Sunspots - Saturday July 24th 2021

Solar flux is 87 and the SSN 46. A=4 and K=2. 

8m band history

 I was totally unaware of some of the historical allocations at 8m. It seems there are historical precedents.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-meter_band .

8m USA beacon spotted on WSPR in Europe

Yesterday, I gather the WL2XUP 8m beacon was spotted in England. WSPR works with signals much weaker than FT8. No doubt EI7GL's blog will have more details shortly.

10m WSPR TX 500mW (Thursday)

A great day yesterday with reports from 60 different stations. Many reported me many times. I think this was my best day this Es season on 10m WSPR TX.  The last was a spot from the USA. I had to go QRT, but would probably have had more reports if I had stayed on.

Click on the chart to enlarge if need be.

Salcombe - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows a view very much like the view I had from my window at my junior school. It was all taken for granted. 

Looking back at my childhood in Salcombe, I had no idea how lucky I was.

10m WSPR TX 500mW (Friday)

At 0822z, my 10m WSPR beacon was turned on. 

UPDATE 1205z:   So far today, spots by 20 unique stations.

UPDATE 1304z:  I see John EI7GL spotted me 10 times with SNR varying by 8dB. This is typical of Es: sometimes signals can be incredibly strong.

6m FT8 RX yesterday

What an odd day on the Magic Band! 

More North Americans than I have spotted all summer. Remember this is just with the V2000 omni vertical antenna. In all, 633 stations spotted on 6m FT8. 

When I went on TX briefly, there was no problem being spotted all over Europe with 2.5W.

Wild flowers - NOT amateur radio

We live next door to a fully restored windmill. These wild flowers are  next to it. Stunning.

Sunspots - Friday July 23rd 2021

Solar flux is 89 and the SSN 77.  A=11 and K=1. 

Summer - NOT amateur radio

On the way to the shops yesterday morning I passed these flowers. There were lots of bees and butterflies on them. High summer.