6m FT8

Yet again, I am monitoring 6m FT8.

Yesterday, we had some great Es with plenty of stations spotted throughout Europe and North Africa. This morning (0850z), there is already Es from northern Spain and Sicily. No "real" DX spotted yet on 6m FT8 RX.

A brief period on TX (2.5W) got several G spots.

Sadly, I have not managed to copy east Asia on 6m FT8 RX. There have been some openings, but I guess my basic set-up is not good enough. It was easier on JT65 last year!

UPDATE 0930z: EU Es is good today. Already 18 different stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX in 9 countries

UPDATE 1058z: S01WS (3043km) in Western Sahara  now being spotted. He is being spotted all over Europe, so I believe this is genuine. Lots of Es on 6m FT8.

Sunspots - Monday July 16th 2018

Solar flux is 73 today and the sunspot number 0. A=4 and K=1.

Football World Cup - NOT amateur radio

Although not a great football fan, this was a good final between France and Croatia. France won 4:2. The match was good spirited and Croatia battled to the end. Whatever one's views on Russia politically, the World Cup went off well.

England got further than in a long time and, on the whole, fans were well behaved.

It would be good if we had a few more English players in the Premier League. Apparently only a third of Premier League players are English. This is a pity when we have a pool of good players who would qualify. I guess the teams are motivated by money and profits. Shame.

Australian friends - NOT amateur radio

Our Australian friends called on their way to York earlier. It was the first time we had seen the grandma since 2014.

The kids loved the windmill next door, which they had to visit!

Sky last night - NOT amateur radio

Last night we did a walk in the village. It had been a hot day. This was the sky.

Sunspots - Sunday July 15th 2018

Solar flux is 73 today and the SSN still 0.  A=5 and K=1.

10m WSPR TX (500mW)

Today just IK0DMQ (1484km) spotting me. In the last day, 8 different stations spotted my 10m WSPR TX.

UPDATE 1714z: 9 different stations have spotted my 500mW WSPR beacon today with the best again being by EA8BFK (2880km).

Genuine 6m from the USA

Around teatime last night a couple of USA stations in Florida USA were spotted on 6m FT8 RX.  Best DX was WX4G (7171km). This station was widely spotted in the USA and Europe, so I am pretty sure this is genuine.

Yet again, G stations are spotting and calling Japanese stations on 6m FT8 this morning, although none have been spotted here.

So far this season, 5 continents spotted on 6m FT8 RX, even with my V2000 omni vertical and CB coax feed. Others with better systems will have done much better, but it shows just a basic set-up works!

UPDATE 0914z: Just EU Es and Gs spotted here today so far on 6m FT8.

UPDATE 1006z: So far today on 6m FT8 RX, 31 different stations in 11 countries.

UPDATE 2013z: A good Es day on 6m FT8. These are the stations spotted on the band in the last half day.

UPDATE 2042z: A brief 6m FT8 QSO with an EA7 was spotted widely in southern Europe at up to +4dB S/N. Classic Es. And I was still using 2.5W to my vertical omni V2000. Although I was going to go QRT, I decided to stay on RX.

Patio flowers - NOT amateur radio

Our grass is very brown. We never water the grass, but it usually recovers fine after our rain (frequent).

The flowers usually get watered every other day and look fine this year. Our cosmos has only just flowered and we expected this to be out weeks ago.

Sunspots - Saturday July 14th 2018

Solar flux is 73 and the sunspot number still zero. A=6 and K=1.