6m FT8

As well as G3PXT, I am spotting Germany and Slovenia on 6m FT8. These could be Es or random MS. For random MS, the 15 second periods must help. There was slow QSB on G3PXT (79km), so I think this was tropo.

UPDATE 0942z: G4VXE (136km) now being spotted, although no further non-G DX spotted.

UPDATE 1358z: S51AT (1250km) is the best DX spotted so far on 6m today, with 5 countries spotted on 6m FT8 so far today.

UPDATE 1545z: 9A4ZM (1292km) in Croatia brings the total to 6 countries spotted so far today on 6m FT8.

Sunspots - Wednesday September 6th 2017

Solar flux is 122 as is the sunspot number. These are massive figures this late in the cycle. A=12 and K=2.

OFCOM

The latest OFCOM report has been published.

See http://ofcom.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/i/FC9A6652345C41492540EF23F30FEDED/59D1BD3EA2F08127C67FD2F38AC4859C

Es on 10m and 6m

Although I was away at my son's for a few days, I went on 10m WSPR TX and 6m FT8 RX on my return. There was Es on both bands.

2m UKAC activity contest (September)

A reminder that tonight is the RSGB's 2m activity contest. It runs from 8pm to 10.30pm UK clock time.

UPDATE 2050z: Although I was only of for about 15-20 minutes, best DX was M1MLM/P (181km) in the Peak District. As usual, I was using 5W QRP to my big-wheel 2m Omni.

Sunspots - Tuesday September 5th 2017

The solar activity is incredible for this part of the cycle. Solar flux is 144 and sunspot number is 122 (incredible). A=18 and K=2.

QRP and QRP Club

Oleg's usual report:

Weekly QRP Rendez-Vous Report (September, 3, 2017)
Visitors  of  the  week:  G3XJS, IK0IXI/p, DK1HW, RW3DF, S57TX, RA1M,
UR5EFD,  UA1CEG, G3JFS, ON6WJ, HA7NE, UY1IF, OM6TC, UR5IFM/p, RU3NJC,
UA6ME,  UR7VT,  YO3BL,  OH6NPV,  US3EN, SM7ZDI, UR5FA, RV3UF, UA1CEX,
RV3GM, F5SYC, R1CAN, UA1AV, ON4ADR, UA0SBQ
Congrats!
UA1AV became Frequenter (regular visitor)
See full Visitors and Frequenters lists on the Club 72 page
Comments (as is, not edited)...
See full WQR Report including a lot of comments and pictures here -
https://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/
Thanks all for activity and reports, see you on next Rendez-Vous!

Wish you all the best, 72!
Oleg "Mr. 72" RV3GM / KH6OB


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.

Low noise VLF pre-amp

In recent days there has been quite a lot of work on different VLF frequencies (as low as 970Hz) by amateurs trying to receive carriers and short messages at great range, including from Germany to the UK. In a recent posting DG4RBF gave details of his latest pre-amp. I have no idea if it does the job. The text is in German, so you have to translate if you want it in English. Use Google translate?

See

http://dg4rbf.lima-city.de/Ultra%20Low%20Noise%20AMP%20V1.7f%20_WebSeite.pdf

BBC Local Radio - NOT amateur radio

Southgate News reports a recent outage that affected a lot of the BBC local radio stations.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2017/september/eighteen-bbc-local-radio-stations-fall-silent.htm#.Wau-cLpFzIU .

10m JT65

From Facebook, I see that I was copying LUs on 10m JT65 last year at this time. I was speculating the propagation was Es linking with F layer nearer the equator. I guess the mode to try now is FT8? With good propagation, I guess this is still possible.