Mother's Day - NOT amateur radio

It seems that our local Waitrose is gearing up for Mother's Day on Sunday. I guess (being a cynic) they see a quick profit.

Typical Oscar 100 RX

This picture appeared today. It shows a typical Oscar 100 (geosynchronous) satellite RX. At some point I may have a go. It seems to be working well. I guess the trick is to dual feed the dish so both the 2.4GHz uplink and the 10GHz downlink share the same dish.

Rallies this Sunday in the UK

31 MARCH 2019, : BATC REGIONAL CONVENTION

Premises of the North Bristol ARC, SHE7 building, Braemar Crescent, Filton, Bristol BS7 0TD. Doors open from 10am to 4pm. A full day of talks & demonstrations with a test bench available for visitors projects. Full details of the programme will be published on the BATC Forum before the event; https://forum.batc.org.uk Further information from Shaun G8VPG, tel.01225 873 098, g8vpg@aol.com.


Sunday 31 MARCH : PENCOED RC TABLE TOP SALE

Pencoed Rugby Club The Verlands Felindre Road Pencoed CF35 5PB. Doors open 9.30am, stall holders have admittance from 8am. Refreshments available on site. Details from Madeline Roberts on 0773 837 5775.


A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

Other sites maintained

My three main blogs currently are:

http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.co.uk/ Amateur radio mainly.
http://qss2.blogspot.co.uk/ Almost anything!
http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ East Anglian churches visited. I am afraid this latter blog has not been updated for some time.

I also run my wife's choral group website and the Sub 9kHz Amateur Radio website. These are linked on my main website www.g3xbm.co.uk

ISWL

Twice I was a member of the International Short Wave League. Once in the 1960s and I rejoined many years later. I left again after several years as it no longer seemed to reflect my interests.

Back in the 1960s it was quite strong. In later years, it was much weaker and I had the feeling it was dying out. I see it is still around today. When I eventually left, having contributed many articles for the club journal "Monitor", not even an email to say, "sorry you are leaving". I guess this would have been about 2011, although I cannot remember.

If anyone knows how many members of the ISWL there are today, I'd love to know. It would not surprise me if there are less than 100 members left. When I left for the second time, I seem to recall there were about 300 members.

40m FT8 RX overnight

Overnight I remained on 40m FT8 RX, despite my very poor, low, antenna. At least this must give others hope! In all, 591 stations spotted on 40m FT8 RX in 5 continents. Best DX was PY2BL (9531km). Even in the last 30 minutes, I am still spotting North America on 40m FT8 RX.

40m FT8 RX spots in last day

UPDATE 1422z: I stayed on 40m FT8 RX today. 665 stations spotted on 40m FT8 RX since I switched to 40m yesterday. This seems to be the main DX band at this part of the solar cycle.

Sunspots - Thursday (yes it definitely is!) March 28th 2019

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=3.

40m FT8 RX

About an hour ago I QSYed to 40m FT8 RX. So far this evening 126 stations spotted on 40m. My antenna is very low and far from ideal for 40m.

UPDATE 2136z: South and North Americans now being spotted on 40m FT8 RX. Best DX is PY2BL (9531km).

UPDATE 2150z:  188 stations spotted this evening on 40m FT8 RX.

Stations spotted so far this 

evening on 40m FT8 RX.

20m FT8 RX

As 10m FT8 was so dire, I QSYed to 20m FT8 RX. So far, in a couple of hours 139 stations in 3 continents spotted.

UPDATE 1939z: 151 stations spotted so far.

10m FT8

Since 0745z, I have been on 10m FT8. Initially I called CQ (2.5W), but after a few minutes I have been 10m FT8 RX only. No spots of my CQ, but surprisingly a couple of stations spotted on RX with best DX F1SCR (435km).

UPDATE 1435z: Just 3 spots today (2 Gs and 1 F) so far.

UPDATE 1445z: As 10m is so poor here today on my setup, I have QSYed to 20m FT8. The antenna is even poorer on 20m, but at least there is some activity