Sunspots - Sunday September 3rd 2017

Solar flux is 103 (high) and the sunspot number 71 (high for this part of the cycle). A=26 and K=3.

Cambridge Leper Chapel - NOT amateur radio

After an age, I have updated the churches blog at https://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ with the Cambridge Leper Chapel that dates from the 1100s. We visited this for the first time today, although we have been past it many times.

ICOM IC9700

My thanks to Steve Wigg for alerting me to this new ICOM radio being previewed at the Tokyo Ham Fair this weekend. This will be a VHF/UHF/23cm rig.

See http://www.icomuk.co.uk/News_Article/3508/19388/ .

They still try! - NOT amateur radio

Already, there is hacker activity on this blog again. Should the blog suddenly behave oddly, you will know why. Already this blog has had more visits than it often gets in a whole day. Bots I suspect.

I see another of my blogs also has high visitor numbers.

Usually they look every month, then play their nasty games elsewhere. It always comes from the same sources. I see high numbers, check the map, and I know it is hackers rather than genuine visits.

Sunspots - Saturday September 2nd 2017

 Solar flux is 93 today. Sunspot number is 62 (quite high). A=19 and K=5.

10m WSPR today

As usual, I am on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. Apart from local G4KPX (14km) the only DX so far today is EI3RCW (505km). This could be Es or aircraft reflection.

UPDATE 2022z:  10 unique spots today with the best DX 1812km. If this is still Es, then this is very late in the season. Now QRT.

6m FT8 again

I have been RX only on this band/mode since before breakfast. Although most spots are of G stations, there has been one Es spot so far of HG9SM (1508km).

UPDATE 1950z: 6 countries spotted in the last 12 hours. Now QRT.

10m WSPR (TX)

Although only active for about 1 hour, OH2VMP (1734km) has spotted my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon several times. Is this Es or even single hop F2?

UPDATE 1725z:  With OZ9QV (864km) just spotted, I suspect this is Es.

UPDATE 1938z: With 16 unique spots since teatime, another great Es day on 10m WSPR. This season seems never ending!

6m FT8

All yesterday and most of today I have been QRT. I turned the rigs and PC on at about 1625z today. Even though it is September, there have already been lots of Es spots.

UPDATE 1942z: Yet another great day on 6m with stations spotted from all over Europe again. It is now September and we still have great Es on 6m FT8.

Sunspots - Friday September 1st 2017

Solar flux is 92 today and the sunspot number 59. A=31 and K=4.