Spring? - NOT amateur radio

It has seemed a never ending, dull winter with no spring. Yesterday was different: warm sunshine and the first real day that felt like spring. The next few days are promising too. The collage shows nearby Anglesey Abbey bursting out with fresh green leaves.

Super VHF/UHF/SHF DX via noctilucent clouds?

In the next few months noctilucent clouds are often seen. There is a possibility that these are responsible for the very long 6m paths that regularly open from western Europe to Japan in the early summer. These openings are as regular as clockwork in the early summer, and then they just stop. It is a very long way on 6m and the conventional wisdom that this is multi-hop Es to me seems very unlikely. Last June, several Japanese stations were spotted on 6m JT65, even on my omnidirectional vertical.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/noctilucent

Digital mode frequencies (Region 1)

If you are like me, you will be unsure of the commonly used frequencies in Region 1 for various digital modes. I found this link helpful as a reminder.

See http://www.qsl.net/sv1grb/psk31.htm

Sunspots - Wednesday April 18th 2018

Solar flux is 68 today and the sunspot number 0.  A=4 and K=2.

2m UKAC Results

The results are out for the 2m UKAC activity contests organised by the RSGB. In the low power section I am 66th out of 132 places. Considering I only use 5W to an omnidirectional antenna and usually stay on for around 30 minutes, I am quite happy.

Beetle - NOT amateur radio

This very iridescent beetle was seen earlier today at Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridge, UK. It is probably a very common sort.

10m FT8 RX

After a very brief period on TX, I am again on 10m FT8 RX. Not unexpectedly, no spots. At least I try!

UPDATE 1042z: No 10m FT8 spots here today so far.

UPDATE 1134z: G7BXU (124km) near or in Reading spotted. This could be tropo or aircraft reflection (Heathrow stack?). Nothing else so far today.

UPDATE 1156z: Now G4YBI (83km) to the east of London spotted. This is already 100% better than yesterday.

UPDATE 1629z: No further spots here today on 10m FT8 RX. Not exactly promising, but I'll monitor until about 0830z "just in case" there is some real DX. Then I'll try a different band for a while.

UPDATE 2024z: No further 10m FT8 spots today, so time to go QRT.

End of season on 472kHz?

Last night I was on 472kHz WSPR RX. Only 3 different stations were received, whereas earlier in the year I copied 12-15 different stations in the same sort of period and with the same gear and antenna. My conclusion is the "season" is ending and there are now fewer stations active. I guess many will return later in the year.

2m FT8 RX - not today

As you will have seen from earlier posts, 2m FT8 has been a true revelation. The 15 second TX periods mean even very short openings are now seen. As a result, unheard of DX (at least for me!) is being copied even with my omnidirectional antenna. When I do go on TX (maybe for 3 minutes a day) I am regularly copied over 300km despite only using 2.5W QRP.

6m - magic band

In the Es season, this is a great band allowing a long way to be worked with QRP and simple antennas. This summer, it is likely to be even better with FT8. Although FT8 activity on 6m is currently well down on 2m, I suspect this will soon change once we see some E-layer DX.

Last spring and summer, quite a lot of real DX (outside Europe) was copied on 6m JT65. This year, I shall probably concentrate on FT8 to see what can be spotted.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/6m_op