Sunspots- Saturday June 7th

 Solar flux is 128 and the SSN 76. A=8 and K=2.

10m QRP WSPR (Friday)

My 500mW W5OLF beacon was turned on at about 0645z. 

UPDATE 1430z:  14 spots. Mostly Es I think although V51RS (8481km) was clearly not.

6m QRP FT8 (Friday)

My 6W 6m FT8 was turned on at about 0645z this morning.

I see that one of my 6m FT8 spots yesterday was a station in Brazil PY2RN (9551km).

UPDATE 1746z:   So far, 239 stations have spotted me and I have spotted 171.

QDX transceiver

This tiny digital transceiver amazes me. It is about the size of a pack of cards.  

In my case I added a number of suitably rated diodes to drop the supply voltage so the power output is probably about 3W, at most, on 10m. 

Despite this I have been copied all over the planet on 10m QRP FT8 with a simple, low, end-fed antenna. It is all you need really if you are only interested in digital HF. It is available as a kit or ready built. You can choose a version covering the lower or higher HF bands. There are also single band versions at a slightly lower price. 

Excellent products and excellent value. I am highly impressed.

See https://qrp-labs.com/qdx.html.

Baby squirrel - NOT amateur radio

One of the joys of 365project is seeing the photos other friends have posted. 

Take this one from someone in the USA. You could imagine the baby squirrel was really frightened.

Also, the discipline of posting a photo a day is interesting, especially looking back many years.

Last Tuesday in the 2m activity contest

 

Although I run just 10W to an omni big-wheel antenna and stop on for about only 30 minutes because of my poor voice, I like to submit an entry. The map shows the stations worked.

Sunspots - Friday June 6th

 Solar flux is 128 and the SSN 92.  A=12 and K=2.

10m 500mW WSPR (Thursday)

 My W5OLF beacon was turned on mid morning.

UPDATE 1046z:   No spots.

6m 6W FT8 (Thursday)

 My gear has been on since early morning.

UPDATE 1358z:  199 stations have spotted me and I have spotted 85 stations here.

Immigration - NOT amateur radio

Some people are fearful of losing their national identities in a flood of immigration. 

However, in many countries we are seeing falling birthrates and a fear of how we will finance things in future. 

Being seen as tough on immigration is a vote winner. This is being exploited in many countries by the hard right parties.

In the end I do not have an answer. As the planet warms up, we can expect more migration to milder countries from those that are very hot. 

The answer in the end is probably to acknowledge that some controlled migration is a good thing.

It is important that people are well accepted by their new countries and that they learn to integrate. At the same time, they bring new ideas with them which we, in turn, must learn from. Think of the USA in past centuries and the Huguenots coming to England.