UKAC certificate

Every month, if I am here, I enter the 2m and 70cm activity contests (UKAC), but because of my poor voice, low power (10W) and poor antenna (big-wheel omni) I do not stay on very long.

In the low power section I came 57th. 

Much to my surprise I have a certificate to say I took part!

10m 500mW WSPR (Thursday)

 My stand-alone WSPR beacon has been on most of the morning. At 1156z 10 stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1847z:  20 stations have spotted me. See table.

6m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

 My 6m QRP FT8  from the IC-705 has been on most of the morning. At 1153z 18 stations had spotted me

UPDATE 1825z: 38 stations have spotted my 6m FT8 QRP (see map).

UPDATE  2035z:  43 stations have spotted me. It looks like there is a late opening to Iberia. A station in Portugal pointed out that my timing was out. As I usually sync to internet time, this suggested that my internet connection was briefly lost and time sync was lost. Now re sync'ed.

Busy supermarket - NOT amateur radio

This is probably true the world over. Our local supermarket was busy with people stocking up with food and drinks for Christmas. They are actually only closed on Christmas Day.

8m QRP FT8 with the QMX+

In many ways  I am lazy, putting off things that I could do right away.

As an example, my QMX+ should work fine on 8m FT8 TX using the 6m TX low pass filter using PuTTY to alter the TX band parameters on a band I don't use. This should take a few minutes.

As 6m has been in good shape, I have concentrated on 6m rather than 8m in recent weeks. 

Of late, 6m has been in poorer shape recently regarding F2 propagation, although Es sometimes shows a small peak in mid-winter for reasons I don't understand.

I think the RX requires hardware changes to a band pass filter, than I cannot manage any longer, so the best I can manage is to TX on 8m.

Good news - NOT amateur radio

 From now on it starts to get lighter at night. At first the change is very slow , but by the end of January it is very noticeable. It still gets darker in the morning, but this is less noticeable as I am still in bed.

Sunspots - Thursday December 19th

 Solar flux is 174 and the SSN 82. A=15 and K=3.

Sunrise - NOT amateur radio

 

This was the sunrise this morning in our close.

10m QRP WSPR (Wednesday)

 

My 500mW beacon has been on most of the day. 31 stations have spotted me at 1519z.

6m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

My IC-705 has been in most of the day. 46 stations have spotted me with the most distant CU6AB (2694km) in the Azores.