Sunspots - Sunday March 1st 2020

Solar flux is 70 and the SSN 0. A=11 and K=1.

Antivirus - NOT amateur radio

This came in today on a FaceBook message. Well, it made me laugh!

17m FT8 with the tiny indoor loop

As 15m was not great, I have QSYed down to 17m FT8. So far just a single spot of my 10W from G4FTC (124km). On 17m FT8 RX 3 spots so far.

The photo shows the loop antenna on the windowsill. The ruler is to indicate the scale. It is tiny!

UPDATE 1225z: So far today, 12 stations have spotted my 10W 17m FT8 TX.

UPDATE 1507z: So far today, my little 10W FT8 TX signal from the tiny loop on the windowsill of the shack has been spotted by 17 stations with the best DX being KV4T (4361miles) in Alabama, USA. 2 stateside stations have spotted me so far today on 17m FT8 TX.

UPDATE 1630z:  Now 18 stations have spotted me today on 17m FT8 TX. This includes 3 Stateside stations. 62 stations in 5 continents spotted so far on 17m FT8 RX today.

UPDATE 1818z: With 39 stations spotting my 10W, this is the best day so far on 17m FT8 TX. The map shows the spots so far today.

Stations spotting my 10W
17m FT8 TX today

UPDATE 2205z: Now QRT, but after an incredible day with my best DX being a spot by PY2XAT (9565km). In all, 39 spots of my 10W in 5 continents. All with a tiny indoor loop!!

Gecophone

When I retired in 2008 I was kindly bought a leaving present. Thoughtfully, it was a very old crystal set called the Gecophone. Although it is about 100 years old it still works! I have now added a page on this to my website. As you can see, it is a work of art!

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/gecophone

15m FT8

At the moment I am trying 15m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop antenna. On TX there seems to be some RF feedback into the rig, so I am not on TX. As yet, no spots on RX.

UPDATE 1105z:  Still no spots on 15m FT8 RX. I may QSY shortly.

UPDATE 1115z:  Just one OD5 spotted on 15m FT8 RX, so now QSYed to 17m FT8.

Ely Cathedral - NOT amateur radio

If this has been posted before, please accept my apologies. Some call it "the ship of the fens" and it can be seen from miles around much like Chartres in France. It is our favourite cathedral.

Typical Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

This is a typical Cambridge scene. In the foreground are bikes and the university church, Great St Mary's. In the background is the Senate House, famous for degree ceremonies. The world famous King's College Chapel is about 200m from here.

Because of the corona virus scare, there are far fewer far eastern visitors in the city. I guess this is to be expected.

Solar forecast update

We are rapidly coming to the end of winter. Very early in each month my favourite solar forecast is updated. This is usually done on the first or second day of the month.

Up to now they have put the solar minimum as happening last summer. I hope they are still right. One of the indicators is polarity changes. This can also help us in the forecast of the size of the next peak.

At the moment the "experts" are expecting the next peak to be of a similar size to the last one in cycle 24. Some were predicting a Maunder Minimum with years of no sunspots, but this now seems unlikely.

Chinese poet - NOT amateur radio

In the grounds of King's College, Cambridge is a memorial garden and statue created in 2018 to remember the Chinese poet Xu Zhimo who was a college member about 100 years ago.

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

Sunspots - Saturday February 29th 2020

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=2. Not much sign of an upturn yet!