Sunday plans

 Later I expect to go on 8m QRP FT8 and 10m QRP WSPR again.

Sunspots - Sunday October 6th

 Solar flux is 277 and the SSN 173. A=7 and K=2.

Oscar 100 narrowband activity

In a word - pathetic.

Every few weeks I take peek at activity of this geosynchronous satellite. It is very very low. I cannot say how disappointing I find this.

Bah humbug - NOT amateur radio

Not sure why, but I hate seeing Christmas things too early. If I had my way, all things Christmas would be banned until December. 

All this strikes me as pure commercialism with nothing at all to do with the true meaning of Christmas.

Rallies this weekend

 The following have been notified to me. Always check before going far.

• Sat Oct 5th - Carmarthen ARS Surplus Equipment Sale, Cwmduad, SA33 6XN. Contact G0JLX @gmail.com (shown as ....@mail.com which I think is an error?).
• Sun Oct 6th - Welsh Radio Rally, Newport, NP18 2YE. Contact welshradiorally@gmail.com. 

A full list of rallies is at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies .

10m 500mW WSPR (Saturday)

My tiny stand-alone 10m QRP WSPR beacon was turned on about 0812z. 

UPDATE 0851z:  Plenty of (I think) F2 spots.

UPDATE 1720z: So far today, 66 stations have spotted me.  See map.

8m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

 My 2.5W to the horizontal low dipole was turned on at about 0812z. The usual "watering hole"  for both FT8 and WSPR is 40.680 MHz USB dial. If you set your receiver here you will catch most of the activity.

UPDATE  0951z: G0KTN (211km) has at last spotted me. Pretty sure he has been trying for some time. Not sure if he has a better antenna, higher antenna, more sensitive RX or if conditions were up. Also spotting me was EI3KF (574km).

UPDATE 1000z:  It would appear that every time I try 8m QRP FT8, I get spotted by several stations. If I get spotted with my very tiny power (2.5W) and low dipole then imagine the results with 50W and a beam. There  have been some amazing 10mW FT8 QSOs. Under ISM rules many countries can TX on the band  without a special permit or even a licence. Check what the rules are in your country.

Stations spotting
my 8m FT8 today

UPDATE 1817z:  No further spots on TX. Slovenia spotted on 8m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Saturday October 5th

 Solar flux is 291 and the SSN 180. A=8 and K=1.

Windmill - NOT amateur radio

This was "our" windmill next door this morning. 

Kings College Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

 This was King’s yesterday in the sunshine.