regulator - is being painfully revealed again recently by the Johnson government's unwillingness to take 'no' for an answer when it comes to appointing former Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre, to Chair of OFCOM.

Trouble brewing...

OFCOM is no stranger to controversy within or without amateur radio.  Last year, it caved-in to what were utterly irrational and baseless public concerns about 5G roll-out, dragging amateur radio into the 'must assess RF safety' camp.  The radio press has been full of complaints and criciticsms since.  It's as likely that anyone will bother with doing the assessments for safety - noting OFCOM could not produce any scientific evidence of harm from HF emissions when asked - as anyone from OFCOM will turn up to check that you have.  So what was the point of it all?

Paul Dacre is hugely controversial, publishing a front page that has since become emblematic of all that is wrong in 'culture wars', fascist Britain. The judges upheld the law.  Paul Dacre embarked on encouraging public support for undermining them.

The kind of dangerous rubbish that Paul Dacre was resonsible for.

Now, things are getting ugly.  Dacre has been rejected once for the Chair of OFCOM, because he was "unappointable due to his anti-BBC stance".  The Johnson government, however, is hell-bent on appointing him.  It has already stopped the appointments process and started another, so that it gets the answer - and appointment of Dacre - that it wants.  Part of this to to dismantle the BBC, which the government doesn't like.

So it's now looking like it will go, ironically, to the courts.  Public legal pressure group, The Good Law Project, is taking the issue on.  GLP enjoys enormous financial support from the UK public and is widely seen as the real opposition to the government where the political opposition has failed miserably.

Quite what it would mean for amateur radio were this madman be given control of OFCOM is anybody's guess.  But it probably wouldn't be good.

Extract from Good Law Project's web site, announcing it is commencing legal proceedings.

The Twitterati don't like Dacre at all.  A non-scientific poll yesterday by Good Law Project returned a complete rejection of him:

+15dB

Extremely rough geomagnetic conditions overnight, reaching G4/Kp8 levels.  Aurora was seen in the most southerly UK latitudes, although it was mostly cloudy here at the time.

The higher bands were open, but very weakly from this far north. 

Wow! 

 

I ran some WSPR at 14MHz whilst going out for a walk on the beach this morning.  Or, rather, walking in the sea.  The bay was still flooded, but is only shallow, at about 50cm deep.  So I waded-in in my shorts, and kept walking!  I must have been quite a strange sight from the shore, but no rescue boat came, so that was OK!

 

Nice weather down here, very bad weather up in space!

1W to the world at 14MHz.  The geomagnetic storm clearly took its toll!

Conditions on 20m were not very good, but I did manage a good set of results into VK-land.  In comparison to other UK stations, even with such a simple Ampro stick for an antenna, I was seeing a median +15dB enhancement of my 1W to VK4KJP, with a minimum of +3dB against the excellent G0CCL, with a metal factory for a ground plane, to a maximum of +19dB.

 

17m WSPR

A walk and WSPR session down at the beach today, where I got some very good results with 1W from the Ampro stick.  

Getting wintry now.  12 ships sheltering from the wind off the coast today.

 

I was the only UK station getting across to KFS on the west coast US, and also the only one getting to RZ3DVP at the time (and considerably before and after this time):