OFCOM microwave auction changes

OFCOM is making changes in its auction for 26GHz and 40GHz spectrum to protect radio telescopes near Cambridge. See the OFCOM website for details.

Sunspots - Thursday April 18th

 Solar flux is 217 and the SSN 199. A=7 and K=1.

Ickworth near Bury St Edmunds, UK - NOT amateur radio

We were quite surprised to see lambs so late at Ickworth today. We went for a nice walk and a snack lunch. 

It is owned by the National Trust, so members can walk around the grounds and house.  

If you are not a member, you pay an entry fee.  There are a variety of walks. Some are long and some short.

8m FT8 RX

At the moment (Wednesday AM) I am on 40.680MHz USB dial FT8 RX. No spots. I have yet to repair my 8m dipole, so I have no idea (other than the highish SWR) how it is performing.

UPDATE 1642z: ZR1ADI (9777km) in South Africa was the only spot today. I guess this is TEP.

10m QRPP WSPR (Wednesday)

No luck yet today with my 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR today.

Yesterday there were quite a few spots of my 500uW WSPR by EA8BFK (2880km). The impression I am getting is this ultra low power works on single hop F2 as long as things are settled, but multiple hop F2 is far harder. Based on these results, I am expecting European spots via Es later.

UPDATE 1545z:  No spots today. 

UPDATE 1618z: I spoke too soon! 3 spots late afternoon from the Canary Islands (again).

UPDATE 2050z: EA8 (probably F2) ,OE and DL (probably both Es?) spotted my 500uW QRPP WSPR. If these two were Es, this is probably the start of the Es season.

A better session on 630m QRP WSPR overnight

In total 9 stations spotted my 10mW ERP 630m WSPR overnight including spots from Norway,

Sunspots - Wednesday April 17th

 Solar flux is 199 and the SSN 176. A=31 and K=1.

Laburnum - NOT amateur radio

 

This is coming out now. This photo was taken about 300m from our home.

6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

 My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical antenna is on, but just 5 English spots so far.

10m QRPP WSPR (Tuesday)

My 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR beacon has been on all day. I suspect conditions are not good enough.

UPDATE 1354z:   No spots.