6m FT8 RX

Not a great day. Spots from the Baltic area and around the UK but nothing else today so far.

UPDATE 1514z: There you go - I speak and 6m FT8 opens up! Stations in France, Italy and Sicily spotted on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1632z:  Now Es from all over the place in Europe on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2010z: Whilst using my V2000 vertical omni on the 2m FM net I gather an HH (Haiti) was coming through on 6m FT8. I missed him! EA8JK (2999km) was worked on 6m FT8. As always, I was using 2.5W to my V2000 vertical omni fed with CB coax.

10m WSPR TX

Well, it is better than yesterday! So far, my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon has been copied in Germany and Italy today. Not great, but yesterday I got no spots at all.

UPDATE 1635z: Another spot from a different Italian on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 2018z: 10 different stations spotted my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon today with EA8BFK (2880km) my best DX.

Sunspots - Monday July 2nd 2018

Solar flux is 67 today and the sunspot number 0. A=4 and K=0.

630m (472kHz) WSPR receive

For a total change, I am using WSJT-X to receive 630m WSPR. This is high summer so there are few stations active. If I copy anyone at all, it would be good. I shall stay on overnight.

UPDATE JULY 1ST: PA3ABK (306km) copied last night.

My early recording!

Way back in about 1965 a friend, Francis Wood, and I made a record. As I recall it was me saying, "Mary had a little lamb". Very profound!  We used the lid of an old coffee jar, a big horn and a needle. It involved shouting very loudly!

Whilst looking for something else, I came across it earlier today. Of course, these days I have nothing to play it as all my record decks went long ago. My son has a deck, so I could ask him sometime.

It was with Francis that we made some early experiments with optical communications. OC171s with paint scraped off. Memories.

FT8 - like Marmite?

Here in the UK we have a savoury spread made from yeast called Marmite. Some love it and some hate it.

It is a bit like that with FT8. Personally, I like FT8 and Marmite! FT8 works with weak signals, but is definitely not a mode for chats. With my poor voice if fits well for me, as chatting is much harder these days. If you enjoy a good old rag-chew, this is probably not the best mode for you.

In its favour people are constantly monitoring a few kilohertz of each band so brief openings are noticed. In the past a CQ on SSB or CW could easily be missed.

SAQ (VLF) transmission today

An earlier transmission on 17.2kHz CW from the historic Alexanderson transmitter at Grimeton, Sweden was well received in Italy. I cannot remember if there is another transmission later.

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!