It's Easter, so a couple of days at home. Nice to have to opportunity to make some RF
Since buying the proper Yaesu USB <> FT857 interface for FT8, the output has been a lot cleaner, so I've been less worried about turning the wick up a bit.
Nice to work a few on 12m 17m and on Sunday on 40m FT8

I was just looking at the last page of the live log on here, and realised that every logged QSO since September last year was on FT8.
OK the band may have changed, but not the mode!

I have seen a number of sites loading a lot of pages on SixAddict with very short pauses between successive requests. The strange thing is that there's no refering page. This is spider like in appearance, however, these are not search engines. For this reason, you will only be granted 6 page loads in any one minute 'window'. I figure that for normal use, you would not need to load pages at greater than 10 second intervals.
There is a small number of users who appear to be leaving SixAddict open over a period of several hours. I don't mind this at all, but just to let you know that if you leave SixAddict open on a page for over an hour the refresh rate on spots goes down to thirty seconds and the refresh rate for the graphics goes down to every ten minutes.

PSAT>APRSON,ARISS/V:s#062814,0z200,000000000000000000000000000000000000

RS0ISS>CQ/V:>ARISS - International Space Station
OE6PWE>APZWPP,RS0ISS*/V:=4659.08N/01527.57E-73's Via ISS, wolfgang.puhar@chello.
at
ON7BRT>5Q0SS5,RS0ISS*,RS0ISS,PCSAT,APRSAT,PSAT,YBSAT,ARISS,W3ADO-1/V:`yHol y/`O
N7BRT ON7BRT@skynet.be_"

YO3GXC>EQSL,RS0ISS*/V:=4424.53N/02606.42E-73' Via Satellite
YO3GXC>EQSL,RS0ISS*/V::ARISS :Hello All. UISS version 5.4
2E1EBX>U2UVV0,RS0ISS*,WIDE/V:'v9X K>Hi from Norfolk UK via ISS 73's all.=

GM7URD>APX200,RS0ISS*/V:=/25huMB5>>YQC)
GM7URD>APX200,RS0ISS*/V:=/25swMB/D>RQC)
GM7URD>APX200,RS0ISS*/V:=/25swMB/D>RQC)
PE1NTN>CQ,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:=5220.85N/00450.75E-JO22ki - Amsterdam - pe1ntn@
amsat.org
GM7URD>APX200,RS0ISS*/V:=/25swMB/D>RQC)
YO3GXC>EQSL,RS0ISS*/V:=4424.53N/02606.42E-73' Via Satellite
YO3GXC>EQSL,RS0ISS*/V:=4424.53N/02606.42E-73' Via Satellite

Copied from the log.

PA3DZX-6>CQ,RS0ISS*/V:!5217.67N/00648.03E`http://aprs.pa3dzx.nl/ - @3DZX
IS0EBO-4>4P4TX3,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:'~<.l i/]73 FROM SPACE

PA3DZX-6>CQ,RS0ISS*/V:!5217.67N/00648.03E`http://aprs.pa3dzx.nl/ - @3DZX
PE1PIC>CQ,RS0ISS*/V::PA3DZX-6 :Goedemorgen
IS0EBO-4>4P4TX3,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:'~<.l i/]73 FROM SPACE

G7HCE>CQ,RS0ISS*/V::F5CBP :Hi 73' David in Exeter/UK via ISS
IS0EBO-4>4P4TX3,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:'~<.l i/]73 FROM SPACE

ON7BRT>5Q0SS5,RS0ISS*,RS0ISS,PCSAT,APRSAT,PSAT,YBSAT,ARISS,W3ADO-1/V:`yHol y/`O
N7BRT ON7BRT@skynet.be_"

2E1EBX>U2UVV0,RS0ISS*,WIDE/V:'v9X K>Hi from Norfolk UK via ISS 73's all.=

PD2RPB>CQ,RS0ISS*/V::EMAIL :pd2rpb@veron.nl Hello all!!
ON7BRT>5Q0SS5,RS0ISS*,RS0ISS,PCSAT,APRSAT,PSAT,YBSAT,ARISS,W3ADO-1/V:`yHol y/`O
N7BRT ON7BRT@skynet.be_"

IS0EBO-4>4P4TX3,RS0ISS*,APRSAT,WIDE/V:'~<.l i/]73 FROM SPACE

F5CBP>CQ,RS0ISS*/V:Hello To All! F5CBP@yahoo.fr

Banggood sell a laser etcher. It works fine on older computers but flatly refuses to work on a Win10 machine. This turned out to be the PL2303 driver causing the error 10, from which there seems to be no recovery.
Until I found a page at;
http://www.ifamilysoftware.com/news37.html
Which nicely explains the whole thing, and offers up a working remedy.

Code given : licence received 11410001133 : 14 7e e1 3a 1614931141 : e2 cb 69 52 -536454147 : a4 4d 13 bb -265931336 : e3 93 27 c8 1221411267 : 1d 5d e3 3e In each case, the licence is 16 bytes long. The first 12 bytes always appear to be the same. The last 4 bytes are as in the table above. The first 12 bytes are as follows; 01 00 00 00 94 6e bc cd 87 39 21 5e When running the software for the first time, the code is given. This then has to be 'converted' into a licence code. The licence is in the form of a file 16 bytes long. This is then read by the software. So it is my assumption that the software is capable of checking this licence to make sure it matches the code. The code appears to be installation specific, as several codes have now been required. This is no longer a current product, but has to be maintained by us. If for whatever reason the codes are no longer available, then the new installations will not run. What we need is an in house conversion algorithm to make sure we can support ourselves in the future. EDIT: Though we haven't (yet) found a solution to this, we did have a little luck with decompiling. It appears that the program when it was running checked for the existence of a licence file. It checked this against its own calculated licence. In between, it made a call to the system to get the hard disk ID. It transpires, that the number given, from which to order the licence, was merely a decimal representation of the HDD ID. By changing the ID of the HDD to one of a known working system (The previous - now dead HDD) I found that the old licence could be re-used.

After numerous dropouts of the Fibre here at G0LFP towers, I put a call in to my provider to find out what was wrong. They then put in a call to BT to fix it. However, BT being BT will test the line, and say "all is good". The line myseriously behaves itself for a few days and then back to square one. I also noticed that the uptime on the router itself was often only a day or two, leading me to believer that either the line was dragging down the router causing it to reboot, or that the problem may have been in the router all along. I decided to replace it anyway.
Fast forward to last Friday (13th!) and the arrival of the new Draytek Vigor 2860Vn-plus.
Saturday: After a couple of coffees, I unboxed it and set it up connected to just a laptop on the dining room table. I set it up from scratch as I didn't want to risk trying to upload a config from a different router. After a few minor tweaks, everything was up and running.
Now, as anyone who know will tell you, the only way to get sense from BT is to make sure that the 'modem' in use is the one that they supplied. Harumph!
OK, so now to the point of this whole entry.
To use the Vigor in VDSL mode (WAN1) is quite straightforward. You enter your ISP supplied username and password. Set VLAN TAG insertion to yes, enter the value 101 and Priority 0.
To use the Vigor in Ethernet mode with the BT modem on WAN2 you still have to enter your ISP supplied username and password. However, despite reading to the contrary on a number of site on the web, you DO NOT need to set VLAN tag insertion. I have this disabled now. As soon as I disabled it I stopped getting the error [ PPPoE : No response from server side ].
Router and modem have been up for an hour now. I'll monitor it over the next few days before nagging my ISP.

If you fancy having a play with my twitter bot, you'll find it on my @g0lfp account.
Start by sending #BOTHELP for a list of current commands.
Today it will send you:
#bothelp = This page
#temps = My wx
#QTH callsign = Returns Locator for call.
#XRAYBOT 72hr maxs
#SPACEWX That!


