Sunspots and 10m - Friday November 25th 2016

Solar flux is 79 today. The sunspot count is 12. K=6.

10m is unlikely to be any good today.

Black Friday Crap - NOT amateur radio

One of the bad things we in the UK seem to have imported from the USA is "Black Friday". Until a few years ago this was unknown here in the UK. As far as I can see this is just another excuse to encourage us to buy what we do not need. It is greed and commercialism, pure and simple. OK there may be some bargains, but few.

Let me say I hate Black Friday and refuse to go along with the silly games that shops and retailers play on us. Bah humbug! I know some retailers are having a hard time, but as far as Black Friday is concerned go away! Play somewhere else.

UK Amateur Prices Up

Since BREXIT and the UK pound losing value against the $ and Yen, we are seeing price increases. The FT817ND was around £450 or less but MLS are now listing this at £599.95 "with 5% off". This is rather more than the exchange rate change. Somebody being greedy?

Answer to a maiden's prayer? - NOT amateur radio

Antibiotics are widely used (perhaps over-used) and many infections are become resistant to them meaning many common diseases could be lethal in the future. However, a new way of beating super-bugs may be possible.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38077263 .

Southgate News

Although they pick up stuff from all over the place, this is worth checking out regularly.

See http://southgatearc.org/ .

Sunspots and 10m - Thursday, November 24th 2016

Solar flux is 77 today and the sunspot number 11. K=3.

On the face of it, it does not look too promising for 10m today.

Back on 10m JT65 ever hopeful

My return to 10m JT65 was at about 0910z this morning. The last few days have been poor, so I am hoping today will be a little better (than nil spots!).

As we are entering quieter solar times, DX will be much harder on 10m, but this is where JT65 and WSPR will prove really useful running in the background: if any DX pops up it will not be missed. 10m is "open" most days, if only briefly, yet few realise.

UPDATE 0955z:  Still no spots as yet.

UPDATE 1145z: G0OYQ (177km) has recently been spotted here on 10m JT65. Aircraft reflection or tropo? In the past I have worked stations at good range on 10m SSB (10W pep QRP) within the UK using just a low dipole antenna. Remember that 10m is not bad for semi-local working at any part of the solar cycle.

UPDATE 2146z: LU3ADP (11207km) was the best DX received on 10m JT65.

Time to go QRT

In a few minutes I shall be going QRT on all bands. 10m has been disappointing again and just G0LRD again on 6m. David is not too far away.

6m JT65

After another fruitless day on 10m JT65, I QSYed to 6m JT65 at 1926z. G0LRD (25km) copied me, but no other 6m spots as yet.

RSP2 SDR receiver

SDRplay has announced a new SDR radio. I have to admit never having played with SDR radios yet. This is quite a gap!

See http://swling.com/blog/2016/11/announcing-the-new-sdrplay-rsp2/ .

and

See http://www.sdrplay.com/docs/SDRplayRSP2announcement.pdf  .