160m FT8 RX

With 22 North Americans spotted on 160m FT8 RX, last night was pretty good. On the advice of Bas, I shall try listening for the Japanese stations tonight on 1908kHz between 2000-2200z.

Sunspots - Tuesday February 19th 2019

Solar flux is 70 again and the sunspot number 0. A=6 and K=1.

160m FT8 RX

From about 2015z, I have been on 160m FT8 RX using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. As usual, there were lots of Europeans spotted, plus a few Asians and Africans, 128 stations in total. WU1ITU (4831km) was the first North American spotted at 2151z.

Stations spotted so far on 160m FT8 RX this evening

UK politics - NOT amateur radio

So, 7 people have left the UK Labour party. As my politics is fairly centralist, I support them and hope they are soon joined by others from whatever party. I hope they form a new centralist party. Come the next election, I expect another coalition which, I hope, is more on the centre than the extremes of both Conservative and Labour parties.

DX on Oscar 100

Just heard PY2GN in Sao Paulo calling CQ. It seems odd to hear South Americans as easily as Europeans. Of course, as long as these stations can see the geosynchronous satellite and run similar gear there is no reason at all why they should not be equally strong.

UPDATE 1206z: Just heard F0JBN JN08 running 100mW.

UPDATE 1547z: Excuse my ignorance, but on the Oscar100 webSDR there are coloured lines above the frequency marks. What are these?

East Cambs net Mondays 144.575 FM vertical 8pm

A reminder that a few of us usually meet at 2000z on 144.575MHz FM on Monday evenings. Discussions rarely go on after 2030z. Newcomers are always welcome, even if you cannot stop long. This is one four four point five seven five in the all modes section of the band. Operation is usually stations in the East Cambs area. We use vertical polarisation. Discussions are wide ranging covering technical and non-technical things and the technical stuff is never heavy - usually a participant asking advice. If we can comment usefully, we do!

Sunspots - Monday February 18th 2019

Solar flux is 70 still and the SSN still 0. A=4 and K=3.

2m FT8 RX

I remained on 2m FT8 overnight. This morning, 10 stations in 3 countries spotted so far with best DX spot being DL6BF (479km).

UPDATE 1348z: Now 19 stations in 7 countries so far spotted today on 2m FT8 RX.

SSTV from Oscar 100

Although I made no attempt to decode it, someone was sending SSTV through this geosynchronous satellite earlier.

Also, DD0CW was a good signal on CW, which is the first time I have heard any CW via this satellite. I am sure others have used this mode, but not when I was looking.

Again, using the webSDR to check activity. At the moment about 4-6 QSOs ongoing at any one time, so not busy. As yet, my best DX heard via Oscar 100 is an A71 in Qatar. I know others have heard PY. It must be odd to receive DX stations with no QSB and at any time!

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

UPDATE 2247z: GU6EFB has been calling CQ for ages with no takers. I guess most USB operators have tried and worked those that are active. As far as I am concerned, the vast majority are Europeans and mainly Germans and English stations. I guess there are fewer microwave enthusiasts in Africa and South America. I expect some will start with just the 2.4GHz TX and receive using the webSDR?

Gardening - NOT amateur radio

As the weather was sunny and mild, we decided to do some gardening.

I trimmed back some choisya, which smells like lemon. After about 20 minutes I was totally exhausted and had to stop. When on my feet I am giddy all of the time, but stretching as well just did it for me. I am pretty sure this is my 2013 stroke after-effects and not just me getting older.

It was nice to be in the garden, but I have to learn to pace myself.

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