Now on 6m JT65 (1W ERP)

As of 1340z I moved to 6m JT65 in beacon mode sending "B G3XBM JO02". I want to see how this compares with WSPR.

I am still on 10m WSPR (500mW TX, 100%) at the same time with the little beacon on a different antenna.

UPDATE 1510z: 2 stations spotted on 6m JT65 with best DX G6NLZ (153km) towards the south coast of England in JO00kw. No spots of me yet on 6m JT65.

A great quote

I found this on Steve M0MVB's website:

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." - Albert Einstein

Looking for swifts - NOT amateur radio

Swallows are more common as we enter the back end of April. Four flew past the window earlier.

The next are swifts. Several have been seen in Devon and even a few up here in East Anglia, but they are not common yet. As yet, I have not seen one this year.  By June they are very common, but they do not stop long.

Cuckoos should be about soon, but I have not heard any. They often lay their eggs in reed warbler nests up the lode (waterway) not far from here, but we rarely hear cuckoos these days.

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/s/swift/ .

First 6m WSPR spots this year

M0MVB (33km) has spotted me several times on 6m WSPR. No great DX, but at least I know the system works. Meanwhile my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon has been widely copied in northern Europe.

Moved to 6m WSPR

As the Es season seems to have started, I have QSYed to 6m WSPR (1W ERP) and put the 500mW 10m WSPR beacon on 10m (100% TX).

UPDATE 0942z: I see that OZ9QV (864km) has copied my 500mW 10m WSPR a couple of times.

UPDATE 1022z: Several 10m WSPR spots but nothing yet on 6m WSPR.

Auroras?

This was on Space Weather earlier:

"SOLAR WIND ENGULFS EARTH: A solar wind storm is underway around Earth as our planet enters a high-speed stream of gas flowing from a large hole in the sun's atmosphere."

Be on watch for auroral openings.

Sunspots and 10m - Monday April 24th 2017

Solar flux is 82 today and the sunspot number 43. A=41 and K=4.

As I said in an earlier post today, I think our Es season has started and we can look forward to several months of good propagation on 10m, 6m and 4m. Es openings are mainly up to about 1500km, but most seasons Es openings bring in the USA, Caribbean and South America even on 6m. The conventional wisdom is this is multi-hop Es, but I have some doubts over this preferring some kind of chordal hop involvement.

Althurium - NOT amateur radio

My wife has a way with orchids and those we have live for years.

I had to look this house-plant up as I did not know its name. It is not an orchid - well I don't think it is! As you can tell, I am no plant expert!

10m WSPR (2W) transceive

After success yesterday, I am on 10m WSPR today running 2W (20% TX) with the rest of the time on RX. Before I switched to 2W on the FT817 I was spotted on my 500mW beacon overnight in Italy and Germany on 10m WSPR. I think this is the start of the Es season.

UPDATE 0816z: Several spots of my 2W 10m WSPR by EW2ABC (1812km).

UPDATE 0833z:  DF4UE (758km) reporting me at +7dB S/N - has to be Es.

Tulips - NOT amateur radio

We have had a crazy few months. Daffodils were about 6 weeks late, but most things are now early! Today, we visited Ickworth, near Bury St Edmunds. Most tulips were past their best and another week and we'd probably see none still in flower! This one would be over within a week.