Overnight on 160m FT8 RX

Quite a decent night on 160m FT8 RX with 763 stations spotted including 16 North American stations and 2 South Americans.

Stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX overnight 

UK Rallies

The following UK rallies are occurring this weekend:

Saturday 1 FEBRUARY : BARRY ARS TABLE TOP RALLY

The Wilton Lounge, Sully Sports & Leisure Club, South Road, Sully CF64 5SP. Doors open 10am to 2pm. Entry £2 under 18s free, single pitch £10, traders £25 (tables included). There will be 2nd hand radio, computer and electronics and there is a close unloading point for traders and ample parking. Catering and a bar will be available. Nigel, GW1CUQ, gw1cuq@gmail.com.


Sunday 2 FEBRUARY : SOUTH ESSEX ARS 36th CANVEY RADIO & ELECTRONICS RALLY

Cornelius Vermuyden School, Dinant Avenue, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 9QS. Talk in on 145.550MHz. Free car parking and easy level ground floor access to two large halls. Doors open at 10am, disabled visitors 9.45am. Admission is £3, children under 10 free. Tea, coffee and soft drinks will be available, as well as bacon butties. There will be radio, computing and electronics traders. More details from Tony, G0JYI, via tony@tonystreet.net.


A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

Sunspots - Friday January 31st 2020

Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 11.  A=12 and K=2.

At the moment, it looks like we have just passed the solar minimum, although we will need several more months to be sure. It will be interesting to see what my favourite solar website has to say in a few days time.

Return to 160m FT8

Crowded 160m FT8!

Trying to find a space to call CQ on 160m FT8 with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground this evening was hard even though most FT8 signals are just 50Hz wide. I have never, ever, seen it so busy (see first photo).

My 10W FT8 CQ resulted in no QSOs, but was spotted by 21 stations throughout western Europe (see second photo).

Spots of my 10W FT8 160m CQ just now

Best DX on 160m FT8 RX so far is RV0AR (5577km).

UPDATE 2210z: The first North American spotted was WU1ITU (4862km) at 2142z.

481THz beacon

It is some years since I designed my optical gear. This is a photo of my beacon TX which was copied well over the horizon.

Other bands with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground

Just for fun yesterday, I tried (not very hard) to use my earth-electrode "antenna" on 40m and 30m FT8. Using the auto-ATU in the FT991A I tried to get a good match. On both 40m and 30m the SWR was too high, so it failed to even try! On 40m FT8 RX it was still seeing plenty of spots even so.

At some point I must try the unun in my x80 to load up the coax to my big-wheel antenna. With the auto ATU in the FT991A it may match on some bands.

G3TFX yesterday

Richard lives in the same village and often pops in.

Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

My wife made this collage yesterday when she went to her U3AC course in the city. It is beautiful and all too easy to take it for granted. The bikes in the bottom photo are typical of Cambridge.

160m FT8 overnight

Overnight I returned to 160m FT8 RX with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. It was an average session with just under 600 stations spotted with just 5 North Americans, 1 Caribbean and no South Americans.  Best DX spotted was KV4FZ (6762km).

Stations spotted overnight on 160m FT8 RX

Sunspots - Thursday January 30th 2020

Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 11. A=9 and K=2.