Heatwave? - NOT amateur radio

So the Met Office (our weather bureau) is forecasting a heatwave. Many is the time I have said they should buy new seaweed as their forecasts are so wrong so often despite their investment in multi-million  pound supercomputers.

Currently we have rain here!

Yesterday, next Saturday (we have grandchildren here) was forecast to be a good sunny day. Now the forecast is rain. The best forecast is to see what is expected by the Met Office and assume the exact opposite. Unless we have a great big high pressure system over us their forecasts are useless. The week before this, when we went to Jersey for a week, (June 13-20th)  the weather was (at best) expected to be "mixed". We had glorious sunshine most days all day long. Sorry, but I am not impressed. I hear the many excuses for poor forecasts, but give us a "confidence reading" for the forecast if you don't know. A poor forecast is no use at all!

Met Office? - pathetic. 3/10 "could do better".

The best forecasts seem to be to stick your head out the window and look.

Sunspots and 10m - Sun June 28th 2015

Sunspot number has fallen again to just 25 (K=3) and 10m propagation (F2) is expected to be "poor".  We should not expect much on 10m F2 today, although Es is already livening things up on 6m WSPR. I wonder if EA8BVP will spot me (as usual) on 10m WSPR.  This I suspect is single hop N-S F2 although this is certainly possible by Es. At the moment I have seen no 10m Es spots yet  for my little 5000mW beacon. Others may be more fortunate.

Early 6m Es today? - CN8LI again

CN8LI (2113km) was spotted at -13dB S/N at 0816z this morning on 6m WSPR. I assume this is Es. This is promising so early in the day.

His ERP is probably 10dB more than mine. Drift was high, which could be his rig stabilising, Es patches moving or even aircraft reflections at his end or mine.

I guess this could even be single hop F2?  2113km is F2 range.

CN8LI tends to be right at the bottom of the WSPR sub-band. I may miss some spots of him as he may be out of band (to me) sometimes?

UPDATE 1100z:  CN8LI has been spotted strongly (-10dB S/N) on 6m WSPR by 4X1RF (3860km). Multi-hop Es? It is a very long way across the Med.

10m DT way off - now reset

I had an anonymous comment to tell me that my 10m beacon's DT (timing error) was over 3 seconds out. I have had this before. The cure last time was a hard reset and I have done this again, removing all power for 10 minutes and resyncing to internet time. I was still getting decodes but you must reach a point when the receiver's software cannot cope and just gives up. Hopefully this will do the trick.

By using the FT817 and PC, I can check my 10m DT myself. This means going QRT on 6m for a few minutes. I'll do this now.

UPDATE 1618z:  10m DT checked after hard reset. Now DT = -0.3secs, which is good.

Tunisia - NOT amateur radio

I feel sorry for this nation which is bound to be adversely affected by the killings yesterday. Tunisia is a peaceful country that just wanted to get on with life as usual. Sadly, this will not be so for some time to come: tourists are likely to choose alternative destinations and avoid Muslim nations.

Surely, in the end, this is counter-productive? Whatever your views on Islam are, people are likely to become fearful of these people, when the vast majority just want to live in peace and share kindness. Sadly there is evil in our world which must never defeat us.

CN8LI (2113km) on 6m WSPR

Although I have spotted this Moroccan station a couple of times on 6m this afternoon, at quite reasonable S/N, I am still waiting for him to spot me. I shall be on 10m acnnd 6m WSPR at least until late tonight assuming there is no thunder around.

UPDATE 1536z:  Still just the 2 spots of CN8LI on 6m WSPR but no spots by him of me so far today.

UPDATE 1632z:  Mostly Gs on 6m with a little bit of Es earlier this afternoon including spots exchanged with CT1PT (1685km).

Yaesu rebate (UK/ Europe)

I see MLS is offering rebates on Yaesu gear for the next few weeks. The rebate on the FT817 is £36, making the effective retail price around £413. As  far as I can see this is just a marketing ploy. A few years ago you could buy the FT817 for £349.

With the very good exchange rate currently I am surprised they don't just slash the price and clear the shelves ready for the replacement. All development costs for the FT817 were recovered years ago, so the true retail price should be below £400. Yet again we are being taken for a ride I think.

The prices are as they are because we, Joe Public, is prepared to buy at these prices. My heart bleeds for all the poor dealers.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat June 27th 2015

Sunspot number has fallen again and stands at 28 today (K=3) and 10m propagation is expected to be "poor".  F2 propagation on 10m today will be marginal at best, although Es is expected to liven up both 10m and 6m.

10m Es

I am still TXing on 10m WSPR but, so far, all the spots have been by either G stations or Europeans. I am still hopeful of some transatlantic Es but this has not been seen here yet this season.

Warmth - NOT amateur radio

At last we seem to be in high summer with high temperatures and high humidity. Although we have passed the longest day, evenings are still light for weeks to come.  The real change tends to come in September. It must be my age but it seems only 5 minutes since last Christmas! We'll blink and it will be Christmas 2015 and the nights will start to draw out again!

UPDATE June 27th 1538z: The forecast for next week is temperatures in the 30-34 deg C range.  This would be hot.