June solar data available

The data for June is already available. Unsurprisingly, it shows sunspot numbers up on the previous month. Don't be fooled. The most probable trajectory is a further slow decline to the next minimum probably next year or the year after.

See http://www.solen.info/solar/

Interesting that this site thinks the solar minimum could be this year. We will see in another few years. I quote:

While smaller spots with the correct polarity alignment of cycle 25 regions have been observed at high latitude locations as early as 2016, this overview will only include spots large enough to have been visible at a 1K resolution. In the case of reversed polarity cycle 24 regions, those that are not at a sufficiently high latitude (ie. 30 degrees or more), are considered most likely to belong to cycle 24 and will not be included in this list until closer to the actual solar cycle minimum (likely to be sometime between April and December 2018).

Poor start today

Although I have been on 10m WSPR TX (500mW) since before breakfast not a single spot!

There was some Es evident on 6m FT8 RX early on, there was not that much. At this time, you get good days and bad. Often 6m opened to the USA in early July on SSB and CW.

I shall continue, more in hope than expectation.

UPDATE 1432z: Despite the very average Es today (actually poor) I have spotted 41 different stations in 13 countries today on 6m FT8. Still no spots of my beacon on 10m WSPR TX.

UPDATE 1948z: 53 different stations in 14 countries spotted on 6m FT8 in the last day. 10m? Still no spots today of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon TX.

Patio breakfast - NOT amateur radio

Eating outside is a novelty in the UK. Usually it is too cold. For several days now we have had really warm weather (for us) so we decided to have breakfast on the patio. We'll probably have lunch outside too.  As you can see from the photo, our grass is brown. Given a decent downpour it recovers!

Sunspots - Sunday July 1st 2018

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

Storms getting closer to the UK

It looks more likely that the storms from Iberia will hit the UK tonight or tomorrow. As a precaution, everything has been disconnected: rigs, PSUs and antennas.

See https://www.lightningmaps.org/blitzortung/europe/index.php?lang=en

Not a great day

All day, I have been on 10m WSPR TX and 6m FT8 RX. It was a poor day here. Yes, there was Es on both bands but it was way down on the days before. All being well, I shall try again tomorrow. Some days will be average. I have still to copy the USA and Japan on 6m FT8 RX this summer.

More stroke - NOT amateur radio

Many are not interested, and this I can understand, but I feel the need to express to others just how I feel inside. Life is tough.

Giddy, exhausted, fog is how I'd best describe how I feel most of the time, especially when on my feet. My voice is also poor. Outwardly I look well with a heathy tan. However, inside I feel awful. However hard I try, I am unable to convey just how I feel.

On a recent holiday, someone else who had had a stroke said, "others just don't understand". How right he was. These are exactly my feelings and this precisely expresses my frustration. Others cannot possibly understand.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/stroke

Status quo - NOT amateur radio

Life has a nasty habit of surprising us. We go along with certainties we have known for years, then suddenly something happens to remind us that change always happens. It can be someone dying or getting gravely ill, a different house or something far more trivial.

Change is part of life and the future holds all sorts of shocks. Those best able to accept are people who are not phased by changes or endings: people who can say, that is the end of a chapter and the start of a new one.

Today, we had my wife's cousin-in-law and his granddaughter for lunch and tea. My wife was very close to her cousin when she was little. A few months ago she died.

Sadly, I find endings hard. Perhaps we all do in our own way.

UK Thunder?

We have had (for us) a long warm (hot) spell of weather with temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius. At some point we are likely to have some thunderstorms in parts of the UK. Currently there are storms in Spain moving north. These could result in storms in south west England later.

See https://www.lightningmaps.org/blitzortung/europe/index.php?lang=en

10m WSPR TX

Yet again, I am trying with my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon. So far, just spots earlier from local G4KPX (14km) and no Es. Things may change.

UPDATE 0912z: EA8FBK (2880km) is again the best spot.

UPDATE 1911z: Just 5 different stations spotted my little 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today so far.