Sunspots - Sunday March 6th 2022

Solar flux is 120 and the SSN 95.  A=27 and K=3. 

2m FT8

After a brief period on TX with 2.5W and the big-wheel omni antenna (2 spots of me, but no QSOs), I am RX only.  No spots yet on RX. This isn't too surprising with a contest on SSB/CW.

FT8 is far more productive than calling the SSB contest stations who are probably running much higher power than me. With my poor voice I find calling other stations quite a struggle these days. I enjoy VHF contests, but they are hard work for me.

UPDATE 2137z:  2 stations spotted on RX: G4NVB (96km) and ON4JES (228km).

2m/70cm contest this weekend

 If you want to work a few more squares, this weekend is a good time. The RSGB 2m/70cm contest runs from 1400z Saturday to 1400z Sunday.

See https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/contest_rules.pl?year=2022&contest=mar144432

Learning CW

Some enjoy CW. Jason M0NYW has been learning it recently and has used some of the 10m CW beacons to improve his skills. CW can work with marginal signals far weaker than SSB ones. You might like to try too.  As these beacons repeat, they can be good for practice. No PCs needed! Just ears!

These are the stations Jason spotted:

        28201.5    SV2HNE/B KN10LL 5W ANT GP 73

        28243       F5ZWE "just repeats callsign"

        28244.6    SV2FQNB KN10FC 5W ANT GP

        28265.3    SV2RSS KN10LO GP/3W 73

        28268       VK8VF "repeats callsign and something else but hard to copy due QSB"

        28269       SV6DBG "V V V DE SV6DBG BEACON KN09KQ"

        28271.6    SV2HQD/B

Often CW rigs are far simpler to make than SSB ones.

Birthday boy - NOT amateur radio

One of our sons has a birthday next week. 

Here he is with his children at our house earlier today. 

Ely swans - NOT amateur radio

 

These swans were at Ely on Thursday.

Old G3XBM logbooks

Some may be interested to see if they appeared in some of my early logbooks. I notice these are in my Google Drive, which you may not be able to see. I shall try and share them, but if you have problems, please email me.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/other-amateur-radio/g3xbm-logbooks

10m FT8

It is now 1002z. I turned the 10m FT8 gear on at 0930z. So far, 92 stations have been spotted on 10m FT8 RX with the furthermost VK6APK (14532km).

UPDATE 1045z:  182 stations spotted with several in Western Australia.

UPDATE 1142z:  South Americans now coming through. 282 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1522z:  480 stations spotted on RX. 

10m FT8 RX today

UPDATE 1921z: 753 stations spotted.  QRT soon probably.

Sunspots - Saturday March 5th 2022

Solar flux is 113 and the SSN 77.  A=10 and K=2.

2m FT8 QRP (Friday)

At the moment I am on 2m FT8.  After a brief TX period (2.5W and the big-wheel) with 1 120km QSO, I am now RX only. On RX 8 stations have been spotted and 6 stations spotted me on QRP TX.

UPDATE 2040z:  16 stations in 6 countries spotted so far on 2m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2315z:  Now QRT. 24 stations spotted this evening.