A nice mix on 10m today

This afternoon, there was a nice mix on 10m WSPR. KA3JIJ (6680km) was spotted mid-afternoon by F2 and later G4CUI (172km) was spotted as GDX by tropo and aircraft. No-one spotted me this afternoon.

UPDATE 1745z:  Time to QSY to 472kHz (630m) WSPR for the evening and overnight.

10m - still quiet

Apart from 4X1RF (3519km) earlier this morning, 10m WSPR has been very quiet. I may QSY to JT9-1 on 20m later for some 2-way QSOs. We plan to go out shortly, so this would be later in the afternoon.

Stroke - NOT amateur radio

A nurse who worked in neurology at Addenbrookes hospital today described me as, "a walking miracle", but I'd settle for my old self please!  Although I still feel I'm living "on the edge" each day,  I am thankful to be here, but I wish I had no problems with my voice, swallow, felt less giddy, and got less tired.  My fine motor skills are still far from right.

In many ways I am lucky and I could have been left much worse. Today I have to adapt to the new "me" and hope things still improve, albeit slowly.  Everyone says that I look so well. This, in many ways, makes it worse as they all assume I am well, when I really am not at all well inside. I have mentioned this before, but in some ways a visible form of disability might be easier. At least people would know one is not well.

Imagine you are living in a fog: this is how I have felt for over 2 years. It gets you down, no matter how hard you try. When I drive it takes all my concentration. Life is hard and I wish this on no-one.

Hawkedon - NOT amateur radio

The East Anglian Churches blog has been updated to include Hawkedon, Suffolk. This is a fine old church now in a very rural setting. See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ . I may add more photos later.

UPDATE 1230z:  I have now added photos of the bench ends.

Sunspots and 10m - Sun Jan 17th 2016

Solar flux today is 101 and the sunspot number 38 (K=2). 10m propagation is again expected to be "poor". I have been on 10m WSPR at 2W for about 10 minutes and am on 10m WSPR RX 80% of the time.  I was not active on any band overnight. It is still very early, but no spots given or received as yet.

UPDATE 1045z:   I see that I was spotted by 4X1RF (3519km) at -22dB S/N at 1022z. I assume this is single hop F2 on 10m.

Milky Way and Aurora - NOT amateur radio

See https://www.facebook.com/greenpeace.canada/videos/10153577012364961/ .

If you have a Facebook account you may be very impressed by this time-lapse photo. It certainly impressed me!  I am unsure you can see it without a Facebook account.  If not, try the Greenpeace Canada site.

QSYed to 10m WSPR

Rather later than planned, at around 1600z, I have QSYed to 10m WSPR from 20m. I think I left this rather too late. Earlier, I was spotted in the USA on 20m WSPR.  On 10m, I am using the FT817 and more power (2W) and on RX 80% of the time.

UPDATE 2230z:  I have now gone QRT on all bands.  Only G8VDQ (93km) spotted on 10m WSPR early evening, although I was late getting in 10m today.

Heathkit comeback?

There is a very mixed review of the new Heathkit kit (the GR-150) on http://www.amateurradio.com/ today. Although I admire the attempts to resurrect Heathkit, they have to have excellent quality control, competitive prices and good kits. Selling anything else is not a recipe for success. The amateur kit market is a cut-throat business and second class is not good enough. Heathkit has to be first class or they will fail.

20m WSPR

As I was getting lunch for my XYL and I, I remained on 20m WSPR.  K9AN (6505km) was the first USA station to spot me on 20m today. I may well switch to 10m later. At the moment I am just resting and watching WSPRnet on a laptop in the lounge.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Jan 16th 2016

Solar flux is 104 today and sunspot number 38 (K=1). Forecast for 10m propagation is "poor" again. At present I am on 20m WSPR but will probably move to 10m WSPR later, unless I try for more JT9-1 2-way QSOs on 20m.