More IC7300 reviews

See http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/12742 .

I see there are now 95 reviews of this radio on eHam with an average of 4.9/5. One person clearly has some reservations, but most love it. I like the look of it too, but not the price.

UK Rally

4 & 5 JUNE : SUSSEX ELECTRONICS AND RADIO FAIR (SERF 2016)

Eastbourne Sports Park, Cross Levels Way, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN21 2UF. The venue has free car parking as well as camping and caravanning on site and there are disabled facilities. A talk-in station will be in operation as well as a special event station. Doors open from 10am to 4pm and admission is £3, children free. There will be indoor/outdoor trade stands and catering on site. There will be a room for talks and demonstrations. More information from Dave, G8PUO on 07807 074 538 or by email to admin@serf.org.uk. www.serf.org.uk.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

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!