Sunspots - Tuesday August 1st 2017

Solar flux is 72 today and the sunspot number 11. A=5 and K=0.

Now QRT

About 15 minutes ago I went QRT on all bands and disconnected everything. Storms permitting, I plan to be on 20m FT8 around breakfast time tomorrow.

The Bull - NOT amateur radio

Today we visited Kentwell Hall near Long Melford, Suffolk, UK. We ate at a pub called "The Bull" in Long Melford. The pub, which opened about 1450 (quite old!) was excellent is all respects. Good service, good food, good prices, friendly, old. Recommended. We had ham, egg, peas and chips for £5.99 each. Although we did not have one, desserts were just £2.99 each with a decent choice.

20m FT8 tomorrow?

Tomorrow there is some thunder expected here in the afternoon. I may try FT8 on 20m tomorrow in the morning. I may adopt the auto sequencing system to see how this works. I can probably only manage a few hours before I have to disconnect everything to avoid the storm risk.

See https://www.lightningmaps.org/blitzortung/europe/index.php?lang=en .

Lack of personal touch - NOT amateur radio

Recently I have been playing ping pong with emails to and from my energy supplier. I keep saying "no reply wanted or expected" only to get yet another reply! Judging by the names, this comes from an automated call centre in India. Much of the letter appears to be computer generated, with maybe a small bit of human intervention, complete with spelling mistakes. I have nothing against call centres in India and wish these good people all the best.

What I really dislike is the lack of real human touch. Years ago you could ring your local bank. Now you get a call centre thousands of miles away and you are just a sort code and account number: they really don't know or care who you are.

Grumpy old man, me? Yes.

Regen 40m and 80m RX

A nice simple RX built by NG9D is demonstrated on YouTube.

10m WSPR

So far, 2 unique spots this morning early. It is now only 0825z, so this is probably good this early. Both look like Es (GMs).

UPDATE 1935z:  6 unique spots of my little 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today. Not as good as yesterday.

6m FT8 RX

At the moment I am on 6m FT8 RX. 5 stations copied this morning so far: all Gs by tropo or aircraft reflections probably. The 15 second TX period must help on paths that open only briefly.

I have a question. With FT8, does the auto QSO automatically sequence through the whole QSO or just auto respond to the first CQ answer received and then leave the rest to the operator?

UPDATE 1820z: Best DX on 6m FT8 RX today is K7BV (6360km) in FM04 square (N.Carolina) at 1653z at -15dB S/N. Judging by where he was being spotted, I am pretty sure this is genuine too. This seems a great mode.

Sunspots - Monday July 31st 2017

Solar flux remains at 69 (poor) and the sunspot number 11. A=4 and K=1.

6m FT8

In the end I decided to download the beta version of WSJT-x V1.8 which includes FT8. I have taken a look on 50.313MHz and copied a few stations by Es and a G in IO91 calling CQ. Although I called him, he did not respond. There is always tomorrow.

UPDATE 2110z: G4NBS (14km) was my first FT8 QSO on 6m. Well on any band!  I am not sure the PSK Reporter Map upload is working properly. Several stations have been reported, but none appear to show.

UPDATE 2118z: Well it helps if you look on the right band! Doh! All is well.