My best site for solar data has been updated as it always is at the start of a month. It shows us just over the solar cycle peak. Unless we see a second peak (possible) we could be on a long decline to solar minimum. We can expect good conditions on the higher HF bands for some years yet.
I remember working South America on 10m QRP SSB (10W pep and a dipole) right at the solar minimum and zero sunspots. With FT8 this should be even easier.
Stick with the higher HF bands!
Before going out in the car I can check things locally.
This software allows about 2 minutes of audio to be recorded as a spectrogram view. I hope to do this by just placing the iPhone next to the FT817's speaker. The photo of the SpectrumView screen is attached.
My current 8m TX permit runs out early next month. My choice is to apply for a new permit (probably a similar one requested). This will cost me £50. Although I can afford it, I object to having to pay to carry out genuine research. For this stupidity I have issues with the RSGB and OFCOM.
The alternative is to run 10mW ERP using ISM rules. This is free.
Most active stations on 8m have either spotted my FT8 or worked me.
Radio science might benefit from me running very low power in the Es season which mainly starts in May. At the moment I am inclined to run 10mW ERP 8m WSPR whenever the 8m band looks promising. As long as there are people across Europe monitoring 8m WSPR, I have every confidence of being spotted.
Assuming I can get it working, one thing to try as the sunspots decline (not yet we hope!) will be to send FT8 in sequence on all bands from 17m to 10m. I have no idea of the antenna pattern on various bands, but it might give me some indications of band openings.
One of the things I have noticed in the past is people leave the higher HF bands. Maybe with FT8 now, some may stay around. Often it is a lack of activity and not poor conditions. On SSB an isolated call may be missed. Not so with FT8 with lots of people monitoring.
Incidentally, I can highly recommend the QDX. It is tiny (about the size of a pack of cards) and can run all the modes on WSJT-X.
A very nice addition would be a QDX covering 10m, 8m, 6m, 4m and 2m. Even 10m-4m would be very useful.
Usually I sleep well, but have you noticed how hard it is to get to sleep when you try to?
Sleep is odd as you are not aware when you actually drop off: you are awake and then you must be asleep! Waking up very early is very hard.
One more day on 10m WSPR at 500uW (0.5mW). Probably go QRO tomorrow with 500mW! I might also give 6m FT8 another try.
