10m quiet

Only a single spot on 10m WSPR from DK6UG (633km) at 1430z.

This evening my 5mW ERP 472kHz WSPR was copied by DL-SWL (701km).

UPDATE 2220z:  I was wondering why WSPRnet was not reporting the many stations I am copying on 472kHz RX. For some reason, my shack PC has no internet connection. I shall have to fix this tomorrow.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed Dec 2nd 2015

Sunspot number has fallen to 27 and solar flux remains below 100 at 94. K=3 and 10m is forecast to remain "poor".  I am not expecting wonders on 10m and 6m today!  I stayed on MF until about 1030z. Now I am active on 10m and 6m WSPR but all is quiet here so far today.

472kHz analysed

Over the last 2 weeks, I received 19 unique spots on 472kHz WSPR using my 5mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna". On RX I spotted a total of 23 unique stations. Most were without a preamp and on the deaf FT817.  On RX I have still to carefully analyse the Excel data supplied by Bert, but the impression is that the RX preamp helps the copy of very weak signals but has not (so far) enabled me to copy and decode more stations. This is the breakdown.

My 5mW ERP was copied as follows:

3 Germany - DL-SWL and DL-SWL/1 - best DX at 701km
1 France
3 Netherlands
11 England
1 Wales

On RX I copied the following unique stations (most copied many times):

1 Spain - best DX is EA5DOM at 1525km
8 Germany
1 Norway
5 France
1 Begium
2 Netherlands
5 England

K for Kernow (Cornwall)

Cornish amateurs are being allowed to use K (e.g. GK0***) all next year. There are some special awards for working stations in Cornwall.

See  http://rsgb.org/main/blog/news/gb2rs/headlines/2015/11/27/k-regional-identifier-for-cornwall/ .

More from OFCOM

See http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/?utm_source=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1st-tues-dec15

Blah, blah, blah, blah........

Quango, quango, quango, quango.

When will their dribble stop? Is any value added?

All very quiet on 10m and 6m WSPR so far

It was a very quiet morning on both 10m WSPR and 6m WSPR with no spots at all. This is a bit surprising as I was expecting some DX spots on 10m WSPR today. We will have to see what happens this afternoon. On 6m I was surprised to see not a single spot. There was a strong carrier on 6m WSPR but I think his timing was off as there was no Doppler yet he did not decode.

UPDATE 1356z:  Still no spots at all today on 10m WSPR or 6m WSPR.

Syria - NOT amateur radio

It looks likely there will be a free vote in the UK House of Commons this week on whether or not to join the coalition forces bombing targets in Syria.

As much as I hate the despicable acts being carried out, I very much doubt more bombs are the answer. All the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to have the opposite effect on the number of terrorists in the world to that intended: there are now far more.

I am against the bombing Syria and believe a long term, fair, peace deal would achieve far more good.

Small steps? - NOT amateur radio

My wife tends to do the major housework on Tuesdays and I usually try to clean some windows. This morning I managed far more than before. I also managed a 200ml glass (actually a cup) of orange in 16 sips. To me, both are progress. To "normal" people these may seem trivial but if you have had a brain bleed, like me, they represent small steps on the road to recovery.

MH-17 QSL cards

According to the Southgate News there was a batch of QSL cards damaged beyond repair when flight MH-17 was shot down last year. Those recovered are at in Schipol and would cost around £15k to dry and clean.

QSYed from 630m to 10m and 6m WSPR

All evening and night I was on 472kHz WSPR.  M0LMH (223km) was still spotting me on 472kHz as late as 0934z this morning, despite my very low ERP, in broad daylight. I have now QSYed to 10m and 6m WSPR and will return to 630m (472kHz) WSPR this evening.