Sunspots - Saturday November 2nd 2019

Sunspots return!

Solar flux is 71 and the sunspot number 11. It looks as if the more active side of the sun is now visible again.  A=4 and K=0.

Revised solar data

My favourite site for solar data was updated today.  The candidate for sunspot minimum was June 2019. If correct, we can expect conditions to improve, on average, for several years. Of course, it is still too early to be sure.

See http://www.solen.info/solar/

5MHz newsletter

Southgate News reports that the 5MHz newsletter is now available for free download. I have tried 5MHz WSPR in the past.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/november/latest-edition-of-5-mhz-newsletter.htm

472kHz WSPR TX

Yet again I am on 472kHz WSPR TX for the evening and overnight running 10mW ERP. So far 10 stations have spotted me with best DX being PA3FNY (330km)

472kHz (630m) WSPR TX overnight

Not a bad night with my 10mW ERP being copied by 15 stations (see table). Norway was not reached again last night, but a fair smattering of reports.

13 of the 15 stations spotting my 

10mW ERP on 472kHz WSPR overnight

10m FT8

Today, I am on 10m FT8 with a bit more power (around 15W). A recent 10m FT8 CQ at about 0900z was spotted by no-one, but on RX a couple of stations already spotted with best DX spotted being IV3FGT (1143km) near Venice.

UPDATE 1040z: Now 8 stations in 6 countries spotted today on 10m FT8 RX with best DX spotted so far being EA8ACW (2988km). Results this morning confirm once again that many people have moved from WSPR to FT8. It also confirms that 10m is far from dead!

UPDATE 2024z: For some time now I QSYed to 630m WSPR, but today was a revelation on 10m FT8. I had 1 QSO and copied 37 stations including ZB6WN (8932km). This outside the Es season and at sunspot minimum!

Sunspots - Friday November 1st 2019

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 0. A=8 and K=3. Are we seeing the start of a slight improvement?

472kHz WSPR TX for the evening and overnight

Having turned on WSJT-X again and resynced the PC to internet time, I am back on 472kHz WSPR TX.

So far, 4 stations have spotted me so far with my 10mW ERP from my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground with best DX being a spot by 2E0ILY (209km).

Electric cars - NOT amateur radio

This has been discussed here before, but I was reminded yesterday by an old friend who is hanging on to his petrol car until he expects to buy an electric car in about 3 years' time. His comment was "electric cars are not there yet". I agree with this. Both the range needs to increase and the price has to fall.

Most days I see maybe 2 electric cars on the roads. I suspect these are early adopters or maybe eco warriors. In 10 years' time I expect we will all be driving these, but as my friend said, "they are not there yet".

I want to buy and use an electric car. Maybe in a few years? In the meantime let us stop subsidising fossil fuels and subsidise renewables instead so we are encouraged to switch.

OFCOM updates

OFCOM is consulting on spectrum trading and sharing. See their website for more details.