Rallies this weekend

Saturday 31 AUGUST : TELFORD HAMFEST BUILDATHON

Event to be held in the evening of 31 August in Telford. Details to follow. Contact Martyn on 01952 255 416.


1 SEPTEMBER 2019 (new venue) : TELFORD HAMFEST & G-QRP CONVENTION

Harper Adams University, near Telford, TF10 8NB. More information and e-mail details may be found on the Telford HamFest website www.telfordhamfest.org.uk or by contacting Martyn, G3UKV on 01952 255 416.

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

DRM+ at low VHF?

According to John's excellent blog, the FCC in the USA has had a request to open up 45-50MHz for DRM + broadcasts in the USA.

On a slightly different subject, I have heard of no progress on a small 8m (40MHz) allocation in Europe. There are a very few enlightened national organisations, but sadly very few!

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2019/08/fcc-petitioned-to-open-up-45-to-50-mhz.html

6m FT8 Es

Overnight I again remained on 6m FT8 RX. Already stations from all over Europe being spotted with LA9VFA (2460km) in the very far north of Norway as the best DX spotted so far.

UPDATE 1537z: So far today 138 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX, with best DX spotted being 4Z5AV (3633km) in Israel. A recent 6m FT8 CQ was just spotted by 7 G stations.

UPDATE 1924z: In the last 12 hours 132 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX. As this is fewer than earlier, it suggests there was some very early Es propagation. At the moment we are still seeing 6m Es. Usually there is some Es throughout the year with the peak in the summer.

Sunspots - Thursday August 29th 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the SSN is still zero. A=5 and K=1.

Grandchildren together - NOT amateur radio

Today for about 6 hours we had all our 4 grandchildren together. It was great.

The boys played well together as well as the girls.

My wife and I are behind.

6m FT8

6m FT8 RX today

Once again, Es on 6m FT8 has been good. As the internet returned, uploads to PSKreporter worked.

UPDATE 1910z: 390 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX today. Another great Es day on 6m. As the internet was off most of the morning I may well have spotted far more than are shown on PSKreporter maps. The maps shows the stations spotted so far today on 6m FT8 RX.

Internet back? - NOT amateur radio

About an hour ago our internet came back after about 36 hours. There was a fault preventing our box in the road getting any signal. I hope it stays on!

Luckily we had 4G phones which still worked.

Sunspots - Wednesday August 28th 2019

Solar flux is 65 and the SSN 0. A=10 and K=2.

Cooling off - NOT amateur radio

Today it felt even hotter than yesterday, but the grandkids found a way to keep cool as the photo shows.

More on the threats to 2m

You may be aware that France wants to discuss the possibility of Aeronautical Services having access to the 2m band. Apparently Germany has opposed this. This may be discussed at WRC 2023.