Early 10m Es

I did a resync of the 10m WSPR beacon before breakfast. There was early Es on 10m WSPR this morning with Danish stations spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon.

UPDATE 0954z:  Es spots from all over Europe now.

UPDATE 1028z: Some of the 10m spots are from Holland. If Es, this is very short skip suggesting Es possibly as high as 2m. It is possible these are tropo or aircraft reflections.  I think Es is more likely as aircraft reflections are usually accompanied by lots of Doppler and the aircraft have to be in the right place for quite a long time with WSPR.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed July 6th 2016

Solar flux is 77 today. Sunspot number is 23, not zero as it has been for quite a while.  K=1 but the forecast for 10m F2 propagation remains "poor". Luckily there is 10m Es.

More from OFCOM

See http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/?utm_source=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1st-Tues-June.  More exciting stuff from OFCOM.  Gosh, this is so exciting that I find it hard not to lose sleep.

10m Es WSPR

Today was not (so far) the best day on 10m for Es, although I have received 26 reports from across Europe. Looking at the reports the Es seemed to favour more northerly stations with nothing so far from southern Europe today.

10m WSPR spots received so far today

2m UKAC tonight

As this is the first Tuesday of the month, it is the 2m UK activity contest this evening. With VHF NFD last weekend I wonder what activity will be like? As usual, I shall go on for a while until I have to stop because of my poor voice. Usually I manage an hour or less in the AL section running 5W and an omni antenna.

UPDATE 2210z: 8 contacts made with best DX G5BBL/P at 221km. Conditions were up. Good turnout with GM, GW, F, ON and PA heard.

Stations worked (5W and omni antenna) on 2m SSB tonight

Grandchildren gone home - NOT amateur radio

We had the "London" grandchildren here last night and today as their school teachers were on strike. We had a picnic in the Abbey Gardens at Bury-St-Edmunds and played crazy golf.

6m JT65 today

At the moment, it looks like there were fewer Es openings on 6m today. Most of my spots  were from Gs although I was spotted in Poland this morning (1W ERP JT65) and I have spotted stations as far away as Eastern Ukraine  in the form of UR5MED (2692km).

Sunspots and 10m - Tues July 5th 2016

Solar flux is 73 today and again the sunspot number is zero (K=1). The 10m F2 propagation forecast is "poor" again.

SAQ yesterday

Although I did not try to listen for SAQ (17.2kHz CW on VLF) yesterday I wonder who did? It was received in Russia and is a good test of your VLF system. Although they have a lot of power and big antennas it can be a challenge to receive them.

July 4th - NOT amateur radio

If I am not mistaken, today is a national holiday in the USA to celebrate independence of the 13 original USA states from the UK in 1776.  I am sure if they wanted to join the UK they would be welcome!

The UK voted recently to leave the EU. Time will tell whether this was a good move or a bad one. We probably have more in common with the USA than the rest of Europe. Certainly we share a common language.

I like Europe but am not a great fan of the EU as an institution. Like many, in many nations, I am happy with a common market but not a federal Europe. The EU has sadly become an inefficient institution which has not added a lot of value in recent years. Although I voted REMAIN, I am not surprised we voted to LEAVE. It is now up to us to forge our way in the world. In some ways being outside the EU is not so bad.