Oscar 100 activity

A few days ago I took a peak at activity on this geosynchronous satellite. It was breakfast time in Europe. Absolutely nobody on!! 

Sunspots - Saturday July 1st 2023

 The solar flux is 159 and the SSN 87  A=8 and K=2. 

Rally this weekend

The following rally has been notified to me. I always advice contacting organisers to check the details are correct.

Sunday July 2nd - Barford Norfolk Radio Rally, Barford, NR9 4AB. Contact radio@dcpmicro.com

Sunspots - Friday June 30th 2023

Solar flux is 162 and the SSN 112. A=17 and K=3.

8m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

My 8m 2.5W FT8 was turned on this morning.   At 1728z, just spotted by S50B (1220km) and EA3ERE (1153km).

10m QRP WSPR TX (Thursday)

My 500mW 10m WSPR TX beacon was turned on this morning. So far (at 1719z) 23 unique stations have spotted me.

Faulty BNC plugs

 A couple of my antenna leads with BNC plugs have become intermittent or broken. I first noticed one last night in the 2m CDARC 2m FM net when the SWR was very high. Years ago, this would have been a trivial task. These days it is far more taxing sadly.

Riga, Latvia - NOT amateur radio

I don't think this photo has been on this blog recently. It shows a seaside resort close to Riga in Latvia. We went there several years ago and were expecting a dump. Actually Riga was a lovely city that was once a Hanseatic League city with many fine buildings. 

Sunspots - Thursday June 29th 2023

 Solar flux is 155 and the SSN 141. A=8 and K=4.

Fossils - NOT amateur radio

We have walked over tiles in the Grand Arcade in Cambridge for years. Only in the last few months have we have noticed the fossils in them. Now when we look down there are hundreds!  

How can we live here for so many years and not see these?!! I bet if we missed these, many others have too.

I think this is an ammonite millions of years old.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonoidea .