Christmas TV - NOT amateur radio

From the BBC website, Christmas TV viewing figures. I am not a royalist at heart but cannot think of a president who would do as well as our current queen. At 90 years old she does a remarkable job. Her husband Philip is 95! Charles will have a hard act to follow.

1. The Queen at 3pm - BBC One and ITV - 7.7m
2. Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special - BBC One - 7.2m
3. The Great Christmas Bake Off - BBC One - 6.3m
4. Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special - BBC One - 6.1m
5. Call The Midwife - BBC One - 6.1m
6. EastEnders - BBC One - 5.9m
7. Coronation Street - ITV - 5.8m (not including ITV +1)
8. Doctor Who - BBC One - 5.7m
9. Frozen - BBC One - 4.7m
10. Emmerdale - ITV - 4.2m

An end to hatred? - NOT amateur radio

See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brendan-cox-alternative-christmas-message-a7495491.html .

Jo Cox the MP was murdered earlier this year. This is an alternative Christmas message by her husband.

Forward Error Correction for the Mathematically Challenged

This is worth looking at if, like me, you never found maths that easy. It is an article by Paul Nicholson on FEC, written so we can understand!

Paul is famous for his DX reception of amateur VLF and ULF signals. I am not sure if he is involved in VLF professionally. He certainly knows his stuff.

See http://abelian.org/fec/pn161218.pdf .

Visit - NOT amateur radio

XYL

Later today our son who lives in Kent is coming to stay with his wife and 2 young children. They prefer to be at home to unwrap their presents.

Here, on Christmas Day, we had much better weather than the forecast led us to expect. In the afternoon we even managed a short walk in the village. On the walk we had a blue cloudless sky.  Here is my XYL standing by a hedge filled with red berries.

Sunspots and 10m - Monday December 26th 2016 (Boxing Day in the UK)

Solar flux is 72 today and the sunspot number zero again. A=21 and K=3. Luckily 10m Es does not depend on these factors.

10m JT65

For about an hour now I QSYed from MF WSPR to 10m JT65, really hoping to catch some winter Es on the band.

UPDATE 1124z: There is definitely Es about. I have copied stations in Slovakia and Poland and I was spotted by OE3BUB (1228km) in Austria and it is still early.

UPDATE 1154z: Now being spotted in Poland on 10m JT65 and spotting Sweden.

UPDATE 1416z: Widespread Es on 10m JT65.

Courtesy: https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html

UPDATE 2056z:  Es was good on 10m JT65 today as the map below shows. This was a good example of wintertime Es in the northern hemisphere. The map shows who was spotting me and who I was spotting.

Courtesy: https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html

Overnight on 472kHz WSPR

Overnight, there were 9 unique spots of my 5mW ERP signal on 472kHz WSPR with best DX again DL-SWL(701km). 4 Dutch stations in the list.

Moved to 630m WSPR

Early evening spots on 472kHz WSPR

At about 1916z I went QRT on 10m JT65 (2W) and started up on 472kHz (630m) WSPR (5mW ERP). With the shack PC I get lots of noise on the band when using the external SMPSU so only the strongest signals are copied on RX. I shall have to run on batteries if I want to copy weaker signals, or swap PCs over if the other PC has a less noisy PSU.

Merry Christmas from Oleg - QRP and QRP Club

From Oleg:

Merry Christmas and the best wishes for all QRPers!

WQR Report (December 25, 2016)
Visitors  of  the  week:  UA1ADF,  UR7VT, RA1M, IK2RMZ, F5POJ, RV3GM,
OK2BMA,  RW3AA,  US3EN,  R1OA,  OH6NPV,  DK1HW,  LZ2RS, RX1AG, R1CAF,
UA1CEG,  US7IB, UA0SBQ, UA2FAI, OM6TC, G3XJS, OK1VLP, IT9IFI, IT9QAU,
UA4NU, UR0ET, OK1DNZ, SV2BBK, UW5EKR, DL8DXL
CONGRATS!
LZ2RS and O1DNZ became Honor Frequenters
Comments...
See full version of the report on the blog page -http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/

72! Oleg RV3GM / KH6OB "Mr. 72"


This is a periodic Newsletter of the Club 72. Don't reply to Newsletter address! Send any requests or news to mr72@club72.su please.

Back on 10m JT65 after a night on 630m WSPR

Last night I was on 472kHz (630m) WSPR. DL-SWL (701km) was again the best TX DX (5mW ERP). No new reports or reporters sadly.

For the last 30 minutes or so I  have been on 10m JT65, but no spots as yet.

UPDATE 1252z: F1GTU (754km) spotted earlier on 10m JT65. Es?

UPDATE 1738z: LA7DFA (1312km) spotted me on 10m JT65 about 22 minutes ago. G4CJC (73km) in North London has been spotted here.