Very successful session on 472kHz WSPR

In the last 2 weeks, 45 stations have copied my 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. Last night alone, 22 stations spotted me including 2 stations in Norway. LA2XPA (1310km) copied me 20 times last night! So, getting to Norway is no "one off" thing.

I have an oddity: G3KEV who is a very strong 472kHz WSPR signal has been received several times this morning. This is odd as my FT817ND dial says 3.6742MHz which is the input frequency for my transverter! It would appear I am receiving on 472kHz WSPR in split mode, despite what the dial says. All very odd.

Stations spotting my 472kHz WSPR 

(10mW ERP) in the last 24 hours

10m FT8

As is normal, I have QSYed to 10m FT8. My initial FT8 (2.5W) CQ call was copied by no-one and I have not yet copied anyone else.

UPDATE 1820z: Just 5 10m FT8 RX spots all day with best DX spotted RA2FL (1343km). Nothing outside Europe spotted today.

Sunspots - Sunday November 10th 2019

Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

Back to 472kHz WSPR TX (10mW ERP)

As it is dark I have again QSYed to 472kHz WSPR TX. My first 2 minute transmission was spotted by several stations. LA2XPA (1310km) has already spotted me twice, which is very early.

Windows 10 upgrades

My shack PC runs Windows 10. Up to now this has been fine.  Sadly it only has a small 32GB SSD. Despite plugging in an external hard drive temporarily is still wants 8GB of space on the C drive of the PC to install the latest upgrades. Even with removing junk I only have half of this space. I guess it means I cannot continue to upgrade Windows 10 in future.

This begs a few questions:

• What am I missing?
• Does it matter?
• How do I permanently disable windows updates to avoid these annoying messages?

If probably tells me it will soon be time to upgrade the shack PC!

UPDATE  1633z: I have just found this at  https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10, which others might find useful too. I think you can then decide whether or not to install an upgrade. I have not tried it. There may be a way to turn all Windows 10 upgrades off for ever which is probably what I need.

"To permanently disable automatic updates on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for gpedit.msc and select the top result to launch the experience.
3. Navigate to the following path: ...
4. Double-click the Configure Automatic Updates policy on the right side.
5. Check the Disabled option to turn off the policy."

Cabinda - NOT amateur radio

A bit like Kaliningrad in Russia, Cabinda is a bit of Angola cut off from the rest of the country. I guess this is one of those quirks of history. No doubt these are others too in the world I have not yet found.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinda_Province

10m FT8

For the day, I am on 10m FT8 again. My recent 2.5W CQ was spotted by no-one and there are no spots so far on RX (0933z).

UPDATE 1630z: So far 17 stations spotted with best DX ZS6S (9109km)

Quite a good session on 472kHz WSPR

Last evening and overnight I was on 472kHz WSPR TX again with the usual set-up of 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.  In all, I was spotted by 13 stations with 5 spots by LA9IY (1374km) in Norway. He seems to spot me often.

Stations spotting me on 472kHz 

WSPR (10mW ERP) overnight

.

Sunspots - Saturday November 9th 2019

Solar flux is 70 and the sunspot number still 0. A=5 and K=0.

Chrysanthemums - NOT amateur radio

Several weeks ago my wife got some cut chrysanthemums.

They still look great as the picture shows.