Checkpoint Charlie - NOT amateur radio

Many will remember Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin from cold war days. It is very different now. 

Brandenburg Gate - NOT amateur radio

This is probably the most famous thing in all of Germany. We went there this afternoon. 

When is sunspot maximum?

My favourite site for solar data has just updated showing solar maximum as November this year.. It has varied a bit from November to December.

See www.solen.info. 

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.