Not bad on 10m WSPR today

With spots both given and received today from the USA and Australia and received from South America with 2W, today must go down as a pretty good day on 10m WSPR. In a year from now these conditions will seem exceptional, so I am enjoying 10m whilst I still can. As I have said before, even with very low solar activity, 10m can still be decent on N-S paths. We now have a new tool: WSPR. I am convinced the band is "open" far more often than people realise and with low activity they leave the band. It is important that we stick around 10m WSPR even in the quiet times ahead. There is much to be learnt.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat March 5th 2016

Solar flux is 100 today and the sunspot number has shot up to a 95 (K=2). Although the 10m propagation forecast remains "poor", I have already been copied in Australia, so things can't be that bad.

Many times I have said that 10m is often better than many people think. Today is a case in point and where 10m WSPR is so useful at "smoking out" openings that might have been otherwise missed.

10m WSPR - early spots from Australia

Already this morning VK2KRR (16789km) has spotted me 5 times already on 10m WSPR. Definitely promising!

UPDATE 1116z:  Since the Australian 10m WSPR spots, G4KPX (14km) has spotted me and I have spotted M0XDC (65km), the latter with lots of Doppler, so probably involving aircraft reflections, although this could be him settling on frequency. No other DX spots, well not as yet. With the relatively undisturbed conditions, good solar flux and a high sunspot number, I am surprised not to have seen lots more on 10m WSPR.

Late 10m WSPR spot

G4CUI (172km) has been spotted not long ago. This is probably tropo with aircraft reflection. t this time of night I am pleased to spot anyone on 10m WSPR. The best I can hope for is tropo or aircraft reflections for G or the near continent. These were all the 10m WSPR spots today:

USA already on 10m WSPR

As early as 1302z W1VR (6965km) in EL98it square (Florida) was spotted on 10m WSPR. This is promising after a quiet start. I hope to get spotted in the USA later.

UPDATE 1620z:  A couple of spots of my signal from Brazil this afternoon. KD0VWO (7412km) monitoring in Brazil spotted me earlier. As yet, no spots of my signal on 10m WSPR from the USA.

UPDATE 1650z:  G4KPX (14km) and I have been exchanging strong 10m WSPR spots in the last 20 minutes.

UPDATE 2325z:  Sadly the day did not live up to expectations on 10m WSPR. See later post.

RSGB Board Meeting Minutes

Southgate News has a link to the minutes of RSGB Board meetings. I took a look but wished I'd not! If you are an RSGB board member I bet these meetings are deadly boring. The minutes look so dull. I read the minutes for the last 3 months, then got a life.

I appreciate the RSGB is our national society and works hard for the good of our hobby.

FTSE 100 UK share index - NOT amateur radio

After an early climb, the FTSE 100 share index has been pretty stable all morning. It is currently up 0.52% and been around this all morning.  Sentiment is wishing it higher whereas in the real world it should be much lower.

Sunspots and 10m - Fri March 4th 2016

Solar flux is 99 today and sunspot number 50 (K=0). The forecast for 10m propagation remains "poor". So far, it is now 1112z, there have been no spots given or received on 10m WSPR. I've been on since before breakfast.

Power on 10m WSPR

There seems to be an advantage on 10m WSPR with a little more power. VK2KRR was using 10W when I copied him earlier. VK5MR who copied me just once today at -24dB S/N when I was using 2W probably would not have copied me at 500mW. When conditions are good, more power does not make sense as 500mW is enough. When conditions are "just" there, it seems more power helps. So far today I have been spotted just once even at 2W TX. With 500mW I would probably not have been seen by anyone.

UPDATE 2052z:  After a promising start 10m WSPR was a disappointment today with just G spots since this morning.  It looked very promising early on.

FTSE 100 still climbing - NOT amateur radio

It is currently 1110z and the UK share index, the FTSE 100, is up by 0.39% on the day after a shaky start. It could still tumble later.  At its peak, early last year, it was over 7100.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/markets/europe/lse_ukx.

UPDATE 1310z:  It is now falling and is  -0.02% down on yesterday.