Rally

Sunday 21 JULY : FINNINGLEY ARS RALLY

The Hurst Communications Centre, Belton Road , Sandtoft, Doncaster DN8 5SX. Doors open 10am. Free parking. Massive indoor / outdoor traders area with major traders and club stalls from microwave components to QRP kits. Hot food and drinks all day. Admission £3. Contact Kevin G3AAF on 07831 614640 or email Kevin.Avery@tunstall.com.

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

Brittany circus - NOT amateur radio

As some may recall, my wife and I spent a few days with our French "outlaws" in northern Brittany. These are our son's French in-laws. We had a lovely few days there.

On one of our trips we passed this circus complete with strange animals.

6m FT8

It is 0825z. I am about to go on 6m FT8. At first it will probably be RX only although I might try TX later.

Dangerous storms seem a very long way away.

UPDATE 0840z: As there was no Es evident here, I called CQ. No QSOs resulted but reports from 12 stations with my best DX report coming from G7RAU (461km) in Cornwall. All reports were from Gs. Still using the V2000 vertical omni antenna.

UPDATE 1107z: Now 10 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX. Interestingly just a couple of Finns copied by Es. Seems to re-enforce my view that more northerly stations seem to dominate later in the Es season.

UPDATE 1512z: 22 stations spotted including 3 which are probably Es, all in a NE direction.

UPDATE 1843z: Now 31 stations in 4 countries spotted on 6m FT8 RX today.  All of these are G or NE Europe.

Sunspots - Thursday July 18th 2019

Solar flux is 67 and the SSN still zero. A=7 and K=1. Still the pits!

YouTube puzzle

Today I had an email from someone who could not access a YouTube video of mine referenced in my recent RSGB RadCom article. When I first tried it said "video unavailable". I tried again typing the link in the article and all was fine. It said the video had had 240 views.

The person tried 3 times again without success. So I tried again, this time as my wife with her ID on her iPad, typing in the precise link in the RadCom article. No problems except it now said 2416 views!

So, I am totally baffled why the views seem to differ so much and why there should be access issues. By the way, I checked the video was definitely "public" and not "private" or "unlisted". All very odd.

2m FT8

About 25 minutes ago I switched from 6m FT8 to 2m FT8. My 2m FT8 CQ call was spotted by 12 stations in 4 countries with the best DX being a spot by GI6ATZ (479km) near Belfast. Antenna is still the big-wheel omni.

On RX 5 stations so far spotted with best DX being DO9JF (560km) in the Saar area of Germany.

2m FT8 RX in the last 
few hours to 1924z.

UPDATE 1924z: 48 stations in 6 countries spotted in the last 6 hours on 2m FT8 RX and 19 stations spotted my 2m FT8 TX CQ. 2 QSOs resulted. At the moment I am RX only.

UPDATE 2107z: Now 50 stations in 6 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX today with best DX spotted DJ6AG (689km). Soon be time to go QRT and unplug things.

UPDATE 2120z: Now QRT.

Es to northern Europe

In an earlier post I mentioned that more northerly stations seemed to be more predominant later in the Es season. This is based on nothing scientific, but 6m FT8 RX results today are predominantly from northern Europe.

If this observation is true I have absolutely no idea why. Regarding E layer propagation, I am sure there is a lot still to learn, especially regarding "real DX", by which I mean really long distances outside Europe such as to Japan, the Caribbean or North America. 

In my view multi-hop Es does not fit these "real DX" cases. I may be wrong.

Moorhen - NOT amateur radio

We visit nearby Anglesey Abbey most months. This moorhen was on the mill leet.

New release of WSJT-X with FT4

According to Southgate News there is new release of this free software that includes FT4. I shall have to download it as I was waiting for the fully released version.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/july/new-wsjt-x-with-ft4-released.htm

6m FT8

Although it is only 0850z, quite a bit of Es on 6m. As I suggested in an earlier post, more northerly stations seem more abundant.  Best DX on 6m FT8 RX is LA1PHA (1704km).

UPDATE 1215z: So far today 73 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX.