10m 4W FT8 (Friday)

For a change, I am on 4W 10m FT8 today. My gear was turned at breakfast time.

UPDATE 1222z:  Spotted by 202 stations with the best ZS2PA (9870km) in South Africa. See map.

Sunspots - Friday October 10th

Solar  flux is 122 and the SSN 87. A=5 and K=2.

10m 500mW WSPR (Thursday)

My beacon was turned on at about 1150z. The USA is starting to come through.

UPDATE 2142z:   27 stations are spotting me, including most of these in the USA or Canada. Best DX was a spot by ZD7GB (7611km). Now QRT.

6m 5W FT8 (Thursday)

My 5W 6m FT8 was turned on at about 1150z.

UPDATE 2135z:  22 spots with the furthest SM4VBO (1310km). Now QRT.

Is Russia in deep trouble?

Apparently OPEC+ has agreed to increase production still further, which is likely to result in a further fall in oil price per barrel. Also Ukraine drone strikes have been targeted at Russian oil processing leading to shortages at pumps. As Russia depends heavily on oil exports, this could really hurt.

Thursday plans

 Later, I expect to continue with 6m 5W FT8 and 500mW 10m WSPR.

Reflective sun

This was the setting sun reflected in the window of our local museum seen from our window.  The hedge is ours.

Sunspots - Thursday October 9th

 Solar flux is 120 and the SSN 109. A=11 and K=0.

6m and 10m FT8 or WSPR beaconing

To just beacon on 6m or 10m FT8 is easier than a full QSO.  Just beaconing just requires a very brief opening, whereas a full QSO takes several minutes.  In this respect FT4 might be better.

WSPR takes far longer which is one reason WSPR can be harder. Another is activity: I get the impression there are far more people on FT8 than WSPR. Also, even though WSPR can be decoded at much lower levels, local noise may bury weak signals, so unless there is a low local noise floor some openings may just be missed.

My overall conclusion is to stick with 6m FT8.

VLF up-converter

Yesterday I had an email saying the link to this page on my website was not working. It turned out this link was to my old site anyway, so I have corrected the link to point to the newer site.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vlf/vlf-converter .

A reminder that this extremely unlikely to work with amateur VLF signals which need very narrow bandwidths and very accurate frequency. It is, however, suitable for general listening "down there".