Sunspots - Tuesday October 16th 2018

Solar flux is 70 today and the SSN is 22. A=10 and K=3.

Now on 472kHz WSPR

After another brilliant day on 28MHz FT8, I have now QSYed to 472kHz WSPR. So far, a couple of spots of my 10mW ERP, but no others yet spotted.

Antenna choices

Homebase-10 Antenna

When the leaves fall, I want to prune my silver birch tree, which is now far too tall. At the moment my Par end-fed covering 10m, 20m and 40m is held up by this tree. At present, I am considering options.

My main HF interest is 10m and one possibility is a rebuild of my Homebase-10 wire halo for 10m.  Via an ATU, the coax to this antenna should match on most HF bands tuned against ground.

Another possibility is my x80 vertical which is in good condition in the garage. This has a 9:1 unun in its base, so a decent match is presented to the rig on most HF bands. Verticals tend to be noisier than horizontals and the x80 can snap in winds.

I could re-erect my Par end-fed.  This is very low, especially for 20m and 40m.

At the moment, the favourite is the Homebase-10.

BREXIT and the Northern Ireland border - NOT amateur radio

A politician I am definitely not!

It seems the UK PM is stuck between a rock and a hard place over the only land border that will be between Eire (in the EU) and N. Ireland (shortly to be outside the EU).

The UK does not want a distinction between N. Ireland (Ulster) and the rest of the UK. The EU and UK want no hard border in Ireland.

The EU is playing hardball. In the end we could leave with no deal and the EU and the UK could both suffer. In the end I suspect a fudge is to be expected.

Remote control of the IC-R30 scanner

Southgate News reports that the software to remotely control the IC-R30 scanner can now be obtained free of charge.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/october/rs-r30-remote-control-software.htm#.W8Rn1vZFy00

Repeater Activity

Some while ago, I bought a network radio, which means I can access lots of repeaters via Echolink.

Now, I am not a great repeater user, but it is noticeable how quiet these are compared with 20-30 years ago. This seems to be worldwide issue.

I guess these days there are other ways to communicate if at home and there are fewer amateurs driving to work than 30 odd years ago. I also think roads are busier, so people have to concentrate on the traffic more.

10m FT8

Yet again, I have decided to go on 10m FT8 for the day. An earlier 2.5W CQ was spotted by no-one!

On RX just one station copied so far, probably by aircraft reflection (but it could be tropo) F8NHF (297km).

UPDATE 1515z: 26 Europeans spotted so far on 10m FT8 RX, but no South Americans.

UPDATE 1518z: The first South American has just been spotted on 10m FT8 RX! PY1VOY (9365km).

UPDATE 1620z: Loads of South Americans plus St Helena spotted on 10m FT8 RX with best DX LU7XZ (13366km).

10m FT8 RX today to 1620z

UPDATE 1740z: 28 South Americans spotted already on 10m FT8 RX!!

Overnight on 472kHz WSPR

Not a bad night, but not brilliant either. In all, 11 others spotted and my 10mW ERP was spotted by 6 stations.

Homework Time - NOT amateur radio

One of our grandchildren busy doing maths homework yesterday in our kitchen.

Sunspots - Monday October 15th 2018

Solar flux is 71 today and the sunspot number 22. A=6 and K=2.