Sibling reunion - NOT amateur radio

The picture shows my wife's siblings at a meal a few days ago. We had a good time, although I found the driving is getting harder.

10m WSPR TX

Already there are plenty of spots from southern Europe of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon (500mW, 100% TX, randomised frequencies). OZ7IT (853km) was spotting me in the middle of the night!

My strongest report (from Italy) was -9dB S/N. This implies just 5mW would have been enough if the receiving station had a nice, quiet noise floor.

UPDATE 1248z: Best DX today, so far, on 10m WSPR TX is IK0DMQ (1484km).

UPDATE 1522z: Well, I am surprised. Apparently my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon has been copied by 73 unique stations in the last 2 weeks.

UPDATE 1540z: A couple of reports (Italy and Germany) were 0dB S/N. This is very strong. Es definitely. Several hours later DK6UG was spotting me at up to +10dB S/N. Amazing.

UPDATE 1801z: 15 unique spots of my 10m, 500mW WSPR beacon so far today.

10m WSPR TX spots far today

6m FT8 RX today

Although it is only 0836z, there is already lots of Es evident on 6m FT8 RX. Es looks good today.

UPDATE 0858z: Already 12 countries spotted here today on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1136z: Best DX today so far on 6m FT8 RX is 5B4AAB (3185km).

UPDATE 1218z: 21 countries spotted so far today on 6m FT8 RX.

6m FT8 RX so far today

Homebrew videos

Thanks to a recent post on Southgate News, I have seen the homebrew videos by Charlie Morris ZL2CTM. Inspiring.

See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSNPW3_gzuMJcX_ErBZTv2g/videos .

Sunspots - Saturday June 9th 2018

Solar flux is 68 today and the sunspot number 0.  A=4 and K=1.

Towpath walk - NOT amateur radio

Walking along the towpath of the Coventry Canal earlier this week with a narrowboat along side.  At one time narrowboats were important means of moving goods. These days they are mainly for pleasure. One of our nephews is going to live on a narrowboat during the week to be near his work.

No American DX on 6m FT8 tonight?

Although I shall be monitoring 6m FT8 through the night, I have the feeling that no transatlantic DX will be spotted tonight. The Canary Isles were spotted this morning, but all the spots since have been EU and North Africa. Very recent spots have been UK and Eastern and Southern Europe.

UPDATE 9.6.18 0600z: Indeed no American stations spotted here on 6m overnight.

IC7300 Price

Are the UK dealers playing chicken?

In the UK the IC7300 price is still the same, but now accompanied by all sorts of free extras.

Now, I have little doubt this is a good radio, but I still feel it is being "market priced". By that I mean we buy at the ticket price as there is no real competition from the other big players and most are happy to pay.

The architecture would allow the price to be reduced to less than £1000. Will it happen any time soon?

Toy Car - NOT amateur radio

This toy car was seen a few days ago at a National Trust place near Wolverhampton.

More on our reunion - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned yesterday, every year we meet up with my wife's brothers for a sibling reunion. It is good to get together for a happy occasion. This was the 3 siblings on Wednesday evening.