Overnight on 160m FT8 RX

Quite a decent night with 14 North Americans and 1 South American spotted. Best DX spotted was KC9FFV (7612km) in Texas. I hate these newer FCC rules which mean you cannot tell which area a station is located in.

Stations spotted overnight on 160m FT8

Sunspots - Thursday January 3rd 2019

Unless I am mistaken, we are seeing solar flux values at their highest for some time. This could be the start of the climb to solar cycle 25's peak or just a blip. Solar flux is 74 and the sunspot number 16. A=2 and K=1.

MS shower

According to Southgate News the Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on January 4th 2019. I have no idea how this acts as an MS propagation mechanism by which I mean I have no idea how much MS conditions are improved during this shower. Of course I understand the way MS signals propagate.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/january/quadrantid-meteor-shower.htm#.XC0TX_Z2u00

Quite a collection

A few hours ago there was a Facebook posting about W9EVT's huge collection of radios.  Personally, I was not impressed, but fully accept that some are.

See https://www.qrz.com/db/w9evt .

Knackered! - NOT amateur radio

We have had a busy period over Christmas and New Year with people around for about 2 weeks. Today, the last of the grandchildren went home. We are exhausted!

Although we love seeing our children and grandchildren, we are also pleased when the house is again tidy and quiet. We are both over 70 years old now and it is now over 5 years since my brain bleed. Perhaps we tire more easily nowadays? My mother-in-law had a saying, "nice to see you come, nice to see you go". I know what she meant!

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/stroke .

160m FT8 RX

For about 15 minutes, I have been on 160m FT8 RX. As yet, no spots, but I expect this will change once it gets dark.

Before that I was on 630m WSPR RX and a bit surprised to see a DL this afternoon.

As usual, using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

UPDATE 1510z: EU2Q (1793km) in Belarus spotted on 160m FT8 RX. They have started!

UPDATE 1626z: Now 37 stations from all over Europe being spotted on 160m FT8 RX since it got dark.

UPDATE 2010z: As on previous evenings 160m FT8 RX is full of EU stations. I expect transatlantic stations to start coming through after 2100z.

Stations spotted so far this evening on 160m FT8 RX 

with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

UPDATE 2217z: Already 3 North American stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX this evening. Yet again, WU1ITU (4831km) was the first logged.

Sunspots - Wednesday January 2nd 2019

Solar flux is 73 (highest for a while) and the SSN 13. A=6 and K=1.

Past the minimum?

2m activity contest

The 2m leg of the UKAC activity contest was this evening. I nearly missed it, only seeing the email reminder at 2045z. In all, 4 stations worked - not many, but better than forgetting! Best DX was (again) G4CLA (105km). As usual I run 5W SSB to my big-wheel omni.

Stations worked with 5W and omni 

antenna on 2m SSB this evening

472kHz WSPR RX

For about an hour now I have been on 472kHz WSPR RX. So far, 3 stations received with best DX DL7NN (873km).

UPDATE 2045z: 9 unique stations spotted so far this evening on 472kHz WSPR RX.

Cycle 25 - starting?

The latest solar news has been published. Are we seeing the end of the solar minimum or is this a blip?

See https://www.solen.info/solar/

"As of December 2018 the strength of the polar fields hints at a cycle 25 with a magnitude similar to or slightly stronger than that of cycle 24." 
A quote from this site.