Sunspots - Monday March 9th

 Solar flux is 135 and the SSN 76.  A=22 and K=1.

Joe Blogs YouTube

In the world of politics and economics the videos by Joe Blogs are informative. Most days I like to hear what he has to say.  It's nice to see something that is not AI and that you can trust.   

That's the trouble these days: you can never be sure that what you see is what the person really said unless you definitely trust the source.

10m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

In the end I gave up on 8m FT8  RX and QSYed to 10m FT8 using the IC705 at 5W.

UPDATE 2020z: My 5W 10m FT8 was spotted by 19 stations mostly in the USA. On RX, I have spotted 484 stations with the best LT5X (13475km) in Tierra del Fuego in Argentina.

UPDATE 2022z:  QRT.

Mizuho transceivers

For many years I owned a 2m SSB handheld by Mizuho. It was used on 2m SSB and via a homebrew transverter on 10m where it produced about 1W pep. It worked all over the world. As I recall, the battery life was not good, so I tended to use it with a PSU mostly.

I think they made versions for 15m, 10m, 6m, 4m and 2m. Sadly, I think they are no longer available.

See https://www.mizuhoradio.com/ .

Spring colour

In the autumn we put in winter flowering primroses to give a splash of colour under our front windows. 

All are now in flower and they look very colourful.

They will be replaced by summer bedding plants later. 

Probably not visible are the weeds. I cleared them all about 2 weeks ago - honest!

8m FT8 RX (Sunday)

Today, I am trying 8m FT8 RX again.

UPDATE 1450z:  No spots. I think my antenna must be poor on 8m.  I might try the coax to my 2m antenna via an ATU if it works at 40.680.

Sunspots - Sunday March 8th

 Solar flux is 135 and the SSN 75. A=18 and K=3.

Shetland Is.

As mentioned before in this blog one of my friends on 365project.org lives way up north in the Shetland Islands and takes some very good photos of life up there. 

There are few trees, in the summer days are long and very short in winter, and it can be very windy. Being much more northerly, it tends to have weather colder than further south.

The Trump Report

Whatever views you hold on President Trump of the USA, he is the voted leader of the most powerful economy in the world and will be (at least) president until the next US presidential elections in about 3 years' time.

Most days I watch The Trump Report on YouTube as a video.

10m 2.5W FT8 (Saturday)

My gear was turned on at about 0915z. After a very brief TX period (4 stations spotted me) I have mainly been RX only. 

UPDATE 1242z:  Spotted 487 stations here. See map.

UPDATE 2004z:  1286 stations spotted here. I must admit 10m is in great shape.