Rally

Sunday 26 MAY : DURHAM DISTRICT ARS RADIO RALLY

Bowburn Community Association, Durham Road, Bowburn, Co. Durham DH6 5AT. Doors open 10.10am to 2.30am with disabled visitors gaining access at 10am. Admittance is £2. There will be traders, a Bring & Buy as well as an RSGB bookstall and Special Interest Groups. Catering and a licensed bar is on site. Contact Michael Wright, G7TWX, 07826 924 1192, g7twx@mickwright.f9.co.uk.

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

2m FT8

Overnight, I remained on 2m FT8 RX.

This morning, so far (last 6 hours), 11 stations in 6 countries spotted so far.

UPDATE 1056z: Now 16 stations in 6 countries spotted this morning on 2m FT8 RX. Think I shall QSY to 6m shortly.

Sunspots - Thursday May 23rd 2019

Solar flux is a dire 67 and the sunspot number 0. A=4 and K=1.

2m FT8

Shortly before 1900z, I switched to 2m FT8 RX. So far this evening 17 stations in 3 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX.

Chelsea Flower Show - NOT amateur radio

For our 70th birthdays, my brother-in-law bought us tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show.This is the most famous flower show in the UK. We went by train and tube. It was surprisingly busy. The flowers were amazing.

Not much missed

The ARRL does a daily roundup of the Dayton Hamvention. The last was on Sunday. I don't think I missed much.

See http://www.arrl.org/news/hamvention-2019-sunday-roundup .

Dayton Roundup

Southgate News has a link to photos of the Dayton Hamvention in the USA. Although still to check, I don't think I missed big announcements from the Japanese companies. The photos again confirm this is (mainly) a male hobby. I suspect that "old" men are less likely to attend. Of course, Elecraft made big play of their new K4 transceiver.

Sunspots - Wednesday may 22nd 2019

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN still 0. A=4 and K=0.

OFCOM - zzzzz

Excuse me as I have a quick snooze.....

OFCOM has published some statutory instruments in connection with some spectrum actions. Such exciting stuff I nearly fell of my chair!! Maybe I should read this in Welsh?

6m FT8

A short while ago I moved from 2m to 6m FT8 calling CQ (2.5W to the vertical omni) initially. Although no QSOs resulted, I was spotted by 4 stations with the best spotting me being M0BEW (194km).

So far, only 7 G stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1748z: Clearly some Es this teatime with 108 stations now spotted on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2129z: In the end 129 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX.