Sunspots - Sunday August 11th 2019

Solar flux is 67 and the sunspot number 0. A=8 and K=2.

Oscar 100 - is activity increasing?

Last night at about 2022z I took a peak at the activity on the wideband transponder of Oscar 100, the geosynchronous amateur satellite. Perhaps I was lucky but there were 10 active SSB stations, most in QSOs. Now, maybe I chanced on a good time, but this is the busiest I have ever seen on Oscar 100.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Killer electrons?

Maybe astronauts have even more to worry about.

See https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaaw1368

Chester town crier - NOT amateur radio

Last week we were in Chester.

In the photo, the town crier is in good voice. I think he makes a good tourist attraction these days.

6m FT8

As I am home again, I am on 6m FT8. Only 2 stations spotted here so far on 6m FT8 RX (Denmark and Switzerland), but I got 9 spots of my CQ call on 6m FT8 TX with the best being OY1OF (1163km) in the Faroe Is.

UPDATE 1600z: With just 4 stations spotted I think many are now leaving 6m thinking the Es season has ended.

UPDATE 1633z: In the last 25 minutes I called CQ on 6m FT8 TX. 25 spots from all over Europe (as the map shows) indicating the Es season is far from over. No QSOs resulted, which tells me many are still monitoring, but fewer are on TX.

UPDATE 1856z: Another recent 6m FT8 TX CQ call was spotted by 12 stations.

UPDATE 2012z: A recent 6m FT8 TX CQ was spotted by 6 stations right across Europe. I am convinced that many who would be on TX think the Es season is over.

Chester - NOT amateur radio

Chester is a fine city not far from Liverpool, UK.

It has many sorts of architecture and the old centre is quite compact, so easy to walk around.

It is enclosed by old city walls that one can walk around. It also has a fine cathedral.

Something for the weekend

Every weekend MLS, a UK dealer, does a promotion of some kind. This weekend, they are focusing on Yaesu.  As far as I can tell, there are no special discounts. Check their website for more details.

Perseids Meteor Shower

Southgate News reports on the Perseids Meteor Shower that reaches its peak soon.

DXing with crystal sets

Shortwave broadcasting has changed a lot in recent years as more switch to the internet to get their message across. The internet is lower cost and generally much higher quality.

Having said that you may be amazed just what can be heard on a humble crystal set on HF. A few years ago I had quite a bit of success.

There are bigger schematics and photos on the webpage below. Remember all the power comes from the TX end.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/crystalset

UK power outages - NOT amateur radio

All the public pronouncements have been that the recent UK power outages are from unexpected generator failures.

I hope this is the truth and that this isn't as a result of some malign foreign power or terrorists acting with ill intent on the software.  It seems odd (to me) that we have a major computer failure at a major airline a few days ago and now this. It will be interesting to see if a government COBRA meeting is held.

Perhaps I am being paranoid.