Only QTH expects a second parameter. If you send it '#qth g0lfp' it will tell you where I'm located. Use it for that, just missed locator when you need it for the log.

The tweet scanner runs once every 60 seconds. So the longest you should wait for a reply, in theory, is a minute.
Have fun.

Brian, G8OSN kindly informed me by email yesterday that the csv generator had stopped working. It appears that the format has changed for the csv import/export for the latest version. I can't see previous versions on their website, so if you're a regular user of CHIRP and my csv generator, I'd hang back from doing an upgrade until such time as I get to figure out the differences and update the page. David, G7AGI suggested an option pull down, which sounds like a good idea. However, it'd quicker and easier in the short term to have two separate pages, and merge them later when I get time.
Keep an eye on my twitter, or here for updates about the page.

Problems installing and running GPredict on Win XP SP3

Program downloaded, unzipped into a folder on the desktop.

Navigate to /bin/

Highlight .exe and press enter.

Aborts with error;

gpredict.exe - Application Error
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0150002). Click OK to terminate the application.

Installed the VC++ 2008 redistributables. No difference.

Checked the event viewer.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: SideBySide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 32
Date: 20/04/2014
Time: 19:54:36
User: N/A
Computer: G0LFP
Description:
Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.CRT could not be found and Last Error was The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Checked out this file, and it's from the 2005 distributables.

Available from MS here :- http://tinyurl.com/ldm9umd

Downloaded and installed.

GPredict now runs.

After repeated failures to import the data to the database for the csv generator, I have turned off the autoupdate.
If you are using the generator to update because of a freq/channel change, or to include a new repeater, please let me know and I'll do a manual update.
Cheers,


73

Seems that the editor of the csv on UKRepeaters.net has changed, more and more commas are creeping in to the location data. I had been dropping these from the list, but thanks to Stu, G0LGS, who kindly sent me a chunk of code as a work around, all of them should now be included once again.
Any oddities or empty lists, please feel free to send me a note at the email address on the bottom of the home page. Ta! 73

At around 1650Z today, the data stopped flowing from SWPC/NOAA. This means that there are no alerts, and the x-ray graph doesn't work. WWV also appears to have stopped. Normal service will resume when someone goes and unplugs the Hoover, and plugs the server back in.
This affects: @SolarWxRobot and @Solar_WX

I think I've sorted it, keep me posted via Twitter if you spot anything daft! @g0lfp

The csv generator is not currently working. The data file from UKRepeater.net has changed. Normal service will be resumed as soonas I've had a chance to see what they've broken.

There seemed to be quite a lot of tropo around yesterday evening. As this nicely coincided with the UKAC, the 2m 7 element ZL-Special went up on top of the portable mast again. Luckily there was almost no wind, so it was easy to get it to its full height. Serial number 001 went to Dave G7RAU in IO90, glad to be able to speak to him (over the air) at last! Best DX of the night was F8BRK in IN99 at about 276km.
No complaints here, 4 contacts, 4 squares, 3 DXCCs.
What a pity that despite the excellent conditions, there was almost no activity past the end of the contest.

Activity has been on the low side for some time. Last weekend I decided to put up a wire for HF. I hadn't used HF much from home, but thought I'd give it another go. It's an unbalanced dipole for 40m, but seems to tune quite easily on most bands. I've had a little fun on 40m, and also put a contact in the log on 17m. I was of course very pleased to put a Stateside station in the log on 40m. Thanks to KE1Y for pulling me out of the noise.

With the average levels staying quite high, I have in fact disabled the alerts for 'C' class solar flares. Hopefully this will improve the signal to noise ratio of the twitter feed.
I have also changed the way that the flares are reported. Originally I had been waiting for NASA to update the events log on their website, to confirm things like MAX level and ACTIVE region. However, they can be a bit slow, sometime meaning that the alerts were delayed by several hours.
This is no longer the case. The alerts are now sent as soon as the peak is detected, usually within 15 minutes to be sure that there wasn't another secondary peak. The down side of this is... a.) the peak might not be timed exactly. Though usually right to within 5 minutes. ...and b.) the peak maximum might be different to the actual peak.

In other news, You may have seen my call on the WSPR map. I've tried several bands. 20m seems to be the best so far.

I've had on test now for about a week, a 'bot to tweet the flares and CME's as they happen. A few have escaped during testing, but now, the robot is fully enabled.
I'll keep an eye on the output, and if I think that there are too many, I'll disable 'C' class flares and only tweet 'M' and 'X' flares and CME's.
Bouquets and brickbats to /dev/null as usual please.

Users of Chirp software will now find a .csv generator for UK repeaters here

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll be aware of the bot that I have running. In order to not have everyone on my list bombarded with information that is at the very least irrelevant, and at the most confusing, I have moved it onto its own account. If you want regular solar wx reports, aurora alerts etc, then please follow @solarwxrobot

The system is currently on test, so some odd things may happen. Please report anything odd you see to the address on the main page of this site.

Many thanks.

For anyone wondering why my websites have been broken over the last 24 hours...

Well, I had a little bit of a disaster on Thursday (12th) Evening and managed to royally break things.
I've had to reinstall the server software are restore from backup and now everything is seemingly OK. Odd things might still happen, but at least it's working again.

It's always great to hear the first E's of the season, and it's even better to get a contact in the log. First DXCC and first QRA in the log this year. Let's hope for a better year than the last one!

After reviewing the log book since my last blog entry, it seems that there's not been any radio to speak of. It's something like 8 months since I returned from Turkey, and there have only been six log entries since then, the last being in early November.
So, blessed with a beautiful long weekend for Easter, the antennas have been sorted and the six meter beam is on the mast. Of course, that'll eradicate any chance there ever was to an early start to the 'E' season. ;-)
There have been lines on the SixAddict map today, even as I type there are some TEP line from southern Europe. Fingers crossed for something this far north.

Now /mm but not et up with radio yet. More when I can.
de TA/G0LFP/mm

Just a quick update, because I'm trying to keep myself distracted. After the 6m milestone, it's something of a coincidence that 10m has just passed the 100 grid squares worked!

This week turned out to be quite a disappointment on 6m. I managed to catch brief openings on the 13th and 17th. The weekend was busy with the 6m contest, so plenty to be worked. At the end of Saturday night I had a problem with the radio cutting out, not sure what it was as it seems to have cured itself!!! Anyway, Sunday afternoon I played safe and operated QRP from the 817. I still managed to get another 6 contacts in the log, one of which was 9A1V for square number 250.

Nothing for the 8th (Tuesday)
Wednesday:
Quite a mixed bag really, 9 DX contacts in the log, notably SQ5WAA for KO02, and DJ6YX for JO52. Both new grids.
Thursday:
CQ7OA for EU-040, and then EA3AR for JN12 and another new grid.
Friday:
White noise!
Saturday:
3 Canadians, VO1SO in GN37, VO1BC in GN38 and a new grid, VO1KVT in GN29 and another new grid. Much later on the band changed and the conditions favoured the Caribbean, resulting in KP4EIT and HI3TEJ. Neither of these were new.
At the end of play today, as the band seems to have closed:-
GRIDS 50 MHz All time = 249 Confirmed = 85 Current year = 46
DXCCs 50 MHz All time = 57 Confirmed = 26 Current year = 28
Best DX this year: 6886km, HI3TEJ

The Sunday morning portion of the UKSMG contest. I managed to miss the early activity due to guests staying in the G0LFP house. By the time I did get to the shack, there didn't seem to be a great deal going on. So, just as an experiment, I dropped the lower mast, and took the 4m halo off, cut a 17m dipole, and put that up in inverted-V configuration. No balun, nothing. Just coax and wire. It runs N-S so although I was hearing Madeira at 59+ I wasn't making it back through the European callers.
I did still manage to work EA8DO and CO8LY for two new DXCCs.
This evening, a short opening to Iceland netted TF2JB, and then Gulli, TF8GX.