Sunspots - Monday August 6th 2018

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

Tomorrow

All being well, I think I'll go back to 10m WSPR TX (500mW) and 6m FT8 RX tomorrow. The last time I was on 10m WSPR TX, 17 different stations spotted me. Today I was on 10m FT8 RX and there was Es but no "real" DX spotted here. The furthest spotted was Bahrain.

Mackerel Sky - NOT amateur radio

Today has been another hot day, but there was a cooler breeze this evening when this sky was visible over "our" windmill next door.

Dry, dry, dry - NOT amateur radio

Most of Europe has had a very hot and dry summer. Oh, sorry, climate change is a Chinese plot - I forgot those wise words.

I have never seen our garden so parched.  It was the same at Ickworth, Suffolk yesterday with a pond there drying up. Normally it has plenty of water. We had a very wet winter. It would not surprise me if the USA soon experiences "dust bowl" conditions again. Climate change is a reality. The world is warming.

The photo shows the sky, and parched grass, at Ickworth yesterday.

Es'hail 2 - will it succeed?

Assuming this is successfully put into orbit (due Q4 2018), this Qatar satellite will open up a new era in amateur radio. Southgate News has a piece on this today. 2.4GHz uplink and 10GHz downlink. Fixed dish, modest powers, band always open. Predicted 15 year life.

There is another satellite due to cover the Americans as E'hail does not cover the Americas.

See http://www.amsat-dl.org/index.php/es-hail-2-p4a

and

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/august/coordinated-frequencies-for-p4a-es%27hail-2.htm#.W2bCMfZFzIU

Sunspots - Sunday August 5th 2018

Solar flux is 70 today and the SSN has returned to zero. A=5 and K=1.

6m and 10m FT8

Last night 21 different stateside stations were spotted on 6m FT8 RX.

Today, I am on 10m FT8 RX. Already, the logbook is filled with Europeans via Es. Best DX so far on 10m FT8 RX this morning is EK1KE (3581km) in Armenia. Not sure if this station is multi-hop Es or F layer single hop.

UPDATE 0944z: Well, I have stopped counting how many stations spotted already on 10m FT8 but it is a lot. 3 continents already spotted on 10m FT8. Not bad as we approach sunspot minimum.

UPDATE 1109z: Best DX on 10m FT8 RX is A92AA (5069km) in Bahrain.

UPDATE 2010z: A couple of USA stations logged.

Ickworth (National Trust) - NOT amateur radio

Today, we went to Ickworth near Bury St Edmunds hoping to see the wild flower meadow in all its glory. What a total disappointment.

It looked as if, this year, they just did not bother. Afterwards we were told they were trying to fully restore the walled garden to as it once was. Does that mean vegetables next year? Luckily we spotted a bee, as the photo shows.

10m antenna

10m seems to be going out of fashion as we approach sunspot minimum. A few years ago, 10m was the band of choice for many to work worldwide DX. Now it is much harder.

For at least a quarter of any year Es brings 10m to life and DX across Europe or the USA is relatively easy.  On FT8 I am finding some amazing worldwide DX on 10m still. 10m is also a decent band for local QSOs often with far less noise than bands like 160, 80 or 40m. A horizontal antenna is generally less noisy than a vertical.

I know this has been on this blog before, but if you want a decent, simple, horizontal polarised antenna for 10m, you could do worse than make my Homebase-10 design. This was in PW and is on my main website. Buying all parts new, it will be hard to spend more than £10. It works well and is small as the picture shows.

The same design will scale for other bands like 6m or 4m.

10m WSPR TX (I almost forgot!)

Most of the morning my little 10m WSPR beacon has been on (500mW) and I have had 134 spots so far. Reports have come in from all over Europe including Sweden and the Faroes. No DX reports from outside Europe as yet today.

Actually, I almost forgot this beacon was on!