Moved to 10m, then 20m JT65

First I moved to 10m JT65. Then I moved to 20m JT65. I called a couple of stations calling CQ but without success. Of late, I have been beaconing to see where I am getting - all over the place! 20m really is too easy! I only use a low end fed antenna.

20m initial spots on JT65

UPDATE 1446z: At the moment, the best DX on 20m JT65 RX is Cuba, but on 20m JT65 TX I am being widely copied in the Eastern USA as well as right across Europe and Russia.

UPDATE 2108z: Lots on 20m JT65, which is still running in beacon mode. Too easy! I'll probably stay on 20m until tomorrow now.

472kHz WSPR

A few minutes ago I QSYed from 6m FSK144 RX to 630m WSPR (5mW ERP). The PC is on battery power so the RX noise floor is low.

472kHz WSPR this morning so far

Sunspots and 10m - Wednesday February 1st 2017

Solar flux is 77 and the sunspot number 42. A=24 and K=3.

Weather forecasts in the UK - NOT amateur radio

OK, people keep telling me how complex and difficult it is to predict the UK weather. But we still buy millions of pounds worth of super-computers so we can do a better job.

Today (this very morning) the local forecast for Burwell and Cambridge both said dull, but dry until after dark. At 2pm this afternoon it rained when I had to walk 0.5 miles in Cambridge. You would expect TODAY's local forecast would be correct!

The only reliable forecast seems to be to look out of the window. Super-computers? Met Office, please spend the money on something more useful and stop pretending. Wet seaweed is a lot less expensive!

More 6m MSK144

Only Eire, France, Germany and England spotted on 6m MSK144 RX today with the FT817 and omni vertical and poor coax. 6 countries this last few days. Amazing what this mode produces.

Solar hole

Southgate News reports on a Spaceweather post that a solar hole is spewing the solar wind towards Earth. The worst should hit around Feb 1st, which is tomorrow. Obviously, this could impact HF conditions.

See http://spaceweather.com/ .

Burwell Cottage - NOT amateur radio

Although our village (Burwell, Cambs, UK) has grown a lot in recent years, it still has some lovely cottages like this one.  Some parts of our church are around 1000 years old and the oldest house dates from around 1200AD. I suspect this cottage dates from the 1700s, so is quite new!

6m MSK144

Nothing copied overnight, but EI4DQ (576km) in IO51 near Cork, Eire was again spotted this morning. I am monitoring on 50.280MHz. Aircraft reflection? I  think so.

One more day and night on 6m, then time for a new challenge.

With such a simple system here I am amazed to spot so much.

UPDATE 1216z: France and Germany spotted on 6m MSK144 this morning.

UPDATE 1325z: EI4DQ (576km) was recently spotted on 6m MSK144. At the moment, this is the furthermost.

Sunspots and 10m - Tuesday January 31st 2017

Solar flux is 76 today and the sunspot number 35. This cycle is far from over! A=6 and K=3.

East Cambridgeshire 2m FM Net

A reminder that the East Cambridgeshire Net is on 2m (144.575MHz), yes one four four, at 8pm clock time on Mondays on FM vertical. Everyone welcome.

Usually we are on the air for about 30 minutes. If the channel is already busy, we usually QSY down 25kHz. This started life as an AM net on 144.55MHz.

As this uses the same antenna I use on 6m, I'll try loading up my long wire for 6m for the duration of the net.