Lenticular clouds? - NOT amateur radio

Returning home a few hours ago I spotted what seemed to be lenticular clouds below the normal rain clouds. Lenticular clouds are usually associated with mountains.

In the past I have seen them (Yorkshire Dales and Portugal), but never around here where even small hills are rare!

The photo I took hardly did justice to what I saw. If not lenticular clouds, they looked very similar. I am no cloud expert, so am happy to be told what they were. Weather was about 7 degrees C and dry.

OFCOM priorities

OFCOM has published its priorities for the year ahead. Well I guess it beats playing marbles or colouring in!!

You can tell, I am not impressed with OFCOM ever since I had personal dealings with them some years ago. At the time they were totally hopeless.  From what I can tell, they have not improved. These are my personal views and others are free to hold different views.

See their website for more details.

Sunspots - Tuesday January 7th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 11. A=9 and K=2.

160m FT8

At about 2200z I switched to 160m FT8. My 10W CQ  (to the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground) was spotted by 32 stations in 10 countries with best DX being SM0MDG (1364km).

UPDATE 2232z: 38 stations in 11 countries have now spotted my 10W FT8 CQ, but no QSOs resulted.  On 160m FT8 RX, the first North Americans are coming through.

Early days

When I first started in amateur radio as a G8 back in the late 1960s I used to operate the station of Bill Honeywill G4PJ (Salcombe) under supervision. One of the stations we regularly worked was G3SCW.

Southgate News has a piece on a BBC archive film that includes a bit on his stations (railway and amateur radio!).

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/january/amateur-radio-at-a-railway-station-with-no-trains.htm#.XhOAofKTLnE

Rummy - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday the last of our grandchildren went home. On the final morning we played the card game "rummy" as the photo shows.

2m FT8

Stations spotted on 2m
FT8 today until 1916z

All day I have been on 2m FT8. On TX (10W to the big-wheel omni) both G8OFA and GI6ATZ  (479km) worked. On RX 73 stations in 9 countries spotted.

UPDATE 1910z: 83 stations in 8 countries spotted today on 2m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1955z: A recent CQ resulted in 1 QSO and 14 spots in 3 countries on 2m FT8 TX.

Sunspots - Monday January 6th 2020

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 11. A=9 and K=0.

Going home - NOT amateur radio

After a busy week with grandchildren, they have all returned home. The last 2 were picked up this afternoon, so our house is quiet (and tidy!) again.

We took down all the Christmas decorations earlier. In many ways we prefer it when they are here, but I was exhausted by the end.  They are harder work than a few years ago.

Amazing tropo DX on 70cm

If I work 200km on 70cm I am amazed. So how about working 4644km? That amazing DX was worked recently by G4KUX according to a piece picked up by Southgate News.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/january/g4kux-extends-432-mhz-tropo-record-to-4-644kms.htm#.XhImC-iTLnE. This has links to EI7GL's blog.