More - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows what I think are storage batteries being erected near our electricity substation. 

Overnight on 160m FT8 QRP

Stations spotting my
160m FT8 2.5W

Once again I was on 160m FT8 with 2.5W and the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.  My signal was spotted by 32 stations with the furthermost being R7MA (2859km). The map shows where my 2.5W 160m FT8 was spotted last evening.

One QSO on 160m FT8 QRP with a German shortly before midnight. 

Just 268 stations spotted on 160m FT8 RX overnight in 5 continents. I do not use 160m often enough to know if this is conditions changing or just a bad night. 2 North Americans and 1 South American spotted.

UPDATE 1009z:  Back to daytime and just 1 G spotted!

Sunspots - Tuesday March 23rd 2021

 Solar flux is 80 and the SSN 23. A=8 and K=4.

Scam bating - NOT amateur radio

If you are like me, you are getting more scam calls that originate abroad, but use UK numbers to actually fool punters. TPS, which we have, cannot stop these I think. 

We have tunes on our phones so we know when genuine people are calling: different friends and family members have unique tunes. Everyone else is asked to leave an answerphone message. Most scammers just hang up. We work on the assumption that if it was really urgent they would leave a message or call again.

I have asked for a package on Virgin Media that may help. It is free for 30 days. We will see.

Apparently someone is working on software to waste scammers time. Great!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-56458267.

160m FT8 QRP (Monday)

About 15 minutes ago, I turned on my 2.5W to the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground on 160m FT8 TX. No spots yet. 

UPDATE 1605z:  Still no spots on RX or TX. The Europeans should start appearing soon.

UPDATE 1625z:  The first DX from Europe came through at 1614z on 160m FT8 RX. There are others starting to be spotted. Still nobody spotting me on QRP TX.

Photobooks - NOT amateur radio

Every season, my wife makes a photo book. Altogether we have 53 in addition to old albums. 

It is amazing to see how much the grandchildren have changed over the years. 

Shack sunset

The photo doesn't really do justice to the wonderful sunset last night. This was the view out of the shack window last night.

In the foreground is the shack PC with WSJT-X monitoring 160m FT8 RX. 

As you can see, there were plenty of European (later transatlantic) stations being spotted on the earth-electrode antenna at about 1845z. 

Overnight on 160m FT8 RX

Stations spotted
on 160m FT8
RX overnight

Still stations in the Americas again on 160m FT8 RX last night as the map shows.  Overall fewer stations spotted though. 

Stations spotting
me last evening
on 160m QRP FT8

On TX, I was spotted by 21 stations (2.5W to the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground) with the furthermost OE9GHV (869km), before going RX only overnight.  The other map shows the stations spotting me last evening.

Spring flowers - NOT amateur radio

The flowers in the photo were spotted by my wife a few days ago. 

We are now officially in spring by any measure. The UK Met Office counts March 1st as the first day of spring whereas the traditional start is the spring equinox.

In the weeks ahead we will see migrant birds like swallows returning.

The UK clocks change to British Summer Time (BST) next weekend.

Sunspots - Monday March 22nd 2021

 Solar flux is 77 and the SSN 12.  A=24 and K=3.