Change of plan

 In the end I decided to go on 10m 500mW WSPR TX. 10 stations have spotted me 6 of which were in the USA.

UPDATE 2010z:  Spotted by 12 stations. Now QRT.

zBITX

 You may like this transceiver from India. For the price it is remarkable. It is built around a Raspberry Pi.

Monday plans - no radio?

 As we have to go into Cambridge for some Christmas shopping, I may not go on the radio today.

Museum at Christmas

This weekend, our local museum had a "Santa's Grotto" in the windmill. The children loved it and were told a story (in groups) and were each given a gift. To them it was magical.

In the main museum, there was face painting, mulled wine, minced pies  and much more. We helped with the raffle.

In all, it was a great. happy, occasion for all, especially the children.

Sunspots - Monday December 8th

 Solar flux is 194 and the SSN is 133. A=8 and K=0.

10m 500mW WSPR (Sunday)

My beacon has been on since about 1115z.

UPDATE 1607z:  12 stations have spotted me. See table.

UPDATE 2138z: QRT

6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

My gear was turned on at about 1115z.

UPDATE  1132z:  Spotted by 2 English stations.

UPDATE  1603z:   13 stations have spotted me. See map.

UPDATE 2140z:  18 stations spotted QRT.

That time of year!

The museum and windmill near us is having a Santa’s Grotto weekend. 

We’re helping today.

Sunday plans

 Probably 500mW 10m WSPR and 5W 6m FT8 later.

WSPR?

The impression I am getting is that WSPR is going down in popularity whereas FT8 is going up. I was considering buying a dedicated multi-band WSPR TX and WSPR RX.  I am having second thoughts.

WSPR needs less bandwidth (about 6Hz) than FT8 (about 50Hz) but WSPR is more sensitive by about 10dB. Maybe many cannot make use of this because of local noise. Also FT8 allows 2-way QSOs.

Last evening I tried 40m WSPR  and FT8. On WSPR I spotted nobody, whereas on FT8 I spotted 12 stations in a similar period.