That thaw - NOT amateur radio

Last week, it was unusually cold. We had snow on the ground for a week. These days, this is almost unheard of.

Nighttime temperatures were very low indeed and some parts of the UK remained below freezing all day. Last night the thaw came and there is no snow at all left. It just went. 

Temperatures today are much milder. Probably it is 10-20 degrees Celsius milder. It is wet and windy. I prefer the sun and snow, but not the temperatures that go with it!

10m QRP FT8 (Monday)

At the moment I am RX only on 10m FT8, 178 stations (at 1205z) so far spotted. 

Initially I was getting very few spots until I realised the coax plug was shorted. Now corrected, the SWR is again very low. This could account why yesterday there were so few reports of my 500mW WSPR TX.

By mid afternoon the band was filled with USA stations as the photo shows. 

UPDATE 1544z:   773 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX. Very briefly, I went on TX for just a very short period. 4 stations in the USA spotted me, but I went back to RX only.

UPDATE 1847z:   1084 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX.

Shack - December 2013

Back in 2013 I had a stroke that put me in hospital for 3.5 months. Although I had to spent Christmas in hospital I came home for a brief visit a few days before and went in my shack for the first time since September.

Like the heating which failed due to the very cold weather last week (thankfully now fine) you don't realise how important things are until you can not have them. 

Sunspots - Monday December 19th 2022

Solar flux is 156 and the SSN 128.  A=4 and K=4.

8m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

As my 8m coax has been mended, I am again on 8m QRP FT8 with 2.5W on 40.680 MHz. 

UPDATE 2110z: No spots. Now QRT.

Sunrise - NOT amateur radio

Sunrise this morning

Today it is expected to get gradually milder. When I got up this morning there was a great sunrise. It is raining now at 1500z.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Sunday)

Today I have again been on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW from my little W5OLF beacon. Surprisingly just a single spot from YO3BN (2083km).  Odd, I usually see many more with the USA coming through by early afternoon,

UPDATE 2111z:   5 spots of me today on 10m 500mW WSPR (see table). QRT.

2m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

Much of the morning I was on 2m QRP FT8, 7 stations spotted my 2.5W to the big-wheel omni antenna and I spotted 35 stations on RX (see maps).

Stations spotted on 2m FT8 RX this morning

Stations spotting my 2.5W FT8 on 2m this morning

8m problem solved

It was the coax plug that was faulty, so issue now fixed. 

Sunspots - Sunday December 18th 2022

Solar flux is 155 and the SSN 139. A=2 and K=0.