The site I always look at for the latest data is still showing the peak of this solar cycle in November 2023, i.e. this year. The information was only updated today.
1 Apr 2023
Sign of the times - NOT amateur radio
We have had more cold weather this winter than for a long time. We have also had lots of potholes in the roads! I suspect that councils are trying to save money, perhaps by using inferior materials. As they are finding out, this is quite short sighted as potholes are reappearing in the same places!
4m FT8
Perhaps I am a sucker for punishment! Once again, I am on 4m FT8 on 70.154 MHz. No spots. Last weekend I was spotted by a few stations and had a contact on 4m FT8 with a station in Wales.
UPDATE 1627z: Still no 4m FT8 spots! I find it hard to believe that days have passed and nobody, absolutely nobody, spotted. Looking on PSKreporter, there look to be very few monitors as well.
UPDATE 1757z: Just G3SHK (200km) spotted, but he could not copy me sadly.
Rain - NOT amateur radio
Usually this is a dry part of the UK with very little rain. February was exceptionally dry, but March was exceptionally wet. I think we had more rain in March than the whole winter! We needed the rain, but March was very dull.
31 Mar 2023
23cm SSB sked with G4BAO
This was very successful. John gave me an RS58 report which was very satisfying for 2W indoors to a 2 el yagi indoors. John suggested an FT8 test at some point in the future, which I shall do. Aiming the small beam in all sorts of directions made little difference on John's signal.
Home deliveries - NOT amateur radio
Since the pandemic, many people have turned to home deliveries. We have used these services for many years. You cannot beat looking at goods in shops, but for some things the convenience of home deliveries is great. The downside is shops find it hard to compete and close. It is a very difficult decision.
Peoples' shopping habits are changing. In my view, the shops that will still be here are those that adjust to this new model, perhaps acting as showcases for goods ordered online.
Activity levels
Today was an interesting experiment. I tried 6m and 4m FT8. The difference could not be more stark. On 6m I got plenty of spots, whereas on 4m none at all. Many modern transceivers in Europe include 4m, yet activity on this great band seems very poor.
I guess people are more interested in working new DX than chatting, not that you can chat on FT8! There is no doubt amateur radio is changing. In many ways this is for the worse.
Putting a RX on 6m FT8 is more likely to have something "new" than 4m FT8 outside of the Es season. Even so, I am surprised how bad 4m seems to be. I was expecting some activity!
Unless things change, amateur radio will be gone before 2040. At the very least, it will be radically different.
UPDATE 1336z: What will the future of amateur radio look like? The short answer is I do not know! I can see national agencies like the FCC and OFCOM tiring of amateur radio. Instead I can see the allocation of callsigns being delegated to the ARRL and the RSGB. I can see this spreading across the world. I can see a time when the amateur bands that remain become a free for all, without licences, as long as no interference is caused. I can see a merging of licence free bands and amateur radio.
Wicken Fen lunch yesterday - NOT amateur radio
This was our lunch at the cafe at Wicken Fen on our walk yesterday.
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