6m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

 After about an hour plenty of spots of my 2.5W to the vertical omni antenna including Italy and Northern Ireland.

UPDATE 1248z:  Any Es today looks fleeting with no further Europeans spotting me in recent hours.

Solar activity

In the last month, apart from today, solar activity has been poorer than the month before. As the last solar minimum was only in 2020, I cannot believe we have already gone past the peak of solar cycle 25. In the last cycle there was a bigger peak after the first.

What is certain is that solar activity can remain good for several years after the peak. Even if this was a very early peak and not a blip, we can expect solar activity to remain good for several years yet. If the peak really is a way off, this means we can expect solar activity to be pretty good until at least 2026.

It is my belief that it is often low activity rather than conditions that make the higher HF bands seem dead. With modes like FT8, we may well find 10m, for example, is "open" far more often than we once thought.

Like - NOT amateur radio

At one time I would have been appalled by the overuse of "like" and the fact that younger people tend to go up at the end of sentences. 

You have only to observe how much speech has changed in the last 100 years. I expect if we heard speech from 500 years ago we would struggle to understand it. 

And to think how languages have evolved in the last 1000-2000 years!  No, we have to accept that speech and language will be forever changing.

"Like" is the new ""er", "um","hmm" or "ah".

I never fail to be amazed how many different languages there are (in Europe alone) and in how few generations these happened. In the last 2000 years there are, perhaps,  80 generations only!

Plans for Wednesday

Later, I intend to go on 10m QRP WSPR and 6m QRP FT8. 

Sunspots - Wednesday August 30th 2023

Solar flux is 142 and the SSN 82.  A=5 and K=1. 

Laugh - NOT amateur radio

 

We saw this on our walk earlier. 

Late swifts - NOT amateur radio

We went for a walk around the village this afternoon. Much to my surprise I saw a swift on two separate occasions. It is possible this was the same bird. Most swifts fly south weeks ago, so this was a straggler(s). As far as I remember, this is the latest date I have ever seen swifts in the UK. 

8m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

At about 0942z, I QSYed to 40.680 MHz FT8. I had already had plenty of QSOs on 6m and the band looked open in the direction of Iberia. As usual my gear on 8m is a modified FT817ND (2.5W) and a dipole.

UPDATE 1757z:  No spots today. I suspect there are very few people monitoring. 

UPDATE 2056z:  QRT now. No spots all day. Disappointing. 

10m QRP WSPR TX (Tuesday)

 

My 500mW WSPR TX beacon was turned on before breakfast. So far spotted by 9 unique stations.

UPDATE 0951z: I see my 500mW WSPR beacon has been spotted in Antarctica by DP0GVN (13685km). See the photo of this permanent German base.

UPDATE 1727z: 17 spots of me today.

UPDATE 2050z:  QRT  now. 19 unique stations spotted me today.

6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

Today, the early start on 6m FT8 QRP resulted in 3 QSOs across Europe. My gear is 2.5W to the omni V2000 vertical antenna. 

UPDATE 0803z: 45 stations across Europe have spotted my QRP 6m FT8 today.