House plants - NOT amateur radio

My wife is very keen on house plants and we usually have several out at one time. We have had some cyclamen out for months (see photo).

10m operation

10m is one of my favourite HF bands. At the moment it not too good (mind you Es in the spring/summer months is good at any part of the sunspot cycle) but in a few years it will again be one of our very best HF bands. I suspect 10m FT8 will be transformative.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/10m_op

6m FT8

At about 1300z, I QSYed to 6m FT8. Although I called CQ at first (10W to the V2000 vertical) no spots yet on TX or RX.

UPDATE 1420z: Best DX on 6m FT8 RX today is IZ8IBB (1677km).

Good night on 160m FT8 RX

Overnight with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground 602 stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX with plenty of North Americans.

160m FT8 RX overnight 

Sunspots - Tuesday January 28th 2020

Solar flux is 73 and the SSN 12. A=3 and K=1.

160m FT8

This evening (with a break at 2000z for the East Cambridgeshire 2m net) I am on 160m FT8. My 10W CQ was spotted by 72 stations right across Europe (see photo).

6m FT8

I recently changed to 6m FT8 from 160m. As yet, just G3XDV (45km) spotting me and no spots of others apart from G3XDV.

Cookies warnings - NOT amateur radio

Recent EU laws have made it necessary to ask users permission before installing cookies. Personally I could not care less, but get very annoyed with all the pop-up messages asking my permission.  Like many, I rarely read these and just click "OK". In my view, this stupidity gone mad. You may like to think about these Chrome and Firefox extensions:

https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/

I think it is fine, but caveat emptor.

New 134GHz record

Persssonally, I found optical comms easier than microwaves as all the testgear and kit could be easily home made. According to Southgate News a new mm record has been set in Germany. They must be keen!

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/january/new-iaru-region-1-record-on-134-ghz.htm#.Xi7uK_KTLnE

160m FT8 overnight

At the moment I am having trouble accessing the PSKreporter database, so I cannot check the stations spotted overnight. It is now 0722z.

Stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX overnight 

UPDATE 0908z:  It is working now. 17 North Americans, 4 Caribbeans and 1 South American spotted. Just 280 stations spotted.