Sunspots - Tuesday February 11th

 Solar flux is 159 and the SSN 104. A=24 and K=3.

10m QRP WSPR (Monday)

As I was on 8m FT8, my 10m antenna was available, so I am on 10m QRP WSPR with my 500mW beacon So far 3 stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1835z: Now QRT. 12 stations have spotted me today.

8m QRP FT8 (Monday)

My 8m QRP was turned on at about 1415z.

UPDATE 1838z: No spots. Now QRT.

Website dates - NOT amateur radio

One thing that really infuriates me are websites that have something on them that is time sensitive that are not updated or have a "date created". 

Today I looked on the Cambridge University weather page inviting me to meet them in September, except this was September last year!  I cannot tell you how often I have read a webpage only to find it is years out of date.

So, the very least they could do is put a date saying when the page was created. Better, still update the webpage!

Sunspot minimum

Probably I am one of the few people looking forward to the next solar minimum! We are currently close to the sunspot maximum and HF (even 6m) conditions can be very good.

This is the first time (just about) when we will have had widespread use of weak signal modes like FT8.  If people stick with the higher HF bands as conditions decline we might well find the higher bands are good far more often than we think. 

Especially on N-S paths it would not surprise me at all if there are widespread openings even in years with low sunspot numbers.

In many ways the next 11 years will give us plenty of chances to really experiment.

10m QRP FT8 with the IC-705

Stations spotting me today on 10m QRP FT8

My gear was turned on about 1015z.

UPDATE 1506z: When I QSYed to 8m, 270 stations had spotted me on 10m QRP FT8 today. See map. 10W FT8 gets everywhere.

Village "centre" - NOT amateur radio

At least in this part of the UK, it has seemed a long, dull winter as this photo shows. Our village of Burwell has a couple of  main centres for shops. 

I expect this goes back a long time when there were really two villages. 

Our local cafe is called the "Village Green" even though we don't really have one!

Monday plans

 At the moment I plan to go on 10m QRP FT8 with the IC705. If I go on 8m QRP FT8, I shall try 10m QRP WSPR, although going on 8m is far from certain

Amateur radio?

 This was spotted on Facebook earlier. It is not my idea of  amateur radio although I expect we have all worked such super stations.

Sunspots - Monday February 10th

 Solar flux is 163 and the SSN 142. A=18 and K=2.