Thunderstorms - missing us?

At the moment, it looks like the worst of the thunder and lightning is missing us and passing up through the east of East Anglia, UK.

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See http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page_0=12 .

Sunspots and 10m - Friday June 5th 2015

Sunspot number has climbed to 80 (K=1) but 10m forecasts are still "poor". With thunder and lightning forecast for this part of the UK today it is likely I'll have to switch off equipment during the day. The best we can hope for on 10m and 6m WSPR is some short skip by Es.

UPDATE 2005z:   Very few 10m Es spots of me today.  Just Scandinavians earlier and G4IKZ (18km) since then.  In all, a very disappointing day on 10m and 6m.  No sign of any DX from outside Europe, not even spots from EA8BVP who has spotted me for months.

Early Es on 10m WSPR - June 5th

LB9YE (1533km) was spotting my 500mW WSPR beacon on 10m at 0834z.

10m/6m F2 and Es today

EA8BVP (2986km) has yet again been spotting me on 10m by F2 propagation. I see some very recent evidence of Es with OE6PWD (1232km) spotting me a little while ago.

UPDATE 2146z: EA8BVP has spotted me 36 times today so far.

UPDATE 2148z:  Again, no evidence of 6m Es here today.

London's West End Theatres - NOT amateur radio

Waiting for the coach outside the Aldwych Theatre

London has some excellent theatres, but they are expensive. Our village (60 miles from London) arranges theatre coach trips which are excellent value as they take you door-to-theatre door (just about) with plenty of time for a meal before the show and the price includes the coach and the theatre ticket (good seats too).

472kHz (630m)

This is a fascinating MF band. I am truly amazed how slow the FCC has been releasing this band and the 136kHz band in the USA. Do they sleep all day?

Simple, small, 472kHz transverter

Even with just 5mW ERP from a just a short baseline earth electrode antenna (earths 12m apart) I have been copied on WSPR more than 1000km away. Copy at shorter range is very easy. I use my transverter with the FT817. The ARRL was due to publish the circuit over 2 years ago, but are still waiting for the FCC release. For goodness sake wake up FCC! You look total fools to the rest of the world!

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/mflf/472khz_tvtr .

Sunspots (creeping up) and 10m - June 4th 2015

Sunspot number is creeping up again and stands at 55 (K=1) today. 10m propagation is expected to remain "poor" so we depend on Es to liven up 10m and possibly 6m. So far, Es is quiet with no evidence here of the overnight Es we had a day earlier.

6m Es - yes! 6m super DX?

6m WSPR has come to life with spots exchanged several times this afternoon with EA1KV (1304km).  DL4MFC (916km) spotted me on 6m WSPR at 1356z. Perhaps the 6m Es season is taking off at last? I notice there is thunder over central Europe. I wonder if this is helping? Sprites? I know one of the theories for Es involves thunder activity and upward movement into the E layer. Es is pretty complex.

No idea if the better equipped stations are working from Western Europe to Japan on 6m. This path seems to open every year around now, and some theories suggest reflections from mesospheric noctilucent clouds which are more common around this time of year. I suspect reflections would be possible right up to microwaves, but I doubt anyone is trying. See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/noctilucent .

I am very suspicious of some of the multi-hop explanations for very long path Es. To me, there has to be a better explanation. Es yes. Multi-hop? Really? I have my doubts.  Some Europeans may indeed be multi-hop but some of the openings to South East Asia, Africa and South America?  I really doubt that many of these are multi-hop Es in the way most understand this. Some sort of chordal hops perhaps?

Optical mirages - NOT amateur radio

These have fascinated me for years. When I first created this page many years ago there was very little on optical mirages on the internet, but now there are lots of resources.

There are some indications that some extreme amateur optical DX may be influenced by optical refraction. The most extreme "over the horizon" (NLOS) amateur optical DX is by cloud bounce when signals are reflected off the base of clouds.

Under very favourable conditions places way beyond the normal horizon become visible. This is most common in conditions when warm(er) air passes over very cold water. The common mirages seen over roads, that look like puddles are just the opposite (hot roads and cooler air above).

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/optical/mirages .

10m - LOTS of Es early today

Today looks very promising on 10m WSPR with lots of Es propagation very early.

So far, 6m has been just GDX but I am hopeful that with 10m WSPR being so lively 6m will come to life with some Es later. We will see!