Back on 10m WSPR and 6m JT65 tomorrow

All being well I shall be back on 10m and 6m QRP in the morning. When away, everything is switched off and PC and antennas are disconnected. Some will remember that nearby storms can cause rig damage even without a direct lightning strike.

Sunspots and 10m - Friday August 5th 2016

Solar flux is 79 today. Sunspot number is zero today (K=3). 10m F2 propagation is yet again "poor".

Back Home - NOT amateur radio

We were away for a few nights in Liverpool staying with our best man of 45 years ago. This is where I was at university a long time ago. This has meant no blog updates for a few days.

More VLF from Alaska

From Laurence KL7L. This was posted a few days ago to a Yahoo group..

Been fairly active on VLF tonight with a lot of active Chorus and noise bands up to 9KHz at times – not as noisy as this.

Local thunderstorm after noon a week or so back – I'm running a slow instance still on 8kHz if someone want to shove up a carrier or two.

http://kl7l.com/14thjuly160236z.mp3

73 Laurence KL7L

Aspire and 7m vertical wire on a dock by the lake 100m of cat5.

UPDATE 0821z: Several German stations are still testing (radiated transmissions) at 8.27kHz and 2.97kHz. DK7FC has still to be received on ULF in the UK with Paul Nicholson in Todmorden unable to see anything at all after 9 days looking in very narrow bandwidths. Paul is till trying different settings of filters.

Sunspots and 10m - Monday August 1st 2016

Solar flux is 72 today and the sunspot number 12. K=1. The forecast for 10m F2 propagation remains "poor". There is still Es on 10m and 6m.

QRP and QRP Club

More from Oleg...

Dear Club 72 members and friends,

QRP  Rendez-Vous  round  table  Visitors  of the week: UR0ET, IZ5OPK, RU3NJC, HB9DAX, RV3DSA, TF/RA1M, US3EN, R2FAE, SM7ZDI, RX3DIT, US5ERQ, MM0CIN,  DF2JY,  UA1ASB, UR7VT, G3XJS, OM6TC, F8GLE, OE5EIN/p, OH5XO,UA1CEG/p,  F5IN, RV3GM, R6TQ, OH6NPV, OK2SAM/p, UY0IF, UA3AGO, ON6KZ,SM4ETE, IZ1ASM, DL/OE1WSA, UA1ATD/p, HB9WG
Operators SM7ZDI, R6TQ, HB9WG became "rendezvous" Honor Frequenters
See  full  Visitors  and  Frequenters lists on the Club 72 web page -
www.club72.su
See  full  "rendezvous" report with comments and pictures on the blog
page - http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/

72! Oleg RV3GM / KH6OB "Mr. 72"

Stroke Update - NOT amateur radio

Every now and again I give an update on my recovery from my stroke in 2013. There is very little change! I seem to be on a plateau now with most (all?) foods OK but I still have problems with drinks. Beer and orange are OK in small sips but I find tea (especially Lapsang Souchong) and coffee hard work. I used to love these!

All the time I feel giddy on my feet and I still tire easily after any physical or mental activity of more than 15 minutes. My emotional threshold seems lower - I worry and cry more. I have a sick feeling most of my waking time. Sleep is fine, although I sometimes muddle dreams with reality: for example I was convinced my younger son had decided to break a journey to the Lake District here next weekend. He is coming but they have no plans to visit the Lake District. I must have dreamed this! I can drive and most cognitive functions are fine. My fine motor skills are not as good as they were.  My voice is poor.

In summary, I am having to adapt to the new "me". If things improve, great, but after all this time I am beginning to accept my limitations. The main problem is people see me and say how well I look. Indeed I do look well. Inside I still feel unwell. In some ways it would be easier to have a disability that people could see.

Es and 10m WSPR and 6m JT65 activity

Apart from G4KPX (14km) there have been no spots of my 500mW 10m WSPR all morning. By contrast, I have had several spots on 6m JT65 and spotted others on 6m too. I can only put this down to too few on 10m WSPR. I shall stick with 6m JT65 for a little longer.

Steve VE7SL has also commented on the possibility of chordal hop Es as a possible explanation of very long 6m Es paths. Steve was saying he'd found this 6m Es season very poor. It is true that I've not caught any really long paths on 6m Es this summer. There have been plenty of European reports, but little further afield on 6m. Even on 10m I was only spotted in the Caribbean once. A couple of Paraguayan spots on 10m may have been Es or Es/equatorial spread F.  In all, I tend to agree with Steve: I have seen better Es seasons.

UPDATE 1354z:  It seems that Es openings are still occurring but less often than a month or so ago. Today, there has been some Es on 10m and 6m, but not much.

UPDATE 1503z: No further 6m or 10m Es reports.  When good, I can get spots from all over Europe with QRP and simple antennas.

Ducklings - NOT amateur radio

We had a lovely site yesterday when a mother duck and 8 tiny ducklings decided to walk across our front lawn. Luckily we managed to take a few photos.

Sunspots and 10m - Sunday July 31st 2016

Solar flux is 70 today and the sunspot number 13. K=0. The forecast for 10m F2 is (yes you guessed correctly) "poor".