Old windmill - NOT amateur radio

At one time there were several windmills in our village. The "intact" one is next door. The base of another one still exists, but a thatched roof now replaces the mill body.

More network radio

Up to now I have just used my Inrico T320 network radio on Wi-Fi. Somewhere I have a Virgin "pay as you go" SIM with some credit, I think. Maybe I should put this in. If I remember correctly this lasts until the credit expires, which could be some while in my case! I need to check what Virgin charge for data on "pay as you go".

Harvest home - NOT amateur radio

Generally farmers in the UK have been busy cutting the corn making the most of the dry, hot weather. This is a field not far from me in our village.

Sunspots - Monday August 6th 2018

Solar flux is 68 today and the sunspot number zero. A=4 and K=1.

Tomorrow

All being well, I think I'll go back to 10m WSPR TX (500mW) and 6m FT8 RX tomorrow. The last time I was on 10m WSPR TX, 17 different stations spotted me. Today I was on 10m FT8 RX and there was Es but no "real" DX spotted here. The furthest spotted was Bahrain.

Mackerel Sky - NOT amateur radio

Today has been another hot day, but there was a cooler breeze this evening when this sky was visible over "our" windmill next door.

Dry, dry, dry - NOT amateur radio

Most of