15m 5W FT8 yesterday

 Yesterday I spotted 198 stations on 15m FT8. 

At the moment we seem to be between pretty good winter F2 conditions and the Es season. 

It looks like people have started to move lower in frequency to chase DX.

15m 5W FT8 (Thursday)

 After a very brief TX period (no spots - RF feedback from the end-fed?), I am RX only on 15m FT8. 

Although things are better on 15m, I am still convinced that conditions are not great. So far, just 14 stations spotted . See map.

UPDATE 1750z: 147 stations spotted here.

RSGB Monday talks

On Monday nights at 8pm, the RSGB gives a series of talks with people expert in their field. 

I have seen some, but manage to miss quite a few. 

Some are talks at past RSGB conventions. Many (all?) have to be watched on YouTube.

Iran war - Trump Report

 This was posted about 17 hours ago, which would have been Wednesday afternoon in the UK.

10m 200mW WSPR TX (Thursday)

My TX beacon was turned on at about 0755z.

UPDATE 1510z:  No spots all day, so QSYed to 15m 5W FT8.

Proctors

 

This was Trinity College in Cambridge, UK. 

Proctors are like college policemen. They wear bowler hats.

Heathkit Twoer 2m AM transceiver

It is amazing how your wishes change! 

Back in the 1960s I really wanted a Heathkit Twoer transceiver. In those days most people on 2m used AM and the band was quiet. It used a sensitive super-regen RX, but these were broad. In their day they were fine. Looking back I am amazed how bad they were!

Versions were made for 10m 11m CB and 6m too.

To this day I still like the style. They were known as the "Benton Harbour Lunchboxes"  as they resembled a lunchbox.

In their day they were "state of the art".

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/vhfuhf-commercial-rigs/hw30

Sunspots - Thursday April 16th

Solar flux is 105 and the SSN 57. A=4 and  K=1.

Es yet?

Today there were a couple of southern European stations spotted on 10m FT8. 

It is about now that Es (sporadic E) starts to happen in the northern hemisphere. I guess they could have been all sorts of modes.

In the next few months we can expect lots of stations via Es short skip in the northern hemisphere. At times far further is possible via E layer, either by multi-hop or chordal hop.

Chinese receiver

This RX is called the K3.  This is not to be confused with the Elecraft K3. Certainly I was confused!  

It is available from AliExpress at about £60.  There seem to be a lot of these low cost Chinese receivers about.