Peace - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday, as already mentioned, we went to east Suffolk. OK, I am biased, but in my view Thornham Parva is one of the best churches in the whole world. It is where Basil Spence is buried and is a little gem of peace.

CDARC 2m SSB net 0830z 144.180MHz SSB horizontal

After several Sundays when I simply forgot, this morning I actually remembered!

Even G8OFA in Salisbury was copied, as well as all the others in the net. Sadly, G8OFA could not hear me. Afterwards I realised I was only on 2.5W and I could have used 5W. I am not sure where all the stations were located. Richard, G3TFX, about 200m away, was strong even without the big-wheel omni antenna!

UPDATE  1542z: G8OFA was using 400W to a 7el (on 2m) dual beam yagi. Quite a bit more ERP than me!

10m FT8

After a very brief CQ (2.5W), I am now on 10m FT8 RX. No spots yet, unsurprisingly.

UPDATE 1153z: 5 stations spotted in 2 countries with best DX on 10m FT8 RX F1RAD (867km).

UPDATE 1538z: Now 7 stations in 4 countries spotted today on 10m FT8 RX. All EU.

Topband overnight

On 160m FT8 RX a record number of North American stations spotted with 12 in the USA and Canada plus a couple more in the Caribbean.  Best DX spotted was KY7M (8369km) in New Mexico. All these were on the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground, which is well exceeding all expectations.

Even on QRP TX it seems to work well.

I am not sure if the pattern suggests directionality, or just a lack of activity from stations further south. The alignment of the "loop" in the ground should imply better results E-W than N-S. Certainly it works well E-W.

Sunspots - Sunday November 18th 2018

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN is 13.  A=1 and K=1.

Salcombe light - NOT amateur radio

This photo of the sky over Salcombe, where I was brought up as a child, was posted first by Andy Dean yesterday.

Return to Topband

Just over an hour ago, I returned to 160m FT8. My 2.5W CQ using the earth-electrode "antenna" was spotted by 7 stations in 5 countries.

UPDATE 1900z: 160m never fails. Night after night, lots and lots of Europeans and Russians are spotted on FT8 and I don't think there has been a single night when I have been monitoring and not spotted a transatlantic station.

UPDATE 2130z: In the last week, the first North American has been spotted by now. As yet, nothing apart from EU and Russians.

UPDATE 2157z: Best DX so far on 160m FT8 RX is UK9AA (5171km) in Uzbekistan.

UPDATE 2215z: The first North American has been spotted: VA2WA (5115km) in Canada.

East Suffolk - NOT amateur radio

Today, we visited East Suffolk. We ate in Eye and visited the church there (see photo). We also visited Thornham Parva, a delightful thatched church where the architect Basil Spence is buried.

10m FT8 RX

During the daytime I am again monitoring 10m FT8 RX. So far, 3 stations spotted in 3 countries. I suspect these are all tropo or aircraft reflections.

UPDATE 1058z: Now a couple of stations in the southern Indian Ocean!  Best DX is 3B8CW (9751km) on Mauritius. A band with plenty of surprises!

Sunspots - Saturday November 17th 2018

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 14. A=2 and K=0.