Oscar 100

Every few weeks (when I remember!) I give an update on activity on the narrowband transponder of this geosynchronous satellite. The last time I checked was a European midweek evening. As you can see - quiet.

Excellent food - NOT amateur radio

The hotel we are staying in on Malta 🇲🇹 is excellent with free food and drinks 🍷. Malta is as I expected - hot and very built up - whereas the hotel well exceeds my expectations.

We are off to Gozo the sister, smaller, island tomorrow .

Room with a view - NOT amateur radio

This is the view from our hotel room in Malta 🇲🇹.It shows Salina Bay on a hot, sunny ☀️ Tuesday. This hotel is excellent. 

Sunspots - Wednesday September 4th

 Solar flux is 242 and the SSN 133. A=6 and K=1.

Shack 2022

This was me in the shack in 2022. Since then some gear has changed.

Sunspots- Tuesday September 3rd

 Solar flux is 238 and the SSN 200. A=8 and K=1.

European Es

Outside the peak season, Es is less frequent. Take today for example: it looks like there is some Es mainly eastern Europe, but it is mainly on bands like 10m.

See https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/europe-sporadic-e/ ,

New QRP book

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the G-QRP Club, they have brought out a new book available from the RSGB bookshop entitled “50 Years of G-QRP”. As the title suggests, it is a collection of the best articles in the club quarterly magazine. SPRAT.

I am biased, but I still think SPRAT is the best amateur magazine. It comes out quarterly and is filled with simple projects. It’s a full colour A5 magazine. I think it is entirely run by volunteers and nobody is paid.

As I have said many times before, it would be the very last magazine to go if I was pushed.

See https://www.gqrp.com/.

Solar Peak

My favourite site of solar data has just updated. as it usually does early in the month. 

It looks like the peak of the solar cycle has been pushed well into 2024. It depends how the smoothing is done exactly when the peak is marked. Clearly we will not know the smoothed date until some time later.

Sunspots - Monday September 2nd

 Solar flux is 226 and the SSN 156. A=16 and K=2.