DRM+ at low VHF?

According to John's excellent blog, the FCC in the USA has had a request to open up 45-50MHz for DRM + broadcasts in the USA.

On a slightly different subject, I have heard of no progress on a small 8m (40MHz) allocation in Europe. There are a very few enlightened national organisations, but sadly very few!

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2019/08/fcc-petitioned-to-open-up-45-to-50-mhz.html

6m FT8 Es

Overnight I again remained on 6m FT8 RX. Already stations from all over Europe being spotted with LA9VFA (2460km) in the very far north of Norway as the best DX spotted so far.

UPDATE 1537z: So far today 138 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX, with best DX spotted being 4Z5AV (3633km) in Israel. A recent 6m FT8 CQ was just spotted by 7 G stations.

UPDATE 1924z: In the last 12 hours 132 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX. As this is fewer than earlier, it suggests there was some very early Es propagation. At the moment we are still seeing 6m Es. Usually there is some Es throughout the year with the peak in the summer.

Sunspots - Thursday August 29th 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the SSN is still zero. A=5 and K=1.

Grandchildren together - NOT amateur radio

Today for about 6 hours we had all our 4 grandchildren together. It was great.

The boys played well together as well as the girls.

My wife and I are behind.

6m FT8

6m FT8 RX today

Once again, Es on 6m FT8 has been good. As the internet returned, uploads to PSKreporter worked.

UPDATE 1910z: 390 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX today. Another great Es day on 6m. As the internet was off most of the morning I may well have spotted far more than are shown on PSKreporter maps. The maps shows the stations spotted so far today on 6m FT8 RX.

Internet back? - NOT amateur radio

About an hour ago our internet came back after about 36 hours. There was a fault preventing our box in the road getting any signal. I hope it stays on!

Luckily we had 4G phones which still worked.

Sunspots - Wednesday August 28th 2019

Solar flux is 65 and the SSN 0. A=10 and K=2.

Cooling off - NOT amateur radio

Today it felt even hotter than yesterday, but the grandkids found a way to keep cool as the photo shows.

More on the threats to 2m

You may be aware that France wants to discuss the possibility of Aeronautical Services having access to the 2m band. Apparently Germany has opposed this. This may be discussed at WRC 2023. 

6m FT8 overnight

Although 6m FT8 RX was running overnight, nothing was spotted.

UPDATE 0833z: As the Internet is still offline nothing I spot will reach PSKreporter. On the PC screen I see that Italians, Spaniards and Sicilians have been spotted probably by Es. A brief FT8 CQ was spotted in Spain at 1366km.

UPDATE 1320z: My Internet is still offline, so I cannot upload to PSKreporter. A CQ with FT8 resulted in a couple of Es QSOs on 6m.

UPDATE 2023z: Still no Internet apart from 4G. Hopefully it will be on later.

Sunspots - Tuesday August 27th 2019

Solar flux is 67 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=3.

Bikes - NOT amateur radio

One of our sons is staying with us with his son and daughter until later in the week. Th photo shows them on their bikes last night. Luckily it is very quiet here with very few cars.

Early 6m Es

Although it is very early and I have not yet had breakfast there are several Italian stations coming in already on 6m FT8. This is a promising start.

UPDATE 0740z: Amazing! Already 76 stations from all over Europe spotted today on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 0836z: Already 120 stations spotted on 6m FT8 this morning! Many (most) are Es.

UPDATE 0948z: My 6m FT8 CQ (10W) was widely copied in southern Europe. So far this morning, 170 stations have been spotted on 6m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 2120z: Quite an extraordinary day on 6m with hundreds of stations copied via Es from all over Europe and North Africa. I am beginning to wonder if there is some correlation between climate change and Es?

Sunspots - Monday August 26th 2019

Solar flux is 66 today and the SSN is still 0. A=4 and  K=2.

Cricket - NOT amateur radio

Usually cricket can be quite boring, but the last ashes test against Australia was extremely tense until the very last ball. It could have gone either way.  In the end England won with a superb last wicket stand that will go down in history as one of the very best ever. The photo shows me with my son and grandson watching the match.

6m FT8 - no Es yet today (but it came later!)

In the last hour, I switched to 6m FT8. As yet, just Gs spotted here apart from DF4UE (756km). On TX (10W to the V2000 omni vertical) just 6 G spots so far today.

UPDATE 1050z: Later there was, again, plenty of 6m Es. I have, so far, spotted 20 stations (many probably Es) and I have been spotted, and worked, in Eastern Europe. Many were in response to my 6m FT8 CQ.

UPDATE 1114z: Plenty of Eastern Europeans spotted and several worked on 6m FT8.

UPDATE 2004z:  137 stations spotted on 6m FT8 today as the map shows. It seems still that there is 6m Es there for the taking. Another good day. Best DX spotted was EA8AQV (2989km).

2m FT8 - still a lift?

There still seems to be a lift on 2m FT8 with EA1SA (1034km) being spotted. Although I called him, I was not successful. He was the best DX spotted this morning.

2m Fredbox

Many years ago, I designed this 2m QRP AM transceiver. This was in the days when 2m AM was very popular. For its day, it was very small!

I do not recommend you copy this design nowadays, but you may find some useful ideas here.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/fredbox

Sunspots - Sunday August 25th 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=1.

Overnight on 2m FT8

After calling CQ, I am now on 2m FT8 RX overnight. On TX just a single QSO with a fairly local station, although 9 stations spotted me with EI2FG (565km) the best DX spot. On RX the best so far is PA0O (437km).