Sunspots - Thursday October 24th 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the SSN 0. A=2 and K =2.

Spelling Mistakes - NOT amateur radio

From time to time I make spelling mistakes. Today as an example I had Octeober  instead of October. Most times these are simple typing errors, but occasionally I just miss these because of my 2013 stroke. Where possible these are corrected as soon as I spot them. Don't be afraid to tell me if you spot any I miss!

2m FT8

So far today, 15 stations in 6 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX, including, Ireland and Germany. This is using the FT817ND and the big-wheel omni antenna. I have not tried calling CQ yet.

AMSAT-UK Colloquium

Southgate News has a report of a recent AMSAT-UK colloquium and links are being made available on YouTube to some presentations including one on Oscar 100.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/october/report-on-eshail-2-qo-100-ham-radio-geostationary-satellite.htm

Move to groups.io

Several of my groups had a home on Yahoo, but they are winding down their groups service, so I have migrated these to groups.io.  Many people have now moved.

Starting groups "from scratch" is free in .io, whereas transferring old Yahoo groups costs $110 in the first year. I started new groups and asked people to transfer files and photos they believe are needed, but to keep the size to a minimum. The historical messages will be lost though.

See https://groups.io/

Sunspots - Wednesday October 23rd 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the sunspot number 0.  A=3 and K=0.

Cactus Day - NOT amateur radio

Our younger grandson is quite creative. Here he is with his little sister baking the cake to celebrate Cactus Day (see photo).

In case you are wondering what Cactus Day is, it was invented by his little sister on October 22nd last year, inspired by a cactus on a cardboard box.

It is now an annual event!

Windose Defender Crappery - NOT amateur radio

Recently Windose 10 did a big update. When I tried to log into Windows Defender all appears to have changed. It is no longer clear if Windows Defender is trying to protect things or not. In the past this was very clear and it told me that my other anti-virus program was providing protection.

This was sneaked in without my knowledge. I am getting more "big brother" conscious than ever.

Microsoft, just what are you playing at? If you intend to make things worse, just tell us!! We are grown up!  When it works, Windows 10 is good, but if it is so darn good why is it forever changing?

Licking the bowl - NOT amateur radio

After baking a cake earlier, 2 of our grandchildren busy licking the bowl!

2m FT8

Just before 1000z, I switched on 2m FT8 again using 2.5W to the big-wheel omni. Already 6 stations in 4 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX. My own CQ call on FT8 was spotted by 4 stations in 2 countries with my best DX on 2m FT8 TX being GI6ATZ (479km).

UPDATE 1545z: Currently 37 stations in 7 countries spotted today on 2m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2151z: Now 65 stations in 9 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX today. Off to bed now, but still monitoring 2m FT8 RX.