A win at last - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned before, I am not a great football fan, but I still watch the tables to see how my old local team is doing. Plymouth Argyle are in League Division 2. Last season, they were in the running for promotion. This season they lost their first 2 games, but they won away from home on Tuesday evening.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/plymouth-argyle  .

Amateurradio.com

See http://www.amateurradio.com/ .

There are often interesting posts on this site. Yesterday there was a post by VE7SL about the increase in JT65 activity on 6m.

Tokyo Ham Fair reminder

Often this is the place where new rigs are first announced. I doubt many outside Japan will be able to go, but it is often worth keeping an eye out for announcements and videos after the event.

20 & 21 AUGUST : TOKYO HAM FAIR

Tokyo International Exhibition Center, 3-11-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan 135-0063.

Sunspots and 10m - Thursday August 18th 2016

Solar flux is 81 today. The sunspot number is 64. K=2. The forecast for 10m F2 propagation is again "poor", although there is Es about, which is some compensation.

10m Es this morning

Well, the Es is back on 10m JT65. Quite early I have been spotted widely in eastern Europe, which bodes well for the rest of the day.

UPDATE 1025z:  Now getting 10m JT65 spots from southern Europe.

Argentina on 10m JT65

LU1MPK (11592km) has been spotted recently on 10m JT65. Every time I have been on 10m JT65 in the last few days I have spotted, or been spotted, by stations deep in South America.

No Es here today?

This is the first day for a long time when I've seen no Es on 10m. I guess we are nearing the end of the Es season and openings will be less frequent? It is still possible there could be some Es around teatime but the 10m band has been very quiet here so far today.

UPDATE 1714z:  Still no 10m Es here.  I have spotted one German but don't think this was Es. No F2 DX to/from South America either so far today, although this could still happen.

Plums next door - NOT amateur radio

Well, our crab apples are nothing like as good as last year, but the orchard next door has plenty of apples and plums already. I think the reason was the odd winter and summer we had. We had a mild, wet winter and a cold, early summer and now it has warmed up. Here are some of the plums.

Goldfinch - NOT amateur radio

This was a goldfinch on the top of our silver birch tree a few days ago. We hear them most days. They are quite common and perhaps one of the most colourful UK garden birds. They tend to fly around in flocks.

10m JT65 - no Es yet today

10m JT65 has been my focus again today. As yet, I have seen no Es but 4X1RF (3518km) spotted me a few minutes ago. I checked sync a few hours ago. Last evening both CE and LU were spotted on 10m JT65.