Sunspots - Saturday January 6th 2018

Solar flux is 68 today and the sunspot number 11. A=5 and K=1.

630m WSPR

At 1846z I QSYed to 630m WSPR (10mW ERP, 20%) after the daylight on 10m FT8 RX. This is a bit of a test as recently activity levels in the UK and Europe on 630m seem to have been dropping.

New Blue Plaque - NOT amateur radio

It appears a famous woman microbiologist was born and raised in our village. A new plaque in her honour has appeared. Unless I missed it before, I think this was put up over the holidays. I have to confess I had not heard of her before. The link seems wrong.

Improved miniwhip active RX antenna

Quite a few people use the PA0RDT miniwhip as their RX antenna. Although tiny, these work remarkably well on the 136kHz and 472kHz bands. They also work at higher frequencies. Now a better circuit has been shared by PA3FWM.

See http://www.pa3fwm.nl/projects/miniwhip/ .

First year in the White House book - NOT amateur radio

There is a new book out, which President Trump has called "a pack of lies" allegedly. I hope the book does well.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42574419 .

See also https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Poetry-Donald-Trump/dp/1786892278/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515149198&sr=1-1&keywords=trump

Spaceweather - NOT amateur radio

If you want to know about what's happening in the skies above our heads look at this website. It regularly has news and photos of interest.

See http://spaceweather.com/ .

630m WSPR

This continues to disappoint. Overnight my own 10mW ERP was spotted by 6 unique stations and I spotted 5 uniques. This is a little better than the day before, but I get the feeling people are leaving the band.

Sunspots - Friday January 5th 2018

Solar flux is 69, but the sunspot number is 13. A=4 and K=2. On average, solar conditions are on a slow decline.

10m FT8 RX

Since just before breakfast, I have been on 10m FT8 RX. So far, just DH2PA (653km) spotted. This could have been aircraft reflection I guess.

UPDATE 1302z: EA4GXG (1332km) and G4HZW (208km) spotted on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 1540z: 5 unique stations in 4 countries spotted so far today on 10m FT8.

630m WSPR

Just after dark I switched to 630m WSPR (10mW ERP, 20%) Although a bit better than last time, no spots to get excited about. I shall check in the morning, but for 630m WSPR I have to make radical improvements to my antenna, drop my RX noise floor considerably, or look for a new challenge on a different band.