10m WSPR and 6m WSPR so far today

The 10m 500mW WSPR beacon and the 6m WSPR station were switched on at breakfast time. F2 spots on 10m from RA3UDF (2693km) and EA8/LA3JJ (2870km).

All quiet on 6m  WSPR so far.

UPDATE 1115z:   More Russian 10m WSPR spots as well as Finland. All F2 propagation I think.

UPDATE 1120z:   FG5LA (6689km) was the first South American to spot my 500mW WSPR on 10m today at 1118z.

UPDATE 1850z:  W4DEX (6390km) was the first USA station to copy me on 10m WSPR at 1218z. Plenty of 10m USA spots since then.

UPDATE 2020z:  K9AN (6505km) was the last USA station to spot me on 10m today at 1656z. All quiet on 6m although I did spot M0ICR early today although the spots were not uploaded to WSPRnet.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed Oct 28th 2015

Sunspot number is little changed at 78 (K=1) but 10m is expected to remain "poor". It remains to be seen if this means another profitable day on 10m WSPR as often I get best results on 10m when conditions are supposed to be "poor" for some odd reason.

A little activity on 6m WSPR

G6AVK (78km) was spotted at 2048z on 6m WSPR.  Judging by the Doppler or drift, I suspect aircraft reflection was involved, or G6AVK had just come on the band and he was still drifting.

A few minutes ago I went QRT on both 10m WSPR and 6m WSPR until after breakfast tomorrow.

The back garden in autumn - NOT amateur radio

We are clearly in autumn now, with the back lawn carpeted in fallen leaves. Soon the ornamental cherry (just visible on the RHS) will be bare until the spring. There is something good about all UK seasons.

Here is my wife taking a photo.

WRC-15 in Geneva

The important conference at which a contiguous 5MHz amateur band is being discussed opens next week in Geneva for 3 weeks. This item, for a new secondary amateur allocation, is an agenda item (1.4). Watch this space...

We will certainly need this band in the quiet years ahead.

A useful resource

See http://www.w5dor.com/w5dor-links.html . Originally the link was wrong (thanks for telling me), but it was corrected.

This looks a very useful page to add to your bookmarks. It is filled with useful links of all sorts mostly related to amateur radio. I see my Tenner 500mW 10m CW transceiver is listed.

Sunspots and 10m - Tues Oct 27th 2015

Sunspot number today is 72 (K=1) but forecasts for 10m remain "poor". Despite this, 10m seems in good shape to me (see earlier post). It never fails to amaze me how I seem to get good 10m results when the forecasts are "poor". Moral is to never give up on this band which is full of surprises!

Australia already on 10m WSPR!

As well as spots from RA3, LZ and EA8 I see that VK2KRR (16789km) was spotting my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon at 0942z this morning. This looks promising for another good day on 10m. Recent reports from LZ have been very strong.

On 6m WSPR, all quiet so far today.

UPDATE 1136z:  Apart from Australia, the best 10m DX report today so far is from FR1GZ (9724km) at 1058z.

UPDATE 1415z:  The first 10m WSPR spot from the USA today was W4DEX (6390km) at 1250z. There have been plenty more USA spots since.

QRT on 10m WSPR

My 10m 500mW WSPR beacon was closed down about 15 minutes ago. It is some hours since I was spotted by any DX stations. It will be back on again around breakfast time in the morning. As has been the case for several days now, USA spots are a common occurrence, and likely to be regular now unless conditions are very bad.

OFCOM ......again

See the latest from OFCOM. Oh dear me, they really do try so hard to justify their existence! Bureaucrats and all that matters is £££!

"This document sets out Ofcom’s decisions on outstanding issues connected with the award of the 2.3 and 3.4 GHz spectrum bands. In particular, it sets out our decision to proceed with an auction of all the newly available spectrum without imposing spectrum caps, and our decision on the reserve prices that will apply to spectrum awarded in the auction."

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/2.3-3.4-ghz-auction-design/statement/?utm_source=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2.3-3.4-ghz-auction-design-statement