Sunspots - Saturday March 30th

 Solar flux is 167 and the sunspot number is 79. A=6 and K=1.

8m QRP FT8 (Friday)

My 2.5W and dipole have been on most of the day.  No spots of me although I did copy ZR1ADI (9777km) in Western Cape, South Africa.

500uW 10m WSPR (Friday)

Amazingly, EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted my extreme QRPP 6 times already!! I had to double check it really was 500uW (0.5mW). It definitely was!!

UPDATE 0917z:  11 spots already of my 500uW (0.5mW) by EA8BFK.  Amazing.

UPDATE 1630z:   27 spots of me today including 3 from the USA. Quite incredible for 500uW. Conditions must have been very good these last few days. The map (from WSPR Rocks by Phil VK7JJ) shows the 10m WSPR spots these last few days with 500uW (0.5mW).

UPDATE 2122z:   31 spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) today. I suspect conditions must have been exceptional.

Village cottage - NOT amateur radio

 

There is a mix of both old and new houses in our village.

Dramatic clouds- NOT amateur radio

As the rain came in earlier in the week, we were treated to some spectacular clouds in our close as the photo shows.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

Overnight my 10mW ERP 630m WSPR was spotted by 14 stations. Best DX spots were from Norway.

Sunspots- Friday March 29th

 Solar flux is 173 and the SSN 101. A=7 and K=1.

SPRAT article

It was very pleasing to see my short article about the use of the ISM bands for QRPP beaconing in the latest SPRAT. 

In the UK this means 10mW ERP on the HiFer and 8m ISM bands under IR2030 interface regulations.  No callsign is mandated and this is licence free. It is a good idea to use a callsign that WSPRnet can cope with if using WSPR. Likewise if using FT8, choose a callsign that PSKreporter can handle.

Certainly on the 8m ISM band 10mW ERP WSPR is enough to reach into much of Europe on Es. The same is probably true of the HiFer band too.

630m QRP WSPR

My 630m 10mW ERP WSPR was turned on at about 1911z this evening. So far, 4 stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 2035z:  12 stations have spotted me so far.

Old photos - NOT amateur radio

Recently, my nephew visited us. Here he is looking at some old photos of h is granddad in the RAF.

Walk - NOT amateur radio

 Yesterday we did a nice walk around the village and saw these flowers.

6m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna has been on most of the day. I shall QSY to 630m QRP WSPR later. So far, my signal has been spotted by 16 stations (all in England).

10m QRPP WSPR (Thursday)

Once again I am on 10m WSPR with just 500uW (0.5mW) and I have already had 6 spots from EA8BFK (2880km) and one from Greece (a new country with ultra QRPP).

These last few days have been good. I must try to correlate this with solar conditions. I would expect to see some sort of relationship. I would not have thought these last few days were exceptional. Good, yes, but not exceptional.

A reminder that my beacon is pre-programmed to report the power is 500mW even though it is just 500uW (0.5mW) during these tests. 

I continue to be amazed.

It will be interesting trying ultra QRPP during the Es season.

UPDATE 1245z:  Already 18 spots today. EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted me as strongly as -16dB S/N  when I was running just 500uW suggesting 16dB weaker still might have been copied. 

UPDATE 1730z:  22 spots of me today at 500uW including a new reporter in the USA, who received me strongly. Amazing!!  

Sunspots - Thursday March 28th

 Solar flux is 175 and the SSN 114. A=7 and K=2.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

 

My 10mW ERP WSPR has been on since about 2030z. 12 stations spotted me. No great DX.

Nesting time - NOT amateur radio

 

Swans have nested in this spot for many years. I hope they succeed in raising a brood.

8m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

My 2.5W 8m FT8 to the dipole was turned on at about 1110z.  As usual, I am on 40.680MHz (DF about 1950Hz).  No spots yet.

QRP 6m FT8 (Wednesday)

My own 6m 2.5W FT8 to the vertical omni has been spotted by 10 stations. On RX (TEP?) my best DX is ZS6NJ (9115km).

10m QRPP again (Wednesday)

My 500uW WSPR has already been spotted in the Canary Is. by EA8BFK (2880km). I shall stick with 500uW (0.5mW) today, but yesterday was exceptional.

UPDATE 1116z:  EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted my 500uW (0.5mW) WSPR twice today already!

UPDATE 1707z: This afternoon, a station in the USA spotted me again when I was using just 500uW (0.5mW).

630m QRP WSPR overnight

A better overnight session with 18 stations spotting my 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.