South Devon - NOT amateur radio

As many know, I was born and brought up in South Devon. The photo shows where I come from. We owned land near here in 1427 and can trace our family history continuously back to the mid 1500s.

Sunspots - Monday February 24th 2020

Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=2.

160m FT8 RX

A few moments ago I QSYed to 160m FT8 RX from 2m. Once again I am using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.  At the moment 26 stations spotted. So far, the best DX spotted is OX3LX (3317km).

Daft video - NOT amateur radio

It is amazing how tech savvy our 8 year old grandchild is compared with us. This is a video of me that she made yesterday.

Trump and another 4 years - NOT amateur radio

Looking at the USA from a European perspective President Trump seems a disaster. He comes across as inept, stupid, and a poor choice. However, he was elected and the US economy looks quite good. The most likely candidate to stand against him is 78 years old I believe and had a heart attack last year I think.

It seems to me as if President Trump could get another 4 years in office. Personally I cannot understand how he could have been chosen. Maybe the voters who voted for him wanted to be listened to and these people were fed up with their leaders in the past.

Waters and Stanton on YouTube

Waters and Stanton, who seem to have teamed up with Nevada these days, have a YouTube channel with some interesting videos including this one.

Family - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows my wife with one of our sons and two of our grandchildren.

Quiet again - NOT amateur radio

We love seeing all our little grandchildren.  As they have all gone home, our house is quiet again.

The photo shows one of our grandchildren making a film yesterday. She is 8 and far more PC savvy than her grandparents!

2m FT8 yesterday and today

It is sad when 2m FT8 DX goes unreported. A brief 10W FT8 CQ yesterday was widely spotted. Later today I shall probably try 2m FT8 again.

UPDATE 1212z:  A brief 2m FT8 CQ was spotted by 16 stations with 1 2-way  G QSO. As usual running 10W to the big-wheel omni antenna. Best DX was a spot by DF0MU (475km).

UPDATE 1522z: So far today, 28 stations in 4 countries have spotted my 10W FT8 signal on 2m. 4 QSOs have resulted.

UPDATE 1800z: 34 stations in 7 countries have spotted me today so far.

Stations spotting me 

today on 2m FT8 TX 

80m WSPR with the ferrite rod antenna

In all, 46 stations were spotted on 80m WSPR using the ferrite rod antenna. Just one station spotted my 2.5W. There was far more 80m WSPR activity than I expected.  See table below:

80m WSPR spots with
the ferrite rod antenna