Sunspots - Monday May 9th 2022

 Solar flux is 119 and the SSN 89.  A=6 and K=3.

Transatlantic 2m beacon stopped

EI2DKH, the Irish transatlantic 2m beacon is off air according to the EI7GL blog. This is partly due to the site and cost of electricity as well as no reports in 7 years. I have recommended the use of FT8 if the beacon is re-sited. This works with fleeting signals weaker than CW.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ .

Simple SSB

Steve G1KQH just pointed me to this inspiring video. Thinking about simple, low cost SSB rigs for 10m, there must be some great ideas here!

6m good

Better equipped 6m stations are working some remarkable distances.  There have been openings from Europe to South Africa and South America and reports of even further contacts.  Although these  could involve F2, the N-S QSOs are probably a combination of Es and TEP.

They don't call 6m (50MHz) the "magic band" without reason. With the right combination of propagation almost anything seems possible. Even with a very simple vertical antenna and 1W I have worked the USA on 6m QRP CW.

FT8 is an ideal mode as it is widely monitored on 50.313 MHz and works with fleeting signals much weaker than CW.

UPDATE 1948z:  6m opened to the USA this afternoon. 

10m WSPR (Sunday)

My 500mW 10m TX WSPR beacon was turned on at 0830z. Nobody has spotted me yet.

UPDATE 1155z:  Still no spots of me today. 13 unique spots on 10m WSPR of my QRP in the last day mostly by Es.

UPDATE 1452z:  Plenty of spots from the Canary Is now.

UPDATE 1850z: 3 unique stations spotting me. It seems the Canary Is stations nearly always spot me if they are on.

Special stations? National Mills Weekend

This weekend is National Mills Weekend in the UK. Many mills in the UK will have special event stations as part of this event. Watch out for special UK stations and QSLs from UK stations operating at mills. Our local museum an windmill have free entry. The photo shows the windmill next door.

See https://burwellmuseum.org.uk/

8m experiment (Sunday)

The last couple of days have been quite good on 8m with new stations spotted and an exchange of reports with a station in Slovenia. Later this morning I will be on FT8 TX on 40.680 MHz USB dial. 

UPDATE 0832z:  FT8 TX (40.680 first) turned on at 0829z.

UPDATE 1125z:  Just EI9KP (649km) spotted on 8m FT8 RX today. No spots of me.

South Devon - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows where I come from in South Devon. It is very beautiful. 

Sunspots - Sunday May 8th 2022

 Solar flux is 118 and the SSN 66.  A=3 and K=2. 

Shelley tea service - NOT amateur radio

 

My mother-in-law bought this bone China tea service before her wedding in 1937. There are more cups and saucers.