Shopping - NOT amateur radio

Every Tuesday morning my wife drives to a nearby supermarket in their "geriatric hour" (between 7-8am). It is always very safe and very quiet when she goes.

She now has to wear a face covering by law.

20m WSPR buoy

Some weeks ago a High School group in the USA launched a marine buoy with a 20m WSPR beacon on board. It moves with ocean currents.

I am not sure if it has been copied in Europe or what power it runs. It is in the Pacific Ocean off California.

It can be tracked using https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FKQ6RS-1&others=1&timerange=604800&tail=3600

Sunspots - Wednesday July 29th 2020

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 22.   A=4 and K=2. Encouraging signs or just a blip?

2m FT8

As the Es seems to have stopped on 6m, I have QSYed to 2m FT8 instead. I QSYed at about 1800z. Already spotted by 9 stations, all in the UK.

UPDATE 1928z:  Now spotted by 29 stations in 6 countries with 1 QSO with a French station. Still just running 10W and the big-wheel omni antenna. Best DX on TX is a spot by DK1VC (503km). Not bad with 10W and an omni antenna! Although some put this down to aircraft scatter I am definitely not convinced. These sort of ranges seem possible at any time, not when there are aircraft in the right place at the right time. I think this is some other form of scatter made possible by running FT8.

10m WSPR TX (500mW to the indoor loop)

Since very early, I have been on 10m WSPR TX. Even at 1753z, I have had not a single spot today so far.

UPDATE 1930z:  Still no spots of me! This must be one of the worst days for me this Es season. I think chances are better with FT8. There is far more activity on FT8 than WSPR these days.

UPDATE 2045z:  QRT. No spots all day.

6m FT8

Since before breakfast, I have been on 6m FT8. It is now 1748z. In all, I have been spotted by 67 stations with a few QSOs. On RX 82 stations spotted.

By accident I seem to have deleted my earlier blog piece about 6m FT8 along with Keith's comment.  Please accept my apologies!

Keith G0RQQ had said...

"I managed to work TF8KY on 6m, both FT8 and SSB around 1:00pm. At times he was S9 here, although my antenna is only an end-fed half-wave for 40m about 1.5m agl. He and his son TF8TY are the only amateurs in grid square HP83."

Shack

The photo, which has been on before, shows the shack as it is currently. The 10m magnetic loop is on the left. It has been on 10m WSPR TX all day (500mW) , but has not been spotted yet. Hopefully there will be some spots before I go QRT later.  It works far better than expected. 

Operating is from the desk on the right and what building I do (little these days sadly) is on the work surface straight ahead. 

Local bakers - NOT amateur radio

Every Tuesday at 7am I do a trip to the local bakers. At that time it is very quiet. I usually buy rolls and pasties. The photo shows the shop just as it opened.

OFCOM and trains

OFCOM is trying to improve broadband on trains and is considering releasing some more microwave frequencies (sorry, airwaves) to enable this. See the OFCOM website for more details.

I see they always have this in Welsh too. Why not Urdu or some African languages too? Or Gaelic maybe? Translating from English to some strange language would keep someone busy and beat real RF work any day.  Oh, make sure the person has a different colour skin and one leg and is non-binary. This gives you even more browny points for diversity.

Cynical? Me?

Chinese lanterns - NOT amateur radio

These plants are usually associated with autumn, but we saw these on our walk on Sunday, which is pretty early in the year.

They are very colourful and attractive plants.