Western Canada - NOT amateur radio

We went to western Canada in June 2012. We expected good weather, but had snow on the ground!  It was a good holiday combining the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver with a week of car hire. 

The west is far better than the east.

Sunspots - Tuesday June 10th

 Solar flux is 120 and the SSN 82. A=15 and K=1.

Crab apples - NOT amateur radio

We have just one crab apple tree. 

After masses of flowers in the spring, there are now lots of fruit. These are about 1cm diameter.  

All being well, I shall make a couple of jars of crab apple jelly as in past years. It is delicious with some meats.

See https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/crab-apple-jelly .

10m 500mW WSPR TX (Monday)

My W5OLF beacon was turned on at 1124z.

UPDATE 2114z:  Spotted by 4 stations in mainland Europe. Looks like Es. QRT soon.

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.