Sunspots - Saturday August 3rd 2019

Solar flux is 67 today and the SSN 0. A=8 and K=1.

Dahlias - NOT amateur radio

Most months we visit nearby Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust property, to walk around the extensive grounds. Every summer they have a great show of dahlias. At the moment these are not quite at their best, but some are already wonderful, as the photo shows. There was one on the blog yesterday, but I could not resist sharing this one too!

The Tenner 10m CW QRP transceiver

Apart from summer Es, 10m is not the best DX band. Give it a few years, it may be quite different and 10m DX should be easy with QRP.

Perhaps now is the time to get building. Remember that all of Europe can be worked with QRP every May, June and July. Once the F2 openings really get going the USA should be workable with QRP regularly. In both cases, just a low wire dipole is all that is needed - no beams, nothing big in the air.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/10m_tenner

Facebook and Microsoft Edge - NOT amateur radio

For the last few weeks it seems as if my browser (Edge) is blocking all "push" notifications from Facebook. I am also unable to post. With Firefox all works. When I tried to turn "on" Facebook push messages FB would not allow me to turn this "on".  It is almost as if an update to Edge is preventing this. Anyone else seen this?

Giddiness - NOT amateur radio

Since my stroke in 2013 I have felt giddy on my feet. In the last year this has got worse. Not only that, but all car driving has become more stressful. Even a 4 mile trip to Tesco fills me with dread. When I drive I seem to be OK. My wife says I am the same as ever and it is all in the mind. 45 mph feels like 70-80mph to me! I am aware I must drive slowly and this embarrasses  me.

Es this season

There have been some spectacular 6m openings this Es season. These include Europe to North and South America, the Caribbean, Japan and even Australia. However, here this season, 6m Es has been less good than last year.

This summer, I have copied North America and the Caribbean but not South America or the Far East. The last time I spotted Japan on 6m was in 2017 with JT65. For 2018 and 2019 I have concentrated on FT8, which is less good than JT65 on weak signals. My antenna system is just a V2000 vertical omni. This is probably 10dB down on better equipped stations.

Although better equipped stations are able to copy some of this "real DX" it suggests with my set-up I struggle.

6m FT8

Overnight I stayed on 2m FT8 RX. Although a few new stations were spotted late yesterday, very little new this morning, so I decided to go on 6m FT8 instead.

On 6m FT8 RX just a brief CQ by an LA7 (called but not worked). On 6m FT8 TX I was spotted by 8 stations with the best spot being by OZ9QV (861km).

UPDATE 1114z: Now 17 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX with the best DX spotted EA8AQV (2989km).

UPDATED 1402z: Now 30 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Thursday August 2nd 2019

Solar flux is 68 and the SSN 0. A=8 and K=1.

By-election - NOT amateur radio

At the moment people are still voting in a by-election for their new MP. The outcome should be known in the morning.

UPDATE 2120z: Voting has now closed.

UPDATE Aug 2nd 0844z: The seat was won by the Lib-Dems.

2m FT8

A recent 2m FT8 CQ was spotted by 13 stations with best DX being DL6YBF (471km) who called and worked me. On 2m FT8 RX I have spotted 5 stations in 4 countries.

UPDATE 2111z: Now 12 stations spotted in 5 countries today in the last few hours.