Japan from Western Europe on 6m

As regular as clockwork, stations in western Europe make contact with Japan on 6m in June. I was reminded of this by mention of sprites in the USA on Southgate News. 

Personally I believe these Japanese openings are due to E layer ionisation as a result of noctilucent clouds.

Prince Philip dies - NOT amateur radio

Although I am not a great royalist, the death just announced today of the death of the queen's husband at 99 years of age is a sad day, especially for the queen. It is a pity he just missed his 100th birthday.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11437314 .

Oscar 100 activity

Every few weeks I take a peek at activity on the narrowband transponder of this geosynchronous satellite. My last look was the morning of Friday April 9th at 1048z. I check on the webSDR at Goonhilly. When I looked there were no stations at all active! I have never, ever seen it so quiet. 

There were a handful of stations on shortly after as the photo shows

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .

1st swallow seen - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday I saw my first swallow this year. My son saw one near here a week ago and they have been seen in Devon for a couple of weeks. Last year it was April 15th before I saw one. 

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/swallow/ .

10m FT8 RX

Today I decided to go on 10m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop antenna. No spots yet. 

UPDATE 1610z: No spots so far.

UPDATE 1830z: Just a single G spot all day.

UPDATE 2050z:  QRT.  Just 2 Gs spotted all day.

At the moment, 10m seems a bit too high for consistent DX certainly with my loop. It opens at times, but lower bands are better. 

Sunspots - Friday April 9th 2021

 Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 0.  A=4 and K=1.

QCX Mini

Also in Practical Wireless this month is an article about building the QCX mini 5W CW transceiver from Hans Summers G0UPL at QRP Labs. This is a tiny transceiver for HF with some very interesting features. It is very tiny.

See https://www.qrp-labs.com/qcxmini.html .

See also https://www.warnersgroup.co.uk/hobbies-crafts/practical-wireless/ .

St Helena 2m beacon

In PW today (May 2021) is report on the new St Helena 2m beacon ZD7GWM/B being copied in South Africa and Namibia. This is a sea path over water that is mostly warm, so some tropo ducts can be expected at times. It will be interesting to see if this is copied in South America or the Carribean.

Grandson at Dalham - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows one of our grandsons at Dalham near Newmarket earlier today.  

This is a fine avenue of trees leading up to the church.

2m AM QRP

10 years ago I had a QSO with my Fredbox transceiver on 2m AM as the photo shows. 

I still have the Fredbox, but sadly there is little AM still on 2m. 

In its day, AM was an effective mode on 2m. These days there is far less chatting. Apart from organised nets on FM and contests there is, sadly, less activity. Many now prefer the "rubber stamp" exchanges with FT8.