Panto - NOT amateur radio

Last night we went with our "London" grandchildren to the panto in Ely with their mum and dad. It  was "Jack and the Beanstalk".

Sunspots - Sunday December 30th 2018

Solar flux is 69 and the sunspot number 0. A=11 and K=2.

10m FT8

Quite decent winter Es on 10m today, with lots of EU spots on 10m FT8. Nothing outside Europe spotted so far. My own brief call (2.5W) to an EA4 was not spotted by anyone.

UPDATE  1441z: Now 33 stations in 14 countries on 10m FT8 RX today. All European.

QSY to 472kHz WSPR RX

Although not quite dark, I have QSYed to MF for the evening and overnight. Results usually pick up after dark, although there is at least one station coming through with QSB. As I was just turning on, I was not able to ID it, yet.

Getting a bit lighter in the evenings - NOT amateur radio

Although the mornings get a little darker here until later next week, the evenings are already a little lighter. According to https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/cambridge it is already 5 minutes better at sunset. By the end of January, it is about an hour later getting dark.

Online radio magazines

Amateur Radio Weekly has reminded us that several radio magazines (some very old) are available online.

Although this is an American website, quite a few magazines are from other countries.

See https://www.americanradiohistory.com/

160m FT8 overnight

Just 5 North Americans and 1 Caribbean station spotted overnight on 160m FT8. Best DX was again KC6AWX (8553km) in California, USA.

10m FT8

Since 0959z I have been on 10m FT8. For a few minutes I called CQ (2.5W) with no spots. Since then I have been RX only with just 2E0XXO (121km) spotted so far.

UPDATE 1340z: 5 stations in 4 countries spotted on 10m FT8 RX today.

UPDATE 1552z: Now 8 stations in 6 countries so far today on 10m FT8 RX. There may be the odd station still on 10m FT8 RX, but I shall probably QSY to MF (either 630m WSPR RX or 160m FT8 RX) when it gets dark.

Another grandson artwork - NOT amateur radio

Our 9 year old grandson at it again, this time sketching a parrot.

Sunspots - Saturday December 29th 2018

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN still zero. A=24 and K=3.