2015 - NOT amateur radio

As I write this we have just over one hour to go of this year. In some parts of the world it is already the new year. For me, it has been a "challenging" year with slow, slow improvements in my stroke. My voice is still poor, I still have problems with many drinks and I have not made the full recovery by now that I was hoping for so much. I just hope next year is better, or at the very least that I can better adapt to the "me" I am these days.

Sunspots and 2015 predictions

Sunspot number today is 94 and 10m propagation is forecast to be "fair". We'll soon find out just what this means.

I turned on the 10m 500mW WSPR beacon about 15 mnutes ago. Best DX so far this morning is 4L1QX (3299km). I'm still on 472kHz too, but will QSY to the 6m band soon.

In 2015 we might expect the following:

• Declining sunspot numbers. We could see peak numbers in the 40s by the year end;
• Possibly a new contiguous 60m band (with a favourable WRC meeting outcome);
• The USA on 472 and 137kHz properly at last;
• More interest in optical comms,especially IR and NLOS (non line-of-sight);
• Possibly world-wide DX on amateur VLF frequencies below 9kHz.

I sincerely hope my health picks up too as I am keen to do field work again.

Best wishes for 2015

As I write this, it is still 2014 here in the UK but in most of Europe, Asia and Australasia it is already 2015. I wish all my blog readers the very best for 2015.

I really hope my health improves in 2015 so that I can resume field experiments!