Horse chestnut trees - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday I posted a photo of the 2 ancient horse chestnut trees in our churchyard. This is a view of the same trees in the other direction.

Springtime - NOT amateur radio

Most of the spring daffodils are now dying, some weeks before Easter. Tulips tend to be short-lived but nice whilst they last. Many of the UK fields are sown with yellow rapeseed. To some the smell of these is off-putting.

Unless I am mistaken, next weekend is the US Masters golf from Augusta, Georgia, USA. They always seem to have plenty of colourful flowers for the TV cameras. Another year gone - where did it fly?

Awaiting updated solar data

My favourite place for solar data has yet to be updated fully. This usually happens in the first few days of the month. I am interested to see it they are still forecasting that we have actually passed through the minimum or still have some way to go. There were some tentative signs earlier last month, although these could just have been blips.

See http://www.solen.info/solar/

10m FT8

All night I stayed on 10m FT8.Only 1 spot of me (yesterday evening) by G4CJC (74km) 20 hours ago. This morning the only spot so far is of 2E0VDS (30km).

UPDATE 1738z: Totally dire! Nothing further here at all on 10m FT8 since the 2E0 around breakfast. This is one of the worst ever days here on 10m FT8. Soon be time to QSY, probably 160m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Monday April 1st 2019

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=11 and K=1.

My VERY old website

Today I discovered that there was a snapshot of my 1997 website on the Wayback Machine. This was almost 22 years ago! In those days we used dial up modems and I seem to recall that my very first CompuServe website (1994 I think - must see if there is a copy of this too!) used a 2.4k modem and involved a long distance phone call to connect. We have come a long way.

If you want a look, the old Demon website is at:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970328203144/http://lapr.demon.co.uk/

Spring hope - NOT amateur radio

Both our children and grandchildren have collected conkers from these old trees in our churchyard. No doubt children from countless generations have done the same. The trees were planted to celebrate the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Spring has sprung.

Furthermost east on Oscar 100

HS0AJ (Thailand) was just received via the web SDR on SSB via Oscar 100, the geosynchronous satellite. This is the furthermost east I have copied so far via this satellite. Activity on SSB seems to be gradually increasing as more stations assemble gear. He was using 2W, but I do not know the dish size. He must be on the easternmost coverage area.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

10m Es already?

10m Es can occur at any time of the year, but it tends to peak May, June, July and August here. About 30 minutes ago I QSYed to 10m FT8 and was surprised to spot EA3HDZ (1213km) as well as a couple of Gs. My own CQ (2.5W) was spotted by no-one.

I am wondering if this is Es and whether with FT8 brief patches of Es (maybe very short-lived) are spotted earlier in the season? The main bulk of long-lived Es openings don't usually start here until late April.

UPDATE 1134z: 5 stations spotted so far today on 10m FT8 RX. 4 are Gs plus the EA3.

UPDATE 1319z: Now 8 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX with F6DAY (788km) spotted around 1100z.

I keep forgetting about BST! An hour has to be taken off local time now to get GMT.

UPDATE 1538z: Now 9 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX today. All but 2 are Gs.

UPDATE 2000z: Still 9 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX today. I shall be staying on 10m FT8 RX overnight, although it is unlikely I shall spot any now until tomorrow morning.

Sunspots - Sunday March 31st 2019

Solar flux is 69 and the sunspot number zero. A=4 and K=0. Still looks like we are scooting along the bottom of the solar minimum.