Building site - NOT amateur radio

One of our local village pubs has been empty for years. Like many spaces in our village, it is going to be used for new houses. We moved here in 1975 when the village had 3 schools and about 4000 people. Now it has 1 school and a population of way over 6000. Signs of the times. Building work started last week.

10m FT8 RX

Although I have been on 10m FT8 RX since breakfast, nothing at all copied so far. I shall continue until this evening. 10m does throw up surprises!

UPDATE 1256z: Just 2E0XXO (121km) spotted so far on 10m FT8 today.

UPDATE 1610z: F5IGF (547km) spotted.

UPDATE 1820z: no further spots,.The spots I got may have been aircraft reflections? I also see I spotted an OZ calling GD, but this did not get uploaded to PSK Reporter Maps. Now on 136kHz WSPR RX.

Best night ever on 630m WSPR RX

Despite my unbelievably poor 472kHz setup, last night I spotted 18 unique stations on the band including 2 USA stations. WA4SZE (6802km) is the furthermost I have ever spotted on the band.  Running the shack PC off batteries makes a huge difference.

Sunspots - Sunday January 21st 2018

Solar flux is 69 today and the sunspot number zero. A=8 and K=2.

630m WSPR RX

At about 1946z, I went QRT on all bands and moved to 630m WSPR RX. Within minutes a couple of stations spotted with DH5RAE (995km) as best DX. This was on the shack PC on its internal batteries. For a while now I have been charging the batteries so I can run the shack PC overnight on its battery, so the noise floor is lower.

UPDATE 2055z: Now back with shack PC on battery power, which should last most of the night.

Blog visits, not hackers - NOT amateur radio

Already, visits to this blog are higher than all day yesterday. As far as I can tell, these are genuine visits and not bots or hackers. If you are a visitor, I hope you find something of interest either here or on one of the sites linked from my main website at www.g3xbm.co.uk .

Government in the USA - NOT amateur radio

OK, I am no political expert, but it is amazing to the world at large that a US government that controls both the US Senate and the White House is unable to get a budget agreed. Each side is blaming the other, but it is a sorry mess. Many Federal Services will be forced to shut down. It is not clear how long this will last.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42759934 .

Fame again? - NOT amateur radio

My photo of the angry sky over our windmill was used on BBC Look East last night. My last one on the BBC was November 2015.

10m WSPR TX and 6m MSK144 RX

For a change, I am on 10m WSPR TX (500mW, 100%, frequency randomised) with my beacon and RX MSK144 on 50.280MHz. As yet, no spots. Mind you, I have only just started!

UPDATE 1044z: SM7FJE (905km) near Malmo spotted on 6m MSK144.

UPDATE 1116z: G4MOI (67km) spotted on 6m MSK144. No spots of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon.

UPDATE 1300z: LA3EQ (767km) copied strongly a few moments ago on 6m MSK144.

UPDATE 1436z:  SM5EPO (JP80, NW of Uppsala) spotted about 30 minutes ago calling a GD0 on 6m MSK144 but this was not uploaded to PSK Reporter Maps for some reason. Maybe I lost internet connectivity?

UPDATE 1605z: No posts at all on 10m WSPR TX and nothing new on 50.280MHz MSK144.

UPDATE 2106z: Tomorrow, I shall probably try 10m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Saturday January 20th 2018

Solar flux is 71 today and the sunspot number 11.  A=8 and K=3.