45 countries on 10m JT65 in the last week

Despite the declining solar conditions and my poor antenna, 45 countries were copied here on 10m JT65 in the last week alone. Who says 10m is dead?

See http://www.solen.info/solar/ .

QSYed to 10m JT65

At 1332z I QSYed to 10m JT65 only. No further 6m JT65 or 10m WSPR spots received. It will be interesting to see how 10m JT65 performs today.  I run 2W QRP on 10m JT65.

UPDATE 1435z: A very quiet day so far on 10m JT65. No spots given or received here at all so far. Things may change - I hope so!

UPDATE 1442z:  It may be coincidence, but I seem to get better results into South America when there is good European propagation, which I presume is  Es. I wonder if the Es (?) gets signals into the TEP region? I am pretty sure the South Americans are TEP, but TEP tends to be better further south than the UK. I am so grateful we have 10m JT65 and WSPR as these weak signal modes tend to be monitored when SSB users think 10m is a dead loss.

UPDATE 1525z:  Still no 10m JT65 spots here today. Bad hair day? I'll give it a few more hours, but time is running out.

10m WSPR and 6m JT65

I have been active since just after breakfast on 10m WSPR and 6m JT65. I shall be switching to just 10m JT65 later.

On 10m WSPR EA8/LA3JJ (2870km) was spotting me earlier. I assume this is F2 propagation.

On 6m JT65 just spots by G0LRD (25km) so far.

Sunspots and 10m - Tuesday October 18th 2016

Solar flux is 76 today (falling) and sunspot number 23. K=3. The forecast for 10m F2 propagation remains "poor". In future, I don't intend to report 10m propagation unless the forecast is other than "poor".In other words asssume the forecast is "poor" unless you hear otherwise.

In many recent days, 10m has been quite good N-S by what I assume is TEP. Here, it has only opened to the USA on a single day this autumn. This was on 10m JT65 and it only reached Florida. Since last year solar conditions have dropped a lot on average.

Now QRT

As the last 10m JT65 activity here was almost an hour ago, I have gone QRT until the morning. I may start tomorrow on 10m WSPR and 6m JT65 and move to 10m JT65 later in the day, probably after lunch.

Another Geosync Amateur Satellite?

Southgate News links to another possible geosynchronous amateur satellite. Like buses, we see none and then lots! As HF conditions deteriorate, geosync satellites could prove very useful. The footprint just reaches the UK. 10GHz download.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2016/october/a-geosync-ham-radio-satellite.htm .

See also https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/geosynchronous/na-gso-sat/ .

F2 DX on 10m JT65

3B8CW (9751km) and EA8YV (3004km) were spotted on 10m JT65vearlier. As yet, nobody has spotted my QRP 10m JT65 signal.

 
UPDATE 1318z:  No further DX as yet and nothing, yet, from South America. Also, still no spots of my own signal on 10m JT65.

UPDATE 1344z: LU1HVK (11244km) in Argentina spotted my 2W QRP 10m JT65 11 minutes ago. We are now entering the Southern Hemisphere's Es season. I wonder if this helps very far south signals to get into the TEP zone?

UPDATE 1430z: My QRP 1m JT65 signal has been spotted by CS8ABY (2573km) in the Azores and by PY2NQ (9589km) in Brazil.

OFCOM updates

From the OFCOM website:

"Ofcom has today published a decision explaining that it will aim to make the 700 MHz band nationally available for mobile data by the second quarter of 2020 – 18 months earlier than originally planned

In November 2014 Ofcom announced that the 700 MHz band – which is currently used for digital terrestrial TV and wireless microphone applications – would be repurposed for mobile data.

As part of its funding for the 700 MHz clearance programme, Government has agreed to fund a grant scheme to support PMSE users who will have to vacate the 700 MHz band earlier than expected.

Ofcom has also set out its decision to allocate 20 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band – known as the ‘centre gap’ – to mobile data."

Sunspots and 10m - Monday October 17th 2016

Solar flux is 80 today and sunspot number 25. K=3 . Yet again the forecast for 10m F2 is "poor".

King of Thailand Dead

Until today, I had no idea that the late King of Thailand held the call HS1A. His death will sadden many in Thailand and many amateurs in the world. I was aware that the late King Hussain of Jordan was JY1.

I wonder how many other famous amateurs there are? For certain, I have not worked anyone famous!