FT8 amazes me.
DX spots seem possible with QRP and omni antennas at any time with this mode on 2m. If activity was higher, this would probably be true on 70cm and 23cm. My suspicion is this is troposcatter made possible by the ability of FT8 to work with incredibly weak signals.
In my view, FT8 is a game changer.
The following rallies have been notified to me:
Sunday August 21st - Rugby Amateur Transmitting Society. Contact rally@rugbyrats.co.uk .Sunday August 21st Red Rose Rally. Contact rally@wmrc.co.uk .
As always, check with organisers before going any distance.
I have no wish whatsoever to make any money. If I get any donations at all, they will go to the local foodbank.
I was hoping to link to issue 2, but for some reason the link still goes to issue 1! I am working on this. My idea was this link would always take you to the latest version. If you know why this does not work, please tell me. Maybe this is a "feature" of the tinyurl?
Gear turned on at about 0836z (500mW TX beacon). No spots at 0848z.
UPDATE 1042z: Still just the 3 spots earlier, which looked like a burst of Es.
For the last few days people have been reporting my QRP 8m FT8 TX on 40.680 MHz USB dial. So, I shall be on again after breakfast. Es is less frequent, but still there most days.
UPDATE 1046z: Gear turned on at 0836z. No spots.
UPDATE 1703z: No spots all day.
As 8m QRP FT8 was not good, I have QSYed to 10m QRP FT8. Compared to 10m WSPR, it appears like a different band with lots of F2 DX from Africa on RX including 7Q7 and ZD7 (I do not think they are uploading to PSKreporter).
