More OFCOM crappery

OFCOM has many times appeared to me to be a toothless quango. Southgate News reports on a Freedom of Information enquiry into the number of prosecutions for unlicenced radio microphones. It turns out that they have procecuted no-one at all!

Quango? Toothless? Enforcement?

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/january/ofcom-quizzed-about-enforcement.htm#.XC4xcfZ2u00

QSY to topband

As 10m was so dire, I have already QSYed to 160m FT8 RX using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. Although there was an immediate spot of a German calling CQ, activity usually ramps up after dark.

UPDATE 1751z: As on previous evenings, lots of Europeans again spotted on 160m FT8 RX.

Stations so far spotted this evening on 160m FT8 RX

10m FT8 RX

Although I have been on 10m FT8 RX most of the morning, so far not a single station copied! Sunspot minimum. Conditions on 10m seem dire here!

UPDATE 1512z: Just a single G spot on 10m FT8 all day. G0LFF (148km). The pits!

Longer days - NOT amateur radio

Although the winter solstice is before Christmas, it is early January before the mornings start to get lighter here. Evenings are already about 5 minutes later.

Although at first the changes are slow, by the end of the month things start to speed up. At least we have "turned the corner".

Christmas and New Year over - NOT amateur radio

By tradition, decorations are taken down on January 6th, but we have just put things away until next year. The Christmas tree is on the patio. It looks very green and may see us OK next Christmas. At the moment it looks bare everywhere, but we just want to get on with 2019 now. For the last couple of years we have recorded all the cards received. One last check on these before the cards get recycled.

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 .