Sunspots and 10m - Sat April 30th 2016

Solar flux 92 today. Sunspot number is 82 (K=1) and forecast for 10m propagation remains "poor".

Facebook - NOT amateur radio

For some reason Facebook is very very slow here today. All else seems normal. Have they been attacked?

No luck on 10m WSPR today

Perhaps surprisingly, no spots at all today of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon. Certainly here there was no Es propagation evident. I shall be on the band for a few more hours so things might change before dark.

On 630m WSPR with far less ERP (about 27dB less!) I have been regularly been copied at 223km in IO93 square.

On 10m, if there is no propagation that is it - no reports unless there are some Gs spotted by aircraft reflection.  On 630m WSPR there seems to be inter-G propagation all the time.

UPDATE 1912z:  Still no spots at all on 10m WSPR here all day. I shall be going QRT on 10m very shortly.

UPDATE 1945z:  QRT on 10m. Copying G0MRF (103km=64miles) well on 472kHz WSPR. Sadly it looks like G0MRF is only on TX WSPR and not RX at all. If he was looking on RX too, this would be a new one for me on TX.

Bury St Edmunds - NOT amateur radio

Bury St Edmunds is our favourite place to shop. It is a bit further than Cambridge but easier to get to. It is a classic Suffolk market town with charming shops and a good market twice a week. Most of the people you see are true locals from the area with Suffolk accents. In Cambridge it seems that a good proportion of the people are from China!

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bury_St_Edmunds .

OFCOM consultation

See http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/talk-talk-licence-variation/?utm_source=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=talk-talk-licence-variation .

OFCOM are consulting our views. You may want to respond.

Rallies

I have been reminded of these rallies in the UK:

Sunday 1 MAY : DAMBUSTERS HAMFEST
Thorpe Camp Museum, Tattershall Thorpe, near Coningsby, Lincolnshire LN4 4PE. The venue is all on one level and doors open at 10am. Admission is £3 and includes entry into the museum. Hot food will be available in addition to the NAFFI. This is mainly an outdoor rally but some limited space is available indoors with a small charge for tables. More information by email to tony.nightingale@yahoo.co.uk

1-2 MAY : SHANES CASTLE STEAM TRACTION RALLY CASHOTA
Shanes Castle, Randalstown Rd, Antrim BT41 4NE. Including a CASHOTA station operated by Ballymena ARG. Family attractions, catering, disabled facilities, car parking, accessible by public transport. Contact Hugh Kernohan, GI0JEV, 028 2587 1481.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

Spot the PW?

Have you noticed how few radio magazines there are nowadays on the shelves of magazine shops?  The photo shows part of the magazine racks in W.H.Smith's in Bury St Edmunds. There are lots of mags on trains and transport, quite a few on PCs and smart phones, but it took me ages to find any mags on radio. It is as if our hobby no longer exists.

Out of interest, Practical Wireless was eventually found! Can you spot it?

Sunspots and 10m - Fri April 29th 2016

Solar flux is 93 today and the sunspot number 84 (K=1). Sadly the propagation forecast for 10m remains "poor" although Es may yet again liven up the band.

630m and 10m WSPR daytime today

For a change I shall remain on 630m (472kHz) WSPR all day today as well as TXing 100%  with my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon. I shall not go on 6m today.

Although I do not expect to copy many (any?) stations on 472kHz WSPR, it will be interesting to see who spots me in the daytime on this MF band.

Recent 472kHz spots (by day)

Yesterday there was Es on 10m with 3 unique stations spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR signal.

UPDATE 1440z:  Plenty of spots received on 472kHz but none so far on 10m today.

UPDATE 1450z:  M0LMH (223km) seems to copy me all the time as does G0MQW (123km).

To Norway (yet again) on 472kHz TX (5mW ERP)

Last night I was again spotted by LA8AV (1035km) on 472kHz WSPR.  I run 5mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna".

There are fewer active stations on the band now (getting too noisy?) than earlier in the year. I only spotted 2 French stations last night. For the first time in a long time more stations copied me than I copied! This is rarely the case.