Where I come from - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows where I come from in South Devon. As mentioned before we can trace our family history here continuously back to the mid 1500s. We were probably in this area 1000s of years ago.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

 

11 stations spotted me overnight. No great DX.

Sunspots- Saturday January 6th

Solar flux is 153 and the SSN 121.  A=5 and K=1.

630m QRP WSPR (Friday)

My 630m 10mW ERP WSPR was turned on at about 1628z.

UPDATE 1904z:   5 stations have spotted me this evening.

8m quiet?

It seems to me that the 8m experiment is drawing to a close.  

With quite a high sunspot number, there have been F2 openings as high as 6m.  40 MHz is between 10m and 6m, so one would expect the F2 MUF to climb to 8m at times when it did not make it to 6m.  

There are very few people active on 8m, whereas there are many on 6m, so short-lived 6m openings are more likely to be spotted, especially on FT8. During the Es season distances up to about 1500km can often be worked. 

At the moment, I am inclined to pay for just one more year on 8m, but it needs more people in more countries. I still find it incomprehensible (and totally stupid) that radio amateurs are not allowed access to just 5 kHz, secondary only, narrow digital only, power limited, no interference, at 8m. It is as if OFCOM (and the RSGB) and the FCC are very "anti" an allocation at 8m. They are not just neutral!!

I have tried my best, but can do little more. 

It needs more people to approach their administrations about a tiny 8m allocation.

Fungi - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday, we did a nice walk at Anglesey Abbey near Cambridge where we saw this log and fungi. Some years ago this was a tall tree with a hornet's nest. I think it was felled as it was rotten.

AI key - NOT amateur radio

According to The Knowledge today, Microsoft is introducing an AI key on its keyboards . This links to their AI tool in Windows (Copilot) which is linked to ChatGPT.

Interesting clouds - NOT amateur radio

This photo was recently posted by a friend in Shetland on 365project. I think these clouds are very high and the colours are ice crystals reflecting the low sun.

500uW 10m WSPR TX

My QRPP 10m WSPR beacon has been re-sync'd to internet time and is on. Any reports are welcomed. At the moment nobody has spotted me. It will probably be on all day.

UPDATE 1358z:  No spots.

UPDATE  1537z: Spotted twice by EA8BFK (2880km) in the Canaries.

8m QRP FT8 TX (Friday)

My 2.5W FT8 to the dipole should be on 40.680 MHz (DF about 1950 Hz) all day. It was turned on about 0945z.

UPDATE 1623z:   No spots.