Overnight on MF

Just PA3ABK/2 (306km) spotted and no-one spotted me. It really is time to "pull the plug" until the late summer as there are fewer and fewer stations active at this time of year. I should concentrate more on 6m WSPR.  For the autumn, I really should try to get a better antenna up.

Begonias - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday (first day of summer - cold 12 deg C and drizzle!) I planted 46 begonias in our front garden. We have more for the back garden. Once planted, these need very little attention and they provide colour until the frosts in late autumn. I just dig a small hole for each, throw in some compost and plant each flower. Usually they are very easy plants for the summer and autumn. At the end of this I was very exhausted - still an after-effect of my stroke. In the past this would have been easy.

We usually put in winter flowering primroses for the winter.

Early Es again on 10m WSPR

Even though 10m F2 may not be too hot, there is plenty of Es around on 10m.  I4ZTO (1185km) and others were spotting me before breakfast and I was spotted in Scotland late last night on 10m WSPR and LZ1UBO (2039km) this morning.

UPDATE 1008z:   EA1FAQ (1249km) has just spotted my 500mW 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 1012z:  Still no spots on 6m WSPR. I am on RX 80%.

Sunspots and 10m - Thurs June 2nd 2016

Solar flux is 87 today and sunspot number 30 (K=1). The forecast for 10m F2 propagation remains "poor".

QSYed from 6m to 630m WSPR

As I gave and received no spots at all on 6m WSPR all day, I have QSYed to 630m (472kHz) WSPR. The 10m WSPR beacon is still on. Already PA3ABK/2 (306km) has been spotted on MF. I took the opportunity to resync the PC and 10m beacon to internet time.

Lightning maps

See https://www.lightningmaps.org for information on lightning in Europe. As I write, there are storms in Europe but not in the UK.

Solar activity sliding

If you look at the trends, we are definitely on the slide down from the last solar peak. Solar flux has regularly been in the 80s of late. Sunspot numbers are much lower than last year. It will be interesting to see how propagation is on 10m this autumn compared with last autumn.

It is quite likely we will see years and years of poor solar conditions as the forecast for the next peak is not good. This will mean the lower bands will become more important. It is a pity that man-made noise is so much worse these days on the lower HF bands in particular. This is a problem in urban areas especially. Luckily Es does not seem to be affected by solar conditions.

See http://www.solen.info/solar/ .

"Upcoming" - NOT amateur radio

On a recent Facebook posting I was criticised for using this word ("upcoming") as being an "Americanism" of the English language. I have used this word for years and years and certainly did not believe it was American English.  If I am mistaken then I am happy to be corrected. My grammar has never been a strong point and my use of the language often poor. Often spelling mistakes are due to my keyboard, although I do make mistakes!

Sunspots and 10m - Wed June 1st 2016

Solar flux is 86 and the sunspot number 40 (K=1). The forecast for 10m F2 propagation is "poor" again.

Back to 10m WSPR and 6m WSPR

As of a few minutes ago I am back on 10m and 6m WSPR. Overnight I was on 40m WSPR but just one DX spot from K9AN (6505km) in the middle of the night.

UPDATE 0912z:  DL4MFC (914km) has spotted me on 10m WSPR. This is early for Es, so bodes well.

UPDATE 0920z:  I am now being spotted widely on 10m WSPR across great swathes of central Europe.

UPDATE 1108z:  Still plenty of Es on 10m WSPR but no spots so far on 6m WSPR.