Quiet River Cam - NOT amateur radio

Usually, the River Cam behind the colleges is busy with punts. This stretch is known as "The Backs" as many world famous colleges back on to the River Cam. This stretch is just outside King's College. At this time of year, there are a lot fewer visitors.

Average night on 630m WSPR

Only 6 unique stations spotted my 10mW ERP WSPR last night. EA5DOM (1525km) was spotted several times here last night. Apparently his LF TX is broken so he decided to come on 630m WSPR. He is always a good signal here.

10m FT8

It is only early, but already OZ and SP stations have been spotted on 10m FT8. These could be aircraft reflections, although I am unsure. It seems too close for F2.

UPDATE 1324z: ZS6ZP (9121km) as well as quite a few Europeans spotted today on 10m FT8.

Useful radio magazine archive

Steve G3ILO has pointed out this online archive that contains some useful radio magazines - mainly USA, but some big UK one too.

See http://americanradiohistory.com/ .

Sunspots - Wednesday November 22nd 2017

Solar flux is 74 today and the sunspot number remains zero. A=28 and K=3.

630m OPERA TX

Something must be wrong.

I had a couple of goes on 630m OPERA TX in beacon mode, but got no reports. I switched to WSPR and immediately was spotted and spotted others. Not sure what I was doing wrong.

Blog visits - NOT amateur radio

It never fails to amaze me how many people read this blog every day. It is humbling. I usually write about the things I do or take an interest in.  You will already have noticed that I enjoy WSPR and FT8!

Being a bit disabled these days (although most who see me tell me how good I look - inside it is not quite the same), I probably spend too much time on the PC. As my voice is poor, it is a way of expressing myself.  If you think I should cover other things, let me know.  Doing this blog is now part of my routine. It is quite good fun to record what I've been up to.

Halloween: well gone - NOT amateur radio

These rotting pumpkins are a reminder that Halloween is long passed now. Mind you, the next Halloween will be here soon enough! Also, Easter starts Dec 26th right? Well, it will in the shops!

A better database?

A couple of people have recommended a different database to see my OPERA spots on MF.

See http://spots.microwavers.es/index.php

10m FT8 RX

The band seems only good for Gs here so far. Just a couple of Gs spotted and nothing else as yet. Mind you, it is only 1000z, which is quite early.

UPDATE 1100z: Quite promising on 10m FT8 today. Best DX so far is ZS6ZP (9121km). It continues to amaze me that so much can still be spotted on 10m FT8. In previous years, these openings might well have been missed - lot of Europeans, 3 Israelis and South Africa already, and the sunspot number is zero!

UPDATE 1200z: I see that there are two South Africans in the Johannesburg area in the 10m FT8 RX log today.