Quite often I report that a rally has been cancelled or postponed, so it is good to report on rallies that are on for a change.
Yesterday I had an email suggesting the Kings Lynn Rally and Wiltshire Radio and Car Boot Sale are taking place this Sunday August 1st.
I suggest you ensure this is correct before setting out.
I got mine second hand in 1979. It was a 10W SSB and CW rig covering all bands from 80-10m (no WARC bands then!), but with limited 10m coverage. With it, and wire dipoles, I worked DXCC QRP SSB on 10m. It ranks as one of the very best radios I have ever owned.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/yaesu-ft7 .
After a very brief period with 2.5W TX (3 G spots), I am again on 6m FT8 RX with the V2000 vertical omni antenna. So far, nobody spotted on RX.
UPDATE 0901z: 3 RX spots so far with the furthermost DK8NE (702km).
UPDATE 1202z: 62 stations spotted so far, all in Europe and Africa, probably Es.
UPDATE 1412z: 74 stations spotted on RX today. As far as 6m is concerned, there is still Es about, but there seems to be less of it.
UPDATE 2107z: 124 stations spotted on 6m FT8 today with the furthermost KP4EIT (6834km) in Puerto Rico. I am convinced this is E layer, but not multi-hop Es. We have some other E layer propagation that we do not yet understand. Now QRT.
Since about 0818z, I have been on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW W5OLF TX beacon. No spots of me yet today.
UPDATE 1155z: 4 unique stations have spotted me, with many multiple times.
UPDATE 1323z: 7 unique stations spotted. Yesterday, FY5KE (7110km) in South America spotted me an incredible 78 times! What I find amazing is just how strong signals can be. For example DL2JA (919km) was getting my 500mW at +2dB S/N. This suggests he could have copied my if I was running less than 1uW.
UPDATE 1801z: 12 unique stations have spotted me.
UPDATE 1939z: 29 stations have spotted my 500mW with an incredible +15dB S/N from DK6UG.
UPDATE 2024z: 30 stations have spotted me with the furthermost FY5KE (7110km). QRT soon.
They do pasties by post - very tempting. However, this service is currently unavailable probably as a result of the pandemic.
Pasties were the food of miners in Cornwall. One half was savoury and the other half sweet. The format allowed miners to hold their whole meal in their hands.
Lovely!
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/non-amateur-radio/pasties .
These days, I prefer to look at FT8 and WSPR activity, but some still prefer to monitor beacons.
This link was on John EI7GL's blog. It shows 10m beacons as well as other HF and MF beacons.
My 17m QRP FT8 (about 4W) was turned on at about 1618z. Within a few minutes, I was spotted by 33 stations, See map.
