Rally

As far as I know the Sparkford Wireless Group rally near Yeovil is still on this Sunday January 2nd. Contact the organiser to confirm.

Baking time - NOT amateur radio

 

Our younger granddaughter making minced pies in the kitchen.

Super DX by E layer

Recently, there have been reports of DX contacts on 6m between New Zealand and South America. For as many late spring/early summers as I can remember there have been 6m VHF QSOs between western Europe and Japan.  All these QSOs appear to be via E layer, but I think these are too far for multi-hop Es.

My own theory is this is some sort of chordal hop E layer propagation. It always seems to be in late spring/early summer and is linked to noctilucent clouds which form in the mesosphere around this time (late June, early July in the northern hemisphere).

I get the impression that these modes may well work at far higher frequencies, possibly even microwaves.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/super-dx . 

See also John's blog at https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ .

10m WSPR QRP TX (Thursday)

 For most of the day since breakfast I have been on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW W5OLF WSPR beacon. At the moment the vast majority of spots are by EA8BFK (2880km) with a couple by local G4KPX (14km). I think the spots in the Canaries are single hop F2 as some are very strong.

ICOM IC-7300 transceiver

Although you get the impression (I may be wrong) that all UK dealers have been instructed to hold the price, it looks like there are special "gifts" being given away with the intention of attracting buyers. This is a 100W HF, 6m and 4m SDR transceiver with auto ATU.  It has (at last) some competition from Yaesu. It has proved very popular in the last few years.

6m FT8 QRP (Thursday)

After a very brief period on TX (2.5W to the V2000 vertical omni antenna- no spots of me), I am now RX only. So far after about 15 minutes (it is now 1050z)  just 1 G spotted on RX in the form of G3RIK (224km).  No winter Es evident yet here.

UPDATE 1446z:  Just 3 G spots on RX.

Family history - NOT amateur radio

My family history can be traced back to the mid 1400s. Many of my relatives are buried in this Devon village. There are some gravestones well over 200 years old. I remember having harvest festivals and my parents funerals in this church. The big building in the foreground is the old vicarage and I remember this as a child long ago. 

Sunspots - Thursday December 30th 2021

 Solar flux is 111 and the SSN 79. A=7 and K=2. 

6m FT8 QRP (Wednesday)

 At the moment I am on 6m FT8 RX. At first I was on QRP TX (2.5W to the V200 vertical with 1 spot by G0PQO (50km) and 1 G spot on RX.

UPDATE 2126z: Mostly G stations spotted as well as OY and OZ stations that might have been Es.

10m WSPR QRP TX (Wednesday)

As my 10m antenna was free, I am again on 10m WSPR with 500mW from the W5OLF beacon. I have been on since 0943z. So far, spotted by local G4KPX (14km) and EA8BFK (2880km).

Yesterday I was spotted on 10m in the USA for the first time this solar cycle on WSPR.