A good night on 630m WSPR

Last night I managed my greatest distance this season (10mW ERP, 20%) to LA2XPA (1310km) and this with my really poor antenna! He copied me 3 times. In all, I was spotted by 12 unique stations and I spotted 10 unique others on 630m WSPR.

Sunspots - Monday November 13th 2017

Solar flux is 69 today. Sunspot number remains zero. A=6 and K=2.

630m WSPR

For the last few hours or so I have been on 630m WSPR. So far, 5 spots of my 10mW ERP WSPR. This is average.

Sunset - NOT amateur radio

As we drove back from Ely we were treated to a great sunset. This photo was taken from our moving car. It is quite flat in the Fens, but we do get some great skies.

Grumpy old man - NOT amateur radio

You can tell I am getting old!

Have you noticed that most young people go up at the end of a sentence? You can almost tell how young someone is by this, not forgetting "like" liberally sprinkled throughout sentences.  It is, like, annoying like, you know what I mean?

I try hard to ignore this, but find myself counting "likes".

Grumpy old man - definitely.

10m FT8 RX

Since breakfast, I have been on 10m FT8 RX. So far, just M0SSK (75km) spotted.

UPDATE 1158z: Best DX is now IZ2MHO (996km) in northern Italy.

UPDATE 1910z: Nothing outside Europe spotted here today on 10m FT8. The last was DM1FL (495km) in the Cologne area.

630m WSPR last night

In all, 11 unique spots of my 10mW ERP with best DX again Norway. I spotted 12 uniques. Not bad.

Sunspots - Sunday November 12th 2017

Solar flux is 68 today and the sunspot number remains zero. A=8 and K=2.

New WSPR beacon

SOTAbeams has a new product that can be used from 630m to 6m with a suitable low pass filter. This is a bit more than the original WSPRlite, but likely to be popular. A great deal of fun can be had with WSPR. The external LPF is a must.

See https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/wsprlite-flexi .

Solar cycle 25 - what will it be like?

"As of April 2017 the strength and trend of the southern polar field hints at a cycle 25 with a magnitude close to that of cycle 24. " 

This was a quote from http://www.solen.info/solar/.  It is expected to be a weak affair. If anyone knows of a better forecast please let me know. As it will probably be my last, I hope it is better than cycle 24, although I think this is unlikely.