Helping hand - NOT amateur radio

 

Our grandson trimming one of our hedges earlier today.

10m QRP WSPR (Sunday)

As the 10m antenna is available when I am on 6m, I turned my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon on. So far today, 23 stations have spotted me (see table). 

6m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

 

My QRP 6m FT8 has been on this afternoon.  

So far, 32 stations have spotted me at 1700z. See map.

UPDATE 1939z:   34 spots of me today.

6m F2 “across the pond “?

Steve G1KQH and I remember the 1980s when 6m was open across the Atlantic by F2 and we were wondering if the MUF would go high enough to allow this to occur in this solar peak. 

I can recall hearing lots of USA 🇺🇸 stations on 6m SSB with just a low wire dipole. It was just like 10m. 

Last autumn there were plenty of F2 openings on 8m FT8 "across the pond" by F2 to the USA, Canada and the Caribbean areas.  As I recall these were almost daily.

8m legal amateur radio

At the moment there are about 6 countries that have granted radio amateurs access to the 8m band. Others have granted access by means of some kind of experimental licence. Also, I believe others may access the 8m band using ISM rules, the power being dependent on the administration. Several people have had success with 10mW ERP (the limit in the UK) using licence free ISM rules.

In my view the situation is a total mess, which could be simply rectified if administrations gave limited amateur radio access as follows:

• 40.680 - 40.683 MHz (just 3 kHz).
• Narrow digital only (modes like FT4/8, WSPR and CW)
• 10W ERP maximum.
• By application only.
• Possibly with a 2 year time limit (around sunspot maximum).
• Strictly no interference to other services.

I cannot understand why this should be such a problem. Essentially it would give radio amateurs access to a tiny part of the 8m ISM band for serious research.

In the meantime, it would be good to have a list showing which administrations have granted legal amateur radio access to the band and which have allowed experimental access.  One possible solution would be for EI7GL (John) who has an excellent blog to add this to his 40MHz pages.

In my view OFCOM (and the RSGB) and the FCC have been unbelievable over this.

  

Sunspots - Sunday August 4th

 Solar flux is 245 and the SSN 217. A=10 and K=3.

High sunspot count

 

Apparently the SSN is as high as it was in 2001 according to Space Weather. It may not have peaked yet!

Considering many were expecting this solar cycle to be poor or even non-existent, this is pretty good. The important thing to remember is solar conditions remain good for several years after the peak. Good times will continue.

See https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=03&month=08&year=2024 .

House Martins - NOT amateur radio

Usually, we see very few of these migratory birds. However, today there must have been 20 odd around the windmill next door.

They don't fly south for several months. Perhaps they were young ones?

Swifts usually leave soon, staying a few months only to breed. We saw a few yesterday.

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/house-martin . 

6m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

 

24 stations have spotted me with the furthermost ES4RD (1893km).

UPDATE  1904z:  So far today, I have been spotted by 42 stations with the furthermost  OH6CT (2012km).  See map.

10m QRP WSPR (Saturday)

Just spots of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon from G4KPX (14km) so far.