24 Oct 2026
Slow scan TV
Venus bounce
If you think EME is hard, bouncing a message off Venus is so much harder! Incredibly, it has been done. This news was via Amateur Radio Weekly.
See Earth-Venus-Earth.
10m 1W FT8 (Saturday)
At about 1025z I turned on my gear.
UPDATE 1313z: 28 stations have spotted me. Best is a spot from South Africa.
UPDATE 1518z: 74 stations have spotted me today See map.
CQWW SSB - no thanks
As mentioned earlier in the week, this is the CQWW SSB contest this weekend. I thought I might have a go, then decided against it: too much shouting! If my voice was better maybe.
I was surprised how much FT8 activity there was on 10m. I was expecting FT8 activity to be lower this weekend.
23 Oct 2026
160m FT8 RX - not!
My plan was to go on 160m FT8 RX overnight but for some reason the audio is not getting from the RX to the PC even though nothing has been changed. In the morning I might try reinstalling the WSJT-X software.
CQWW SSB contest - this weekend
This is the BIG contest of the year and a chance to work some rare countries or US states.
In the past I have worked the USA with just 2.5W with a handheld rig indoors on the bed with just a whip on the rig!
In recent years with my poor voice I have often forgotten about it!
160m FT8 RX overnight
UPDATE 0627z: 213 stations spotted mostly around Europe
US dollar and bonds
It seems to me that the USA is heading for trouble.
It has huge debts that are currently sold to places like China and Japan but the interest rates are now very high. In Japan you can get competitive rates within Japan so there’s no good reason to buy US debt. Also China is reducing its holdings of US debt.
The danger is this leads to a fall in the value of the dollar and people deciding to trade in a new reserve currency instead. This could take years but the signs are there.
Caveat Emptor.
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