Autumn - NOT amateur radio

The trees in our village are now looking distinctly autumnal. The trees in our garden are golden or bare and the ones in the churchyard are rapidly losing their leaves. Blink and it will be spring again!

10m FT8 - ever hopeful

Although I have been looking for about an hour, no spots yet on 10m FT8. At the moment, I am RX only. The band springs to life less often at sunspot minimum, but FT8 is proving it comes to life far more often than was previously thought.

UPDATE 1012z: 6 spots in 4 countries so far on 10m FT8 RX this morning. Best DX is RM6J (3412km). I suspect this is F2 propagation.

UPDATE 1146z: Still more DX on this "dead" band! ZS6WB (9094km) now spotted on 10m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1530z: No further "real DX".

Overnight in 160m FT8

Just one transatlantic station spotted, but A45XR (5794km) in Oman spotted on 160m FT8 at 2252z last evening.  Loads and loads of Europeans.

Sunspots - Monday November 12th 2018

Solar flux is 69 today and the SSN still 0. A=7 and K=3.

QSY to topband FT8

As the "real DX" seems to have stopped on 10m FT8, I have QSYed to 160m FT8. A brief 2.5W CQ using the earth-electrode "antenna" was spotted by a couple of stations including ON4GPE (355km). At the moment, I am RX only on 160m. Best DX on 160m FT8 RX is RC9F (3504km) in Perm.

UPDATE 1813z:  Absolutely amazing number of stations being spotted on 160m FT8 this evening.

160m FT8 RX so far this evening

UPDATE 2120z: A recent 2.5W CQ on 160m FT8 using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground was spotted by SA6BSS/RX (1057km) in Sweden. The first transatlantic station spotted was WU1ITU (4831km) at 2108z.

Stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX by 2130z

Our weekend - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday we did a walk at the nearby village of Reach and were amused to see there are still a couple of emus in a garden! You can imagine these poking their heads in the kitchen and saying, "hey what about some tea?". These have been here for several years now, along with the chickens. Emus are very much not native birds.

Today, my brother-in-law and his wife popped in on their way home from seeing their son and family in Suffolk.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu

Stupid man! - NOT amateur radio

In my view, war is a wicked waste of human lives. 100 years since the end of WW1, people still fight wars and innocents are lost.

This is a view of the sky over our local church at 11am.

10m FT8

During today, I am again on 10m FT8, mainly RX, although I'll probably try a few CQs. A few eastern and southern Europeans spotted so far.

UPDATE 1218z: Amazing number of Europeans and Russians spotted on 10m FT8 RX today. This proves 10m is open far more often than people once thought.

UPDATE 1405z: PU1VBR (9314km) in Brazil spotted on 10m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1556z: Two South Americans spotted earlier on 10m FT8 RX. I suspect that is it for the day now with "real DX".

Overnight on 160m FT8 RX

Just a couple of North Americans spotted last night on topband FT8 RX. Lots of EU and Asiatic Russians spotted. Again, using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. I am surprised how effective this is on 160m.

Sunspots - Sunday November 11th 2018

Solar flux is 68 today and the sunspot number still zero. A=13 and K=2.