Late "on parade" today

Today our "London" grandchildren went home so I have only just turned on the 10m and 6m WSPR kit. It takes about 20-30 minutes for the 10m 500mW WSPR-AXE-CW beacon to fully settle from a cold start as the PA has to warm and the frequency of the reference stabilise. Both sets of WSPR kit were turned on at 1440z. The 10m beacon should have stabilised fully now. The 6m kit should also be warmed up fully now.

As said before the little ones take priority. They are still very very little and their innocence sadly will not be there to be enjoyed for ever. At the moment all our grandchildren are delightful. We are very very lucky.

Low cost oscilloscope kit (Bangood)

Steve G1KQH has tracked down yet another bargain. I think my SMA assembly skills are probably still not up to the task, but you can hardly go wrong at the price which includes free air-mail shipping. Another absolute bargain. I think Steve must have shares in Bangood!!  If not, they ought to make him their UK agent, HI.

Here’s another one (kit), we could get our teeth into:

http://www.banggood.com/DIY-Digital-Oscilloscope-Kit-Electronic-Learning-Kit-p-969762.html

I have that many kits at the moment, I don’t know where to start next? If I come back in another life can we have a 48hour clock pse!

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/

10m - quiet day on WSPR

Today was the quietest day on 10m for some time. 4X4 and EA8 and just a single spot from FR4 was all to show today. As we approach summertime, I suspect such conditions will become more commonplace.

10m WSPR spots - all spots today! Things are getting tougher.

6m WSPR today

TJ3TS has reported some impressive 6m DX spots (over 5000km) although I think may have been reporting some other band as 6m spots by mistake?  It would be very good if these were genuine 6m spots but something looks wrong.

During the day my best spots were of G4FGJ (44km) and M0EMM (192km), but no spots outside the UK.  No-one spotted me on 6m today.

10m USA WSPR spots

It is currently 1944z and so far not a single spot from the USA yet again.  Best DX today is a 10m WSPR spot by FR4OZ (9733km) in the South Indian Ocean.

UPDATE 2030z:  Still no spots from the USA on 10m today. I think there will be no USA opening today. Soon be time to go QRT on 10m and probably on 6m too.

Churches Blog - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday we visited the oldest building in Cambridge. This is St Bene't's Church (opposite the famous Eagle Pub where Crick and Watson cracked the secrets of DNA).

The church dates back to 1000AD. I have updated  our East Anglian Churches Blog accordingly.

6m WSPR overnight

I stayed on 6m WSPR overnight.  M0EMM (192km) was spotted a few times, but otherwise quiet, as would be expected.

Sunspots and 10m - April 10th 2015

Sunspot number has risen to 68 and 10m propagation is expected to be "fair". 

10m USA spots today

In summary, at least until now at 2030z, there have been no spots at all of my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon in the USA.  Yet again EA8BVP has been spotting me all day, in all 88 times today.

It looks like we can definitely not count on those daily 10m openings to the USA.  Yesterday the 10m band opened quite well, but not today.

UPDATE 2120z:  No sign of USA spots today. Now going QRT on 10m until the morning, but will remain on 6m overnight and check everything is synced to internet time.

6m overnight and first thing this morning.

No DX stations, but 3 different G stations spotting me G6AVK, G4FGJ and G8XWR last night and today. I am sticking on 6m now as the Es season approaches. I expect to spot some DX (outside G) soon.