As we are at a solar cycle minima everyone seems to be watching the sunspot number. Once the number of sunspots rises the possibility of better HF contacts increases on the higher bands.
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology you can now display the sunspot number on your website as an embeddable widget. The display colour changes with the sunspot number
To add the sunspot widget to your site cut and paste the following html code and add it to your page
Not really a fan of Facebook myself, but in the interests of a bit of experimentation I had a crack at making a very noddy ham radio application for Facebook.
You can add it to your Facebook applications by going to
After spending a wiile programming and letting M3WFO and M0GGO trial the software, I finally converted my current logbook to the visual format using the wordpress HamXlog plugin.
As a follow on from playing with the google maps api, I’ve also created a map of the UK repeaters. Soon I’ll change the marker colour based on the band in which the repeater operates. I’m also trying figure out an easy way of updating the repeater status
Been playling around with some code this weekend, and had the idea of plotting my logbook using the Google Maps API. Looking in my logbook however I don’t have many contacts with their Maidenhead Grid Locator, so looking back through my email I found a copy of M0GGO’s Ham radio deluxe database., from early 2007. Using php+mysql+javascript+Mdb tools I created this map of Chris’s Contacts. The page takes a little while to load as there is quite a lot of data here. I’ve added a couple of the fields from the database to the tags so when you click on a marker a bit of info about the QSO is printed to the screen. Different colour icons represent different bands worked, however I ran out of icons so some of the bands share the same colour.
Check out the Visual Logbook Google Map HERE It takes about a minute for all the markers to load on to the map - please be patient
Let me know what you think. :) I’m thinking of making this into a blog plugin is anyone is interested
A few photos taken on Langdon Cliffs (White Cliffs Of Dover). Spent a couple of hours on 2m and 20m. The Belgian field day was on and several QRP contacts were made by M3OYQ and M3WFO using a 1/2 wave whip mounted at 45 degrees on the ford ka. (M3OYQ and M3WFO operating 5w on an FT-817). Some more distant contacts were made by M0GGO (formerly 2E0BEH, M3JOM) using his new SOTA beam, and 50w with an FT-857).
Also managed to get one contact in italy with 2.5 watts and a telescopic whip on the FT-817, however the chap on the other end wasn’t happy as it was an Italy only contest - doh….. Still it proves what can be done with a good location and QRP power levels, you dont even need a huge antenna!!
My online logbook, a little out of date, but not inactive. I just don’t seem to have spent much time on the radio recently.
I am writing a web application that uses google maps to make the logbook a little more interactive, and using some of the code I’ve developed for my UAV on http://www.wildride.org.uk to calculate the bearing and distance from your station to mine.
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