Solar Activity

Just a reminder that http://www.solen.info/solar/ has lots of data on solar activity. Usually there is an update early in the month showing the sunspot activity. It is worth seeing the trends.

Winter - NOT amateur radio

Today is December 1st. How time flies. It seems no time since summer and the evenings (not the mornings) start to get lighter here from December 18th. The UK Met Office assumes winter starts today and it certainly feels like winter here!

Sunspots and 10m - Thursday December 1st 2016

Remember, the slow decline in solar activity is an average, but today the solar activity seems higher. Solar flux is 83 and sunspot number 75. A=3 and K=1. Today might be a "not too bad" day on 10m, assuming there are some people on the band!

10m JT65

At around 0940z, I returned to 10m JT65 having spent the evening and overnight on 630m WSPR where the best DX on 5mW ERP TX was DL-SWL (701km). As yet, no 10m spots given or received.

UPDATE 1120z: Still no spots on 10m JT65.

UPDATE 1938z: SQ7W (908km) in southern Sweden spotted me at teatime. Es? No South Americans, which surprised me.

UPDATE 2042z:  HC5K was spotted earlier but this was not uploaded to PSK reporter maps for some reason. So I did spot South America after all. I have now moved to 630m WSPR (5mW ERP).

QSY from 10m JT65 to 630m WSPR

After failing to see 10m JT65 spots, given or received, from South America today (I was surprised) I had to be content with 2E0CIT (94km) in South London!

I QSYed to 630m (472kHz) WSPR some hours ago. Best spot of my 5mW ERP on MF is again DL-SWL several times (701km).

ISWL Callsigns

Southgate News has details of ISWL callsigns in December. Anyone know how many members ISWL has now? I left a few years ago.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2016/november/iswl_callsigns_for_december.htm#.WD8M24XXL4g

Frosty Garden - NOT amateur radio

The last few days have been glorious with bright sunshine and little wind, but it has been (and still is) cold. We have had night-time frosts, which have been slow to clear.

The photo shows the slow to clear frost in the back garden. You can see where the sun has reached! The bird bath has been frozen solid for days.

Does all this suggest a cold winter ahead? Met Office winter runs from Dec 1st (tomorrow). To me, December, January and February are winter months and March 1st seems like spring again. So, I agree with the Met Office.

See http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ .

Sunspots and 10m

Solar flux is 85 today and the sunspot number 43. K=2. I hope we see some 10m DX later.

UPDATE 1725z: The K index has dropped to zero.

10m JT65

Around breakfast time I returned to 10m JT65. After a quiet spell, there is short skip around with several stations in Europe spotting me. Is this the start of the small Dec/Jan Es peak? OK it is late November!

I am being widely spotted and I have spotted EU7FBB (1931km) in Belarus.

UPDATE 1656z: No further spots since the Europeans earlier. If I am going to catch South America on 10m JT65 then the next hour will be the best chance. After about 1830z, I think any chances will be gone.

More spots on 472kHz WSPR

Last night PA7EY (306km) spotted me bringing the total number of unique stations spotting my 5mW ERP to 11. I have now QSYed to 10m JT65 for the day.