Sunspots - Monday May 22nd 2023

 Solar flux is 163 and the SSN 140. A=28 and K=3.

Growing up - NOT amateur radio

 

One of our sons and grandsons earlier in our back garden.

6m super DX

Several stations in Europe have worked VK8AW on 6m. This is amazing. 

I am not sure of the propagation mechanism. TEP might be involved for some of the path. This sort of DX has been worked on several days. 

8m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

As the previous post explained, I had no intention of going on 8m today! Then I saw 10m was open to Iberia, so QSYed to 8m FT8.  At 1040z, no spots.

UPDATE 1055z:  Spotted on 8m by HC02 (1808km) in southern Portugal. Hugh has been pretty dedicated - thank you Hugh.

10m QRP WSPR (Sunday)

Originally, I was going to be on 10m QRP FT8 all day. Then I noticed Es on 10m to Iberia, so I QSYed to 8m QRP FT8 and 10m QRP WSPR with my 500mW beacon. Several spots from Portugal of me on 10m WSPR  plus a local.

UPDATE 1103z:  Still just the 2 stations spotting me. It will be interesting to see if the Es moves and I get spots from others. Certainly to Portugal the Es seems a bit poorer now although this could just be QSB.

UPDATE 1108z: Now being spotted in Luxembourg by LX1DQ (504km).

More on that Belgian 8m amateur band

Details are still very sketchy, but I see John has put a bit about this on his excellent blog. We can only hope this allocation is the first of many.  There is a real case of a small amateur allocation here to encourage real research.

Personally, I would happily give up 5 kHz of any band for 5 kHz at 8m. Really, I cannot see the harm in any country allocating a small bit in the ISM band 40.66-40.70 MHz to amateurs on a secondary basis. Oh sorry, this requires brains and thinking!!  😁

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ .

Runner beans - NOT amateur radio

These are a good choice for gardens as they are (generally) easy to grow, have attractive flowers, and you eat them! I have grown them for the last few years in an otherwise wasted corner of the garden. It gets sun in the mornings.

See https://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/runner-beans/grow-your-own .

Sunflowers - NOT amateur radio

These are fun to grow.  A few days ago I put 12 seeds in a propagator. They germinated very fast and want potting on, before going outside. They can grow very tall. The birds love the seeds at the end.

See  https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/helianthus/growing-guide. 

10m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

 At the moment I am on 10m FT8 with the tiny QDX transceiver running under 5W. It has been on since about 0830z. It is now 0837z and, so far, 3 stations spotted and 1 has spotted me, all in Spain, presumably via Es.

UPDATE 1551z: After a period on 8m FT8, I have returned to 10m FT8. Conditions seem poor with just one spot of me from Israel. I think the Es has, for now here, subsided.

UPDATE 1624z: How to spot a pirate!! P86JL in North Korea at an incredible strength and at totally the wrong time! If he is genuine, I am a Chinaman. 19 spots of my 5W 10m FT8 today, with 10 recently.

UPDATE 1730z:  Plenty (100) stations spotted on RX and 28 (mostly Es) spots of me on TX today. I have ignored the station supposed to be in North Korea assuming this to be a pirate from somewhere in Europe. I still feel conditions are disturbed on 10m.

UPDATE 1755z:  It looks like Es is good again towards Iberia. 52 stations have spotted my 5W QRP FT8 on 10m in the last day.

UPDATE 2110z: VO1HP (3744km) has spotted me. 58 spots of my 10m FT8 QRP in the last day.

Stations spotting my
10m QRP FT8 recently

UPDATE 2128z:   QRT.

Sunspots - Sunday May 21st 2023

 Solar flux is 170 and the SSN 138. A=35 and K=2.