6m 5W FT8 (Monday)

At 1120z, I QSYed to 6m FT8.

UPDATE 2112z: 60 stations have spotted me. Presumably Es. See map. QRT soon.

10m FT8 QRP (Monday)

My IC-705 was turned on at 5W just before breakfast.

UPDATE 1118z: 107 spots of my QRP.

Comparing 6m and 8m

It is over a week since my 8m TX permit expired. Instead, I am concentrating on 6m FT8.  There are several differences:

• Activity on  6m FT8  is vastly greater than on 8m. This is because there are far fewer stations permitted to TX on 8m and few PTTs seem to be bothered.
• In the Es season it is quite easy to get all over Europe and with low power. This is almost certainly true on 8m, but there are far too few on the band.
• The MUF  seems to reach 8m far more often than 6m. This is especially true around sunspot maximum.
• I would imagine aurora would be better than 6m.

Sunspots- Monday June 9th

 Solar flux is 115 and the SSN 87. A=15 and K=4. 

6m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

At about 1510z, I decided to go on 6m FT8 with my 5W to the V2000 vertical omni antenna.

UPDATE 1922z:  So far, 7 stations in 7 countries have spotted me. I have spotted 12 stations. Best DX spot is by SM6KKX (934km). See map.

10m 500mW WSPR (Sunday)

As I decided to try 4m FT8 RX using the V2000 vertical omni, I decided to try 10m QRP WSPR with my beacon on the endfed antenna.

UPDATE 1705z:  No spots of me.

4m FT8 RX (Sunday)

Apparently the FT8 frequency to monitor on 4m is 70.154 MHz. So, using my endfed antenna used 10m-17m I have set my IC-705 to 70.154 MHz RX to see what happens. 

No idea at all how this antenna performs on 4m! It may work or may be incredibly lossy!

UPDATE 1337z: G3YHM (168km) spotted so it must be doing something.

15m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

For a total change I tried FT8 at 5W on 15m. It was too easy with spots on RX and TX from across the planet. 

Station rationalisation

At the moment my main activities are 6m and 10m FT8, 2m and 70cm SSB in the UKAC activity sessions, 2m FM in the local net and 10m QRP  WSPR with my W5OLF beacon.  

It occurred to me that all could be done with the IC-705, although the stand-alone 10m WSPR beacon (500mW) is useful when I am on 6m FT8.

So, for now, I have rationalised my set-up.

27 MHz CB

When CB was first legal in the UK, it was very busy. I seem to recall monitoring, but don't think I ever transmitted on CB. 

I still have pair of 1 channel CB handhelds that I used once many years later. These were going to be converted to 10m FM on 29.6 MHz, but never were.  A range of 1 km back-to-back was achieved that surprised me. 

These days I think it is much quieter with advent of the internet and 446 licence free. In the last century we also had a 934 MHz CB band in the UK! 

These days there are far fewer users as these alternatives exist for chatting, leaving the CB frequencies for farmers and any enthusiasts left.

CB gear is low cost as there is lots around ....and probably not selling!