Modern life - NOT amateur radio

 

We have an old friend staying with us this week. The photo shows him relaxing with his paper and phone this morning. It has been dull and wet here most of the day.

Sunshine in the west - NOT amateur radio

My brother seems to have had better weather than us this weekend. 

Here it is cold, dull, windy and wet. 

There, it seems far sunnier. This photo shows him on the beach with 3 of his grandchildren.

6m FT8 today

For a short while I have been on 6m FT8 with 10W and the V2000 vertical omni. I have had spots from a couple of G stations and I have spotted 1 G.

UPDATE 1641z:  13 spots of me today. 6 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1915z:  QRT.

Yesterday on 6m FT8

Yet again we saw the benefits of FT8 on 6m. Whilst getting on with other things I was on 6m FT8. There was some Es around that would have been missed by casual listening. Some argue that FT8 is not "real radio" and  it has resulted in less chatting. I agree that many prefer FT8 these days, but it's been a godsend to me with my poor voice and does enable very modest stations to hear and work DX. 

Sunspots - Sunday September 27th 2020

 Solar flux is 73 and the SSN 0. A=20 and K=4.

Vegetables NOT amateur radio

Yesterday my wife went to a farm growing organic vegetables. It is run by people with learning difficulties. 

6m FT8 (10W to the V2000 vertical omni antenna)

As Friday was quite successful, I am again on 6m FT8.  I was even spotted in North Africa!  No spots yet at 0754z. 

At the moment I am not even getting spots from Gs, although it is early on Saturday.

UPDATE 0930z:  3 spots received on TX and 3 on RX. So far, all Gs.

UPDATE 1435z: 22 stations have spotted me today so far. Some of them seem like Es. 

UPDATE 2152z: QRT. 

Logbook of the World (LOTW)

One of my winter projects should be to find out how to use LOTW.  I see Southgate News has a link to a guide. I must read it! Although I use eQSL, I am way behind, so need to update things. 

LOTW seems the way to go in future. I may transfer some of my old QSOs when I join. I can't do them all as this could take days and days!

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/september/lotw-user-guide.htm#.X27tsd7Yq00

Sunspots - Saturday September 26th 2020

Solar flux is 73 and the SSN 11. A=20 and K=4.

2m FT8

At about 1900z I QSYed to 2m FT8. Already a QSO with a station in Brittany and my 10W to the big-wheel omni spotted by 15 stations in 4 countries.

UPDATE 2117z:  26 stations in 5 countries have spotted me so far, as well as several QSOs on 2m FT8.