Sunspots - Monday June 24th 2019

Solar flux is 67 and the sunspot number zero. A=3 and K=2. Still pretty poor. It will be interesting to see the Solan forecast next month.

2m big wheel antenna

For several years now I have been using a big-wheel horizontal omni-directional antenna. This has a few dB of gain and does not need a rotator.

With 2.5W SSB it regularly gets me 200km in the Tuesday evening UKAC activity contests organised by the RSGB. On FT8 my QRP CQs are regularly copied in Cornwall under flat conditions. Most days, I spot stations in 7 countries by aircraft reflection on 2m FT8. What surprised me was it is quite effective on 70cm SSB. Most sessions my 70cm QRP is copied over 100km.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/bigwheel

Classic car day - NOT amateur radio

Today, the museum across the road from us held its classic car day, when lots of classic cars visit. Mostly the weather was warm and sunny.

Nero fiddles and Rome burns - NOT amateur radio

Whilst there is the risk of war in the Middle East and the EU is in crisis over the loss of a major member, what does the UK do? We spend weeks deciding who will be the next leader of one major party who, by default, becomes the next Prime Minister and hence the most important person in the UK. There are 2 candidates left, neither of whom exactly fills me with excitement.

Personally, I think UK politics is in a mess. It is my view that we are, in the main, run by idiots in all parties who are more interested in their own careers than the greater good of the UK or world. There may be some exceptions, although I am struggling to think of them.

BBQ - NOT amateur radio

Most of the afternoon has been spent with old friends enjoying a BBQ. It started off sunny, but got cloudier. In the UK we need good weather to eat outside.

It was good to eat with old friends. Some have moved 100 miles away and we see them less frequently these days.

Oscar 100

It is now several months since this geostationary amateur satellite became operational. To get active most have to put together a 2.4GHz TX and a 10GHz RX as well as either 1 or 2 dishes pointing in the right direction. There are no "cheque book" amateur radio solutions. It is possible to repurpose some WiFi bits. Activity levels seem to be no higher than a few months ago.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Sea scout - NOT amateur radio

The photo here was taken almost 100 years ago and shows my dad in Salcombe, Devon, UK.

As someone pointed out, this could well be posted for the photographer! It does look posed.

My dad died in 1987.

War by accident? - NOT amateur radio

Probably Iran and the USA do not want outright war. However, the chance of one side miscalculating the actions of the other is quite high. President Trump is a "loose cannon" and sometimes acts irrationally. Iran is not exactly a peaceful and loving nation. I am sure behind the scenes both sides are actively engaged in cyber war.

Although Iran is far from perfect, I personally think Trump is like a little boy with a can of petrol and a box of matches.

6m FT8 RX

So far this morning (it is now 0920z) 56 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX. All of these are Europeans and most of these are via Es.

UPDATE 1704z: So far today 167 stations, mostly Europeans, spotted on 6m FT8 RX. Nothing by way of "real DX" spotted.

Still the pits. Sunspots - Sunday June 23rd 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the SSN 0 still. A=4 and K=1.

At the moment we are heading for a spotless month.