Es'hail

Last night I was speaking to G3KKD on 2m FM. Ian is a keen ATV man.  He tells me he is receiving the beacon from the geosynchronous Es'hail satellite that will carry amateur all-mode and TV transponders. He uses a dish and LNB with an SDR receiver at around 1446MHz IF. The beacon is strong.

80m FT8 RX

Overnight, I remained on 80m FT8 RX. Basically very similar to the previous night with best DX a Brazilian PY2XU (9584km).

Once again on the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground was used.  I guess the next band to try with this "antenna" is 40m FT8, although I very much doubt it will be any good up there! Mind you, I thought it would be useless on 80m!

Sunspots - Tuesday January 8th 2019

Solar flux is 71 and the sunspot number 12. A=7 and K=2.

80m FT8 RX this evening

Already in the last 30 minutes alone, stations all over Europe are again being spotted using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. At present the best DX spotted is A45XR (5794km) in the Middle East.

UPDATE 2218z: The first North American spotted on 80m FT8 RX this evening was K1CP (4997km).

My ancestors - NOT amateur radio

Many times on this blog I have mentioned that I come from the South Hams in Devon. Today on Facebook it mentioned that ancient trees, not seen since the last Ice Age had been exposed at Hallsands. There were a few photos of these. The last Ice Age was about 10000 years ago.

What amazes me is that probably some of my distant ancestors hunted in these very trees thousands of years ago when this was still woodland and before the seas rose. Humbling.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age

OFCOM bla bla

Bla, bla, bla, bla.  Motherhood, motherhood, and yet more motherhood...

More OFCOM rubbish in my view. This time it is to remind us about public meetings on their annual plan for 2019.

Sorry, but I would rather they enforced what is there rather than waste money on these meetings. Bring back the GPO and adults who were keen to enforce laws!!

These are my views and others are welcome to theirs.

See https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/annual-plan-2019-20

Like a small kid - NOT amateur radio

OK, I admit it - I am like a small kid with a new toy, even though I have had this Android tablet for over a year now!

This morning, I walked to the local Post Office to post a birthday card and took my tablet with me so I could record the walk using the built-in GPS. It tells me the average speed was 3 mph and the total distance 0.5 miles total.

80m FT8 RX overnight

Last evening and overnight, I went on 80m FT8 RX using the FT817 with my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground expecting, at best, mediocre results. The "antenna" was not even well matched and I made no attempt to improve this. To my surprise, it worked remarkably well.  Best DX spotted was PY2KP (9578km).

Stations spotted last night on 80m FT8 with 
the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

UPDATE 1435z: I remained on 80m FT8 RX all day today. I see that 9 stations in 5 countries have been spotted in just the last 30 minutes!

Sunspots - Monday January 7th 2019

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 12. A=9 and K=2.

At the moment, it looks like we are moving just past the solar minimum - time will tell.

At first I had the date as Monday January 6th - since corrected!!

80m FT8 RX with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground

This is an experiment as I do not expect great things of this antenna at so high a frequency. Indeed the match is not as good as on 160m and I have made no attempt to optimise this. On the screen I am seeing lots of EU stations, and these are now appearing on PSKreporter.

Best DX so far tonight is RL9L (4017km) after just 15 minutes!

UPDATE 2104z: At the moment 80m FT8 RX is behaving much like 160m FT8 with all over Europe being spotted. As yet, no DX spotted outside Europe apart from the Canary Islands.

UPDATE 2215z: N4DB (6131km) spotted at 2149z. This is the first North American station spotted on 80m FT8 RX this evening.