14 Oct 2026

10m 1W FT8 (Wednesday)

 

My gear was turned on at about 0810z.

UPDATE 0822z:  4 stations have spotted me with the best a station in Armenia.

UPDATE  1600z:  116 stations have spotted me. See map.

160m FT8 overnight

 Last evening and overnight I went on FT8 RX again. 128 stations were spotted but nothing yet from across the Atlantic. 

Sunspots - Wednesday October 14th

 Solar flux is 136 and the SSN 102. A=13 and K=2.

13 Oct 2026

Yemen and Iran

The war in the Middle East is spreading and my personal view is President Trump is like a rabbit in the headlights, not knowing what to do next. 

If he escalates does he have the munitions? Putting more soldiers in harms way would be deeply unpopular at home.

He is looking for a way out without losing face.


10m 1W FT8 (Tuesday)

Stations spotting me

As it was very quiet on 10m WSPR, I decided to switch to 10m 1W FT8.  Immediately my screen was filled with stations from the USA.

UPDATE 1534z:  Spotted by 61 stations with most in the USA. I can only assume that, although WSPR is popular on some bands, most 10m users prefer FT8 to WSPR. It looks like 10m FT8 beckons tomorrow! See map of stations spotting me. 

UPDATE 1548z:  70 stations have spotted me.

Stations spotted here on 10m FT8 RX

UPDATE 1609z: 
 162 stations spotted on RX. See map.

Nice surprise

 

All summer we have picked blackberries to have with breakfast. This morning, not really expecting to find any, I walked up to the bush and found 12 ripe!  

These were picked and had with breakfast.

10m 200mW WSPR (Tuesday)

 My little beacon has been on since breakfast.

UPDATE 1302z: No spots yet. Usually I start getting spots around lunchtime.

Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge, UK


We walk past here most weeks. Some travel across the world, whereas we can see it for nothing. 

This college was where some of the scenes from the comedy film "Porterhouse Blue" were filmed.

6m 1W FT8 (Tuesday)

My gear was turned on after breakfast.

UPDATE  1306z:  Mostly English stations have spotted me with just one at any distance  - EA1NL (1289km). See map of stations spotting me.

160m FT8 and WSPR compared


As an experiment I went on 160m WSPR RX overnight. As conditions could have been different this can only be an impression rather than a fair test. 

My impression is that FT8 is more popular than WSPR at least on this band. 

Only 12 different stations were spotted on WSPR whereas there were hundreds on FT8. WSPR is still used, but many now prefer FT8.

The map shows the stations spotted on 160m WSPR last night. DP0POL is actually /MM on a ship crossing the North Sea.