Christmas tree festival - NOT amateur radio

This was a Christmas tree 🎄 festival in our village church.

1955 shack

This photo appeared yesterday of a USA shack in 1955.  

When I started in the early 1960s, most HF was AM. These days it is mostly FT8 and SSB.

1937 USA amateur allocations

 Yesterday I came across this, which may be of interest especially to USA readers. Notice an amateur band at 11m, no 160m , no WARC bands and no 15m. I am sorry the chart is not clearer.

10m QRP WSPR (Tuesday)

My 500mW 10m WSPR beacon was turned on at about 0915z.  Yesterday, 55 stations spotted me. 

UPDATE 1432z:  So far today I have been spotted by 24 stations.

Back on 6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

 At the moment I am back on 6m FT8 with the IC-705. So far, at 0930z, 3 English stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 0936z: 6 English stations have spotted me. 

UPDATE 1151z:   Spotted by 13 stations.

UPDATE 1912z:   19 stations have spotted me today (see map).

RF in the shack?

 As reported yesterday, I have an issue using my IC-705 on 10m FT8. There was no problem on 6m. 

It suddenly occurred to me that this might be due to RF in the shack as I use an end-fed antenna on 10m. Later I will try adding some RF chokes to see if this cures it.

Times Radio - NOT amateur radio

Most days, I watch the YouTube videos from Times Radio.  Often they interview a wide range of experts on a host of world affairs. It is hard to find unbiased sources of world news, but this is pretty good.

Sunspots - Tuesday December 17th

Solar flux is 170 and the SSN 90. A=28 and K=2.

"Early doors" - NOT amateur radio

Until this year I had never heard of this phrase. This year, I have heard it several times. Maybe I have led a too sheltered life!  

I am wondering if it was a common phrase in the UK before?

OFCOM updates

A reminder that OFCOM updates the data it holds on licences etc.. It also has announced more about the auctions of 26GHz and 40GHz spectrum.