Expensive garden furniture - NOT amateur radio

This was on sale in Cambridge earlier. At not much less than £10k I don't think I shall be rushing out! It is a garden pod complete with padded seats.

15m FT8

A few moments ago, I switched to 15m FT8 after being QRT overnight. As of now (1000z) no spots given or received. I am using 2.5W from the FT817ND and the tiny loop on the windowsill again.

UPDATE 1645z: So far today 34 stations spotted on 15m FT8 with the best DX being ZS2EZ (9900km) in Eastern Cape. My 2.5W to the tiny loop was spotted by 5B60ALJ (3185km). Nobody has spotted me now since early afternoon.

UPDATE  1736z: Soon be time to go QRT on 15m.

Sunspots - Tuesday March 3rd 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A =5 and K=1.

Village walk - NOT amateur radio

We went for a walk around the village today. The sky was spectacular.

Spring promises - NOT amateur radio

Everywhere we look now there are signs of spring. New buds on trees, blossom and, of course, as the photo shows, daffodils. According to the UK Met Office it is already spring.

15m FT8

About 5 minutes ago I went on 15m FT8 again. Guess what antenna? The tiny loop! No spots given or received yet. Using the FT817ND at 2.5W as yesterday.

UPDATE 1148z: No spots of me yet. 2 spots on RX so far with best DX OD5ZZ (3438km).

UPDATE 1403z: 14 stations spotted on RX so far. No TX spots.

UPDATE 1610z: 34 stations spotted and one European spotting my 2.5W.

UPDATE 2230z: Now QRT. Just a single TX spot. On 15m FT8 RX 48 stations spotted with best DX spotted being LU2DAJ (11212km).

My tiny indoor loop

As I have been asked about this, here are some details.

It has been used for 20m,17m and 15m. with powers up to just over 10W. It should work even better on 12m and 10m. This was a gift many years ago from the people who designed the Whizz Whip.  I have to admit that it works far better than I expected. As you know, it is tiny and just sits on the windowsill of the shack.

My main issue is getting a good match on the FT991A: if the SWR is too high the auto ATU just gives up, so my technique is to connect it first to the FT817ND on AM, tune initially for maximum noise, then tune the loop for lowest SWR then connect to the FT991A and engage auto-ATU. This seems to work just fine. Of course, with the FT817ND I just tune for lowest SWR. When tuned, the SWR is very low.

It looks like the match is made with a tapped toroid which is part of a tuned circuit. Being a loop, it is narrow band. With a thicker loop it could be even better, but even more sharply tuned.

Solar forecast page updated

My favourite website for solar forecasts was updated yesterday.

See https://www.solen.info/solar/

Sunspots - Monday March 2nd 2020

Solar flux is 69 and the sunspot number 0. A=8 and K=1. This is the first time solar flux has dipped below 70 in some time.

What is the best HF band at the moment?

Some people ask what is the best HF band currently? I guess this depends on what you are after. In terms of the best daylight band I guess 20m or 17m. Later in the day, lower frequencies are better. 17m has the advantage of being less busy than 20m and the antennas are smaller. However, it will close to DX sooner than 20m.

If you have time and patience, 15m, 12m and 10m can open for DX far more often than people think, especially on N-S paths. Es can liven up 10m and 6m at any part of the solar cycle in May, June, July and August. Es openings can occur at any time but tend to be best in these months.