Rio Olympics - NOT amateur radio

It seems hard to believe that the London Olympics were 4 years ago. At the moment, the UK is 3rd in the medal tables, which is very good.

Preparing for the Olympics takes hours and hours of dedication and very hard work. To all Olympians from any country my thanks and best wishes. There is no place for cheats. For those who perform at their personal very best, my praise. Thank you.

We will blink and it will be time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Rally

Sunday 14 AUGUST : FLIGHT REFUELLING ARS HAMFEST

Cobham Sports and Social Club Ground, Merley, Nr Wimborne, Dorset BH21 3DA. The venue has car parking on site and camping is available (Saturday night only in adjacent field). Talk-in will be provided on S22. Gates open at 10am and admission is £3.50. There will be trade stands, a car boot sale and indoor and field pitches for traders. Lectures will take place during the day. A licensed bar and catering facilities are on site. More details from Tony Baker, G3PFM on 0774 347 5018 or by email to hamfest@frars.org.uk. www.frars.org.uk.

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

My usual warning: contact the organisers to confirm arrangements before going any distance.

6m JT65 Es

On 6m JT65 there is again Es about with spots from Southern Europe already. I shall re-sync everything shortly and re-start up the 10m WSPR beacon, although there were plenty of Es spots this morning on 10m WSPR.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Aug 13th 2016

Solar flux is 91 today. Sunspot  number is 86 (K=2) and the forecast for 10m F2 propagation remains "poor".

Blickling Hall, North Norfolk - NOT amateur radio

Oriental Plane Tree?

This afternoon we drove to North Norfolk to the National Trust property at Blickling Hall. We'd been several times before and only went into the gardens. All the driving really tired me, so I sat on a bench in the shade whilst my wife took photos. I think this was an oriental plane that I sat under. It had seeds a bit like sweet chestnuts but the leaves were all wrong.

6m inter-G

It is interesting that so far this morning I have had 7 reports of my QRP JT65 6m signals from UK stations whereas when I tried the same mode on 10m a few days ago I got none.

There seems to be much more activity on 6m JT65 than 10m JT65. This is true of more distant stations too. I am sending "B G3XBM JO02" when not looking for 2-way QSOs. Spots get picked up and sent to PSKreporter which is where I check for spots of my signal and spots made by me of others. Of course, I check the shack regularly and look on the PC screen to check all is OK.

Sunspots and 10m - Friday August 12th 2016

Solar flux is 93 today and sunspot number 82. K=4. The forecast for 10m F2 propagation remains "poor". Luckily there is Es about.

QST article

A couple of people who see QST magazine have told me that my article on a 472kHz transverter appeared in the September 2016 edition. I have not seen this as I don't get QST. Although I was sent a draft for corrections, I've not seen the final version. There was some doubt about it appearing as the ARRL were waiting and waiting for the band to be allocated in the USA.

The article was written years ago (2013?) before I was ill with my stroke. Anyway, I hope those who get QST will be inspired to have a go on this fascinating band. Although the transverter puts out 10-15W, my ERP on the band was in the low milliwatts. Despite this, I have been copied over 1000km on WSPR with just an earth-electrode antenna. With a "proper" antenna for the band and a decent ground it should be easily possible to exceed 2000km.

Early Es on 6m JT65 and 10m WSPR

I was active on 6m JT65 overnight and on 10m WSPR since just before 0700z. There are already lots of Es spots on 6m. 10m WSPR has spots from Germany and Denmark. A good start.

QRT on 10m, but still on 6m JT65

In the last hour I have gone QRT on 10m WSPR but I am still on 6m JT65. There is still a possibility of some 6m spots.  I also took the opportunity to re-sync the PC to internet time. This should happen automatically every 1000 seconds but I do it on occasions "just in case".

UPDATE 2148z:  Several G spots on 6m JT65 in recent minutes.