Dalham - NOT amateur radio

Dalham near Newmarket is a delightful village. We went for a good walk in this area this morning.

This pub is currently closed like all in this country. In the past we have eaten there.

6m FT8

Stations spotting me at 1156z

Yet again, I am puzzled. Despite just running 10W to a vertical V2000 omni fed with cheap CB coax, I have already been spotted today by 41 stations. In the same period, with a good sensitivity RX and a low noise floor, I have spotted just 12 stations. My only conclusion has to be there are far more RX stations than those on TX.

UPDATE 1156z:  Now 58 stations spotting my 6m FT8 10W so far today.

UPDATE 1855z: Now 88 spots of me.

UPDATE 1907z: For the first time in ages I am spotting more stations than are spotting me.

UPDATE 2124z: Now QRT for the night, but remaining on RX only, hoping for some transatlantic DX!

Young owls - NOT amateur radio

This is a photo of one of our grandchildren with three young owls. He is a natural with all sorts of animals.

JVC - Kenwood

How did I miss this? Apparently as long ago as 2008 these two companies merged. I had no idea!

Sunspots - Saturday May 16th 2020

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

Sub-9kHz amateur radio

One of the websites I host is the Sub 9kHz Amateur Radio page. This tries to have recent news although many times it is better to look on the .io group in case I miss things. Most work is being done in Germany.

137kHz DX

Today one of my Facebook memories was this screenshot from 2011 of my 50uW ERP signal on 137kHz as received in Holland. I had forgotten this! As I recall it was using the wire loop in the garden.

OFCOM consulting on 5G frequencies

Apparently OFCOM is consulting on the use of some spectrum for 5G services. See the OFCOM website for more details.

As you know, far more base stations are likely for 5G. It would not surprise me to see base stations on several lampposts in every street. I wonder what will happen with 5G in rural areas?

5m (60MHz) in Australia

Southgate News has some encouraging news about possible access to the 5m band in Australia.

It would be good if more administrations allowed access to the 8m (40MHz) band. At the moment there is very limited access in just a  handful of countries to 8m. Sandwiched between 10m and 6m, it would be a great band for true experimenters.

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/may/60-metres-moves-closer-in-vk.htm#.Xr6HpmjYq00

6m FT8 overnight and Friday

In the hope that there might be an opening "across the pond" I was on 6m FT8 overnight. Although there is early Es on 6m here (even at 0530z), no transatlantic signals were spotted overnight sadly. I had a funny feeling about last night, but I was wrong!

UPDATE 0740z: There must be far more people receiving 6m FT8 than transmitting. My own signal has been spotted by 23 stations yet I have only spotted 7. This is despite me only using 10W to the V2000 omni vertical antenna!

UPDATE 1200z: With 51 stations spotting me, today has been a decent day so far on 6m Es. At the moment the Es seems to be favouring northern Europe.