630m QRP WSPR overnight

9 stations spotted my 10mW ERP overnight. Furthermost was northern Scotland (see map).

Sunspots- Wednesday November 29th 2023

 Solar flux is 182 and the SSN 130. A=7 and K=2.

My 10m 500uW WSPR experiment

After several days without success, I shall end my experiment later today. I have had success in the past, but not this time. 

Tomorrow, if I use my 10m WSPR TX beacon, I shall turn the PA on again and run the full 500mW.

8m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

My 2.5W 8m FT8 to the low dipole has been on since mid-morning. Yet again, my signal has been spotted in the Caribbean. In the last 2 days I have had 8m FT8 exchanges with both ZF1EJ and PJ4MM. In all today, my 8m FT8 signal has been spotted by 7 stations with 5 "across the pond".

Whilst I am sure a small beam, higher up, and more power would help, this proves to me that even 2.5W can make it when F2 conditions are good.

Christmas Wreaths - NOT amateur radio

To me, these seem too funereal and I don't like them. Our village garden nursery is selling them.  I don't think I shall buy one!

The Elgin Marbles - NOT amateur radio

In the UK there is a row growing about the return to Greece of the Elgin Marbles . These were originally in the world famous Parthenon. 

In my view these should be returned. 

Although I stand to be corrected, these were essentially stolen! My suggestion is a copy of these should be made and displayed (this has been done before e.g. the Alfred Jewel in the Ashmolian Museum in Oxford). Their proper home is in the Parthenon in Athens, which is visited by millions.

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

Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF)

Around the sunspot maximum we can see the MUF going much higher than we are used to. Take for example the 8m band, which is allocated to the Amateur Radio service in some countries and available to some on an experimental basis. Quite regularly, my 2.5W 8m FT8 is copied in the Caribbean, USA and Canada. This is on 40.680 MHz USB dial. This suggests the MUF is probably at 41 MHz quite often even on E-W paths. The MUF is usually higher on N-S paths.

For a long time, I have been advocating that 5 kHz at 8m be made available to the Amateur Radio service, narrow digital modes only, strictly non-interference, secondary, in the ISM band, low power, by application only.  I can see this only really appealing to true experimenters. It would appear the FCC and OFCOM (and the RSGB) are dead against, but I struggle to understand why when so much propagation research could be done. Even it permits were limited to around the solar maximum it would be useful.  Instead, in the UK we have to pay to do research - total madness and stupidity.

Selfie - NOT amateur radio

This was the selfie we took last Saturday with my wife, son and grandson.

Asian Eggs Royale - NOT amateur radio

We went out for brunch on Saturday to celebrate my wife's birthday. 

My son had Asian Eggs Royale, which is like Eggs Benedict, but with gin and salmon (see photo).

630m QRP WSPR overnight

Overnight I was spotted by 12 stations when using my 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode “antenna “ in the ground.