Sunspots - Tuesday October 22nd 2019

Solar flux is 64 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=0. As far as I am aware this is the lowest solar flux this solar minimum.

BREXIT deal near? - NOT amateur radio

The UK pound continues to appreciate in value against the euro. It seems the currency markets have already assumed a deal will be done, even if there are delays. I am not sure if this is or is not good for the UK, but many will prefer certainty.

Orionid meteors

We are reaching the peak of the Orionid meteor shower. These are the result of Halley's comet. I have no idea how good this shower is at enhancing 2m propagation.

Making parkin - NOT amateur radio

Our younger grandson making parkin in our kitchen with my wife earlier. He loves it! Eating and making I mean.

Breakfast - NOT amateur radio

One of our sons is staying with us for a few days. Here he is at breakfast with his two children.

Oscar 100 geostationary satellite

As regular blog readers know, every few weeks I look at activity levels on this satellite. At the moment activity looks similar to a month ago. I am certainly still seeing plenty of space on the narrowband transponder.

It would appear many people enjoy the challenge of getting a signal through the satellite, then lose interest. If all those who had gear were on, it could get quite busy considering the footprint. By now, I was expecting it to be very busy, although the lack of black boxes may keep numbers moderate.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Yet again on 2m FT8

At the moment I am on 2m FT8 RX.

In the last 6 hours 9 station in 4 countries spotted including the Isle of Man and Germany. Best DX so far today on 2m FT8 RX is DJ9IE (515km). 2m FT8 never fails!

UPDATE 1929z: Today, 26 stations in 7 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX. For some reason my time server (not the internet) is not working so nothing spotted in recent minutes.

Sunspots - Monday October 21st 2019

Solar flux is 65 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=3.

Singing - NOT amateur radio

Our granddaughter loves singing. Here she is in our lounge - singing and dancing.

Web SDRs

This was mentioned not long ago, but if you are unfamiliar with web based SDRs I recommend them. It is like a window on the world and many of these support multiple users. Great fun.

See http://www.websdr.org/ for a list of some. Martin G8JNJ knows of some others.  I think he gave links in a comment on an earlier post.