Rain - NOT amateur radio

A few moments ago we had rain. It has been thundering. The last week has unbearably hot and humid by day and night.

10m FT8

It is now 0900z. A few moment ago, my 10m FT8 gear was turned on for a little while (4W, indoor loop). Already 3 spots of me by Es. On 10m FT8 RX nothing spotted here yet.

Sunspots - Thursday August 13th 2020

Solar flux is 73 and the SSN 24. A=3 and K=1.

70cm activity contest last night

As you may recall, I entered the RSGB organised activity contest on 70cm last night. As I have no suitable antenna, I use my 2m big-wheel omni and stay on for less than an hour because of my  poor voice. In all, 6 stations were worked , all SSB, as the map shows.

Eat out to help out - NOT amateur radio

During August you can get up to £10 per person off meals and soft drinks at some participating pubs and restaurants on certain days.

We ate out this lunchtime and had fine meals (hallumi starter and swordfish main) including wine and sparkling water for £22!!

Oscar 100 (geosynchronous)

As usual, I took my periodic peek at the narrowband transponder. When I did this it was 1053z. This is midweek and about mid day in Europe. Only 2-3 QSOs were active, confirming to me that it is not busy. The most I have ever seen is about 8 QSOs.  If it was busy, it could hold many more.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

10m FT8

Using 4W to the indoor loop, I am currently on 10m FT8. It is now 0830z. So far today, 10 stations have already spotted me.

UPDATE 0920z:   23 stations have spotted me so far this morning and 19 stations in 3 continents spotted on 10m FT8. An outside antenna I think should be better? I guess 6dB (maybe more) could make quite a difference on weaker signals that might not be in audible on the indoor loop. For Es, the loop is probably is good enough most of the time but on marginal F2 or TEP I guess this loss could matter.

UPDATE 1500z:  Since returning from our meal out 39 stations have spotted me already. 11 stations spotted here so far this afternoon.

WSJT-X V2.2.2

Well over a month late, I have upgraded to V2.2.2.   I did try upgrading some weeks ago , but it said I was missing a dll, so I stuck with the older version. Today it installed fine. Not sure if this was Windows  is or WSJT-X. Anyway it is now installed and working fine.

10m antenna?

As many know, the outside antenna that I used on 10m packed up so I have been using my indoor loop successfully for the last few months.

In the next few months I hope to re-elect an antenna for 10m. In the past this would have been trivial, but sadly not anymore. A couple of people have kindly offered me help, but with Covid-19 I am reluctant to ask them. My thoughts are what could be erected with the least effort. I guess this either a wire dipole or inverted vee. My own Homebase-10 would be good, but the trouble would be making it now.

Thunderstorms? - NOT amateur radio

The last few days have been very hot and humid. It has been almost unbearable. Later, we may have thunderstorms.

See https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=0;y=44.621;x=8.4747;z=4;d=2;dl=2;dc=0;

UPDATE 1548z:  Although the nearest thunderstorms are about 100km away, i think there are distant rumbles.