160m FT8 RX overnight

 134 stations spotted with the best RU9F (3511km) in Asiatic Russia. Nothing transatlantic.

Sunspots - Sunday October 25th

 Solar flux is 93 and SSN 25. A=5 and K=0.

Clocks changed

 During the night the clocks go back an hour from British Summer Time to GMT. Like many, we have already changed them and are trying to pretend we are up for another hour to stop waking up at some stupid time!!

160m FT8 RX (Saturday)

 My intention is to be on 160m FT8 RX with the IC-705 and earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground this evening and overnight.

UPDATE 2234z: 111 stations spotted- all in Europe so far.

Earth-electrode antenna in the ground

 As you will have read recently, this antenna has been used here very successfully on 472kHz WSPR and 1840kHz FT8. In the past I used it very successfully on 472kHz WSPR TX. The beauty of this antenna is that it is invisible. If you are limited for space or have no wish to upset the neighbours, this may be an answer.

Back in 2013, I reached some conclusions which I still think are correct.

These were:

1. The earth-electrode antenna at 472kHz (2 earth rods in the soil 15-20m apart fed from the TX output) behaves like an H-field loop transmitting antenna.
2. It has directivity, with strongest signals in the line of the loop and weakest signals at right angles to it.
3. It works as an effective RX antenna too.
4. In my environment the loop looks like about 50-60 ohms resistive, so a good match to my transverter directly without matching.
5. The structure works because much of the return current flows deep within the soil and rock beneath the earth-electrode antenna. In my case Rik OR7T calculated that the loop area in the ground is effectively 290m sq with a radiation resistance of 0.017 ohm and a loss resistance of 66 ohms.This is a BIG loop!
6. Performance compared with my 9m high top loaded Marconi antenna averages only around 8dB down, not a bad figure at all, even with the connecting wire on the ground and not elevated at all.
7. Where no other antenna option is available, the earth-electrode antenna is well worth trying both on 472kHz and on 136kHz both for RX and TX. Although it works well here, your geology may be different and results not the same.

Meshcore v. Meshtastic

As mentioned before, off-grid communication based on LoRa seems to be in its infancy. Like the debate some decades ago about VHS and Betamax video, in the end something will win out.   As an outsider, I do not know which will win in the end. 

Locally, Meshcore seems to be the favourite. In the case of DX-Explorer I think Meshcore is the favoured system.

It would be interesting to know your views if you have a view.

I am not sure of the data rates, but I think these are far slower than what we are used to with the internet. Being mesh based, both systems should be resilient. I am tempted to "have a go" but have held back for now in case I back the wrong system.

Is there Windows software that allow you to "peek" at Meshcore or  Meshtastic meshes locally? It would be good to have a look first.

Slow scan TV

Again my thanks to Amateur Radio Weekly for bringing this to my attention. There is a website dedicated to SSTV where you can see signals received.

See https://slowscantv.com/

Venus bounce

 If you think EME is hard, bouncing a message off Venus is so much harder!  Incredibly, it has been done. This news was via Amateur Radio Weekly.

See Earth-Venus-Earth.

10m 1W FT8 (Saturday)

At about 1025z I turned on my gear.

UPDATE 1313z: 28 stations have spotted me. Best is a spot from South Africa. 

UPDATE 1518z:  74 stations have spotted me today See map.

CQWW SSB - no thanks

 As mentioned earlier in the week, this is the CQWW SSB contest this weekend. I thought I might have a go, then decided against it: too much shouting! If my voice was better maybe. 

I was surprised how much FT8 activity there was on 10m. I was expecting FT8 activity to be lower this weekend.