10m FT8

After a night off, I returned to 10m FT8 this morning. No stations have been spotted here and my 2.5W CQ was copied by no-one at all.

Ploughing a lonely furrow comes to mind! At least if anyone pops up I should spot them.

UPDATE 1102z: Lots of Europeans (8 so far) spotted on 10m FT8 plus VK8AW (13786km) in Australia. Assuming the latter is not a pirate, this remarkable for sunspot minimum on 10m FT8. Propagation does look promising on 10m FT8 today though.

UPDATE 1236z: Lots more Europeans spotted. Looking at who spotted VK8AW it would appear this is genuine. He has been spotted widely in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe.

UPDATE 1650z: No further "real DX" on 10m FT8 RX here, although quite a lot of Europeans.

Sunspots - Saturday November 3rd 2018

Solar flux is 67 and the SSN remains zero. A=4 and K=0.

QRT

Tonight, I have gone QRT and will not be on 472kHz WSPR overnight.

Another video being prepared

Later this weekend, I hope to have another video on my G3XBM YouTube channel. Someone suggested a walkthrough of the shack and antennas with me commentating. This I have done, although I need to put these clips together with MovieMaker, which I think is on an old PC.

My voice is bad these days, so I apologise in advance. Maybe you will have to watch a few times if you miss the odd word. If I can, I'll explain things in words on the screen if I can remember how to do this! As I said, should be ready later this weekend.

Like buses, you wait for ages, then several come along.

UPDATE  2225z: For reasons I don't understand, MovieMaker would not allow me to save the video. Over the weekend I may try a different package if I can find one.

"He who casts the first stone..." - NOT amateur radio

Oh to be always right!

Mind you, he is a genius and women really love him. Well, these must be true as he said so, allegedly. Iran, I am sure is not perfect. Are the USA and the UK perfect?

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46071747

UK Pound v. Euro - NOT amateur radio

Volatility. This best sums up the situation. Recently, the Pound has been clawing back some of its recent losses against the Euro, although until BREXIT is sorted we can expect big swings up and down.

Solar conditions

Every month I look out for the solar numbers for the last month and the latest forecasts for solar cycle 25, especially to see the latest "expert" views on the timing of the minimum and the size of the next peak. The best place I find is http://www.solen.info/solar/.

Although the "experts" are saying we are already at, or very near, solar minimum, the graphs could be interpreted as the minimum continuing for another year or so. If you know of better predictions, please let us know.

According to http://www.solen.info/solar/cycle25_spots.html the minimum is expected to be between August 2018 and February 2019 i.e. now.

"As of September 2018 the strength of the polar fields hints at a cycle 25 with a magnitude slightly stronger than that of cycle 24." This is a quote from the above website.

472kHz WSPR

Overnight was only average.

On 472kHz WSPR RX 16 stations spotted with LA1TN (1269km) as the best DX. On TX just 6 stations (all in England) spotted my 10mW ERP.

Young swans - NOT amateur radio

On our return from Cambridge we got stuck behind a tractor, so we took a detour and chanced upon these young Mute Swans and a few ducks. They look like this year's young losing their grey feathers and starting out with white ones.

10m FT8

An earlier CQ (2.5W) was spotted by no-one and just a single spot, so far, on FT8 RX of PA2RG (318km). I suspect this was aircraft reflection although it could be tropo.

UPDATE 1642z: Just 3 stations spotted in 3 countries on 10m FT8 today with best DX 9A7JCY (1424km) in Croatia. Dire! For me at least, this has been a bad 10m day.