Sunspots - Friday September 14th 2018

Solar flux is 68 today and the SSN 11. A=8 and K=3.

Local talk - NOT amateur radio

Our local village museum has talks for an hour followed by free tea and biscuits. Today's talk was by a person in charge of the Cambridge University Zoology Museum in Cambridge. It was mainly about finds locally which included bears, wolves and beavers, all long gone from these parts.

The talk was very well attended.

See http://www.burwellmuseum.org.uk/

BATC convention this weekend

15-16 SEPTEMBER : BATC CONVENTION (CAT18)

Midlands Air Museum. https://forum.batc.org.uk/viewforum.php?f=115.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

472kHz WSPR last night

Fewer stations reporting my 10mW ERP and fewer stations spotted here than the night before on 472kHz WSPR. I'll try again tonight.

Sunspots - Thursday Sept 13th 2018

Solar flux is 68 and the sunspot number 11. A=8 and K=3.

10m FT8 again

Well, you could say I am a glutton for punishment!

Yet again I am on 10m FT8. An earlier CQ at 2.5W was spotted by no-one and so far just a couple of Gs spotted with the best DX on 10m FT8 RX being G0OYU (177km).

10m FT8 RX today

UPDATE 1506z: 11 stations in 5 countries spotted today so far on 10m FT8 RX. All EU. Best DX on RX was IZ0WRS (1532km).

UPDATE 2152z: QRT time. Best DX today on 10m FT8 RX was LU1DX (11410km).

Personal touch? - NOT amateur radio

Call me a "grumpy old git", but in the last few weeks I have had total, disinterested contacts with the following:

• My bank
• My car insurer
• A train company
• Someone selling bonds
• The Post Office
• My utilities company.

     and others.

It would appear that I am just a meaningless number and I do not really matter. The overall impression is that no-one really cares.  If I am lucky, I might get a computer generated letter.  All that matters is that god "profit".

What happened to the days when people mattered?

10m FT8

My earlier CQ call was unspotted. So far today (1022z) 4 stations on 10m FT8 RX spotted in 3 countries so far with best DX EA7GOJ (1768km).

UPDATE 1958z: In the end 6 stations in 3 countries spotted. Time to QSY to MF WSPR.

Sunspots - Wednesday September 12th 2018

Solar flux is 69 today and the SSN 14. A=35 and K=2.

Overnight on 472kHz WSPR

Quite a decent night with 10 stations spotting my 10mW ERP from the earth electrode "antenna" in the ground. My best spot was by PA3ABK (306km) in JO21 square. On RX I copied 8 different stations including LA8AV (1035km).