Solar activity

See http://www.solen.info/solar/.

It is easy to overlook the peaks and troughs of solar activity when looking at averages. When solar activity has brief peaks, conditions can often be way above average. Some have even caught brief 6m F2 openings by remaining alert.

That is why 10m is such a fascinating band . Even in years with almost zero or no sunspots I have worked South Americans with QRP SSB with simple wire antennas. Never give up just because the average sunspot number is low.

10m USA today?

It is now 1240z and there are no spots of my 500mW 10m beacon from the USA yet.  I see that the band is open between the USA and Germany so maybe I am being impatient. However, with much lower sunspot numbers it is possible I'll not be heard in  the USA on 10m today at all with my low power beacon.

UPDATE 1330z:   I spoke too soon!  WA2PJI (5550km) spotted me first at 1242z and there have been others since.

UPDATE 1752z:   At the moment KC1AWS (5308km) is the last USA station to have spotted my 500mW WSPR beacon on 10m at 1750z. This could change. 

UPDATE 1835z:   KC1AWS does appear to be the last USA station to spot me at 1750z. Since then, just local G4IKZ (18km).

Sunspot number and 10m

At just 49, the sunspot number is lower than for some time.   10m propagation is only expected to be "fair".

Last 10m USA WSPR spot today

QTH next to the windmill (LHS)

KB1VXY (5308km) was the last to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR-AXE-CW beacon today at 1802z. Since then, just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me. Time to go QRT on 10m but I'll remain on 630m WSPR now and through the night. I have just resync'd the PC to internet time.

My 10m antenna is not the world's best.  At some point, when fitter, I hope to re-erect  a single band antenna for 10m use, possibly my Homebase-10 design on my main website.

472kHz - WSPR spots on TX (5mW ERP) in last 2 weeks

Using the short baseline earth-electrode "antenna" on 472kHz WSPR in the last 2 weeks I see my best DX on 5mW ERP was F1JBB (722km) in IN95 square. I still need to count the unique stations, squares and countries with 5mW ERP from this QTH.

472kHz TX results (5mW ERP WSPR) on earth-electrode "antenna" in last 2 weeks

USA WSPR spots

You could almost set your watch by it!  KC1AWS (5308km) was the first USA station to spot my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today. This was at 1210z, just 2 minutes earlier than yesterday, reflecting the change in daylight hours. It will be interesting to see at what time spots from the USA stop tonight.

Errors

I know I have said something similar here before...

Almost every time I do a blog post, write an email, or post on Facebook, I seem to make at least one error that I have to go back later to correct. This may be a simple typo or perhaps my stroke leaves me unable to spot errors quickly?   Either way, I try to correct the mistake as soon as I do spot it. This seems to be nearly every time I post.  Let me know if you see any I've missed please.

The most common errors are "i" and "o" interposed, extraneous full stops, commas instead of full stops, missing full stops and "m" and "n" interposed. These could be my poor keyboard skills and nothing more, but I'm sure I'm more error-prone than I was before my brain bleed.

10m WSPR this morning

No great DX as yet on 10m. My best spot of my 500mW beacon is 4X1RF (3519km) with no DX from further afield spotting me. Even with the falling sunspots (still pretty reasonable) I expect to be spotted in the USA after lunch.

Sunspots and 10m - Jan 17th 2015

Sunspot number today is 75 and 10m propagation is forecast to be "fair". I only turned the 10m 500mW WSPR beacon on quite recently and I am still not quite stably on frequency, but so far only local G4IKZ (18km) is spotting me on 10m.

A video to enjoy (Salcombe, Devon) - not amateur radio

As a child, I was brought up in Salcombe, Devon. This remains a most beautiful area and I am still drawn to it. I know of no better place on the planet and I have been to many countries for work and pleasure. This splendid video was created using drones by Birds Eye View Productions.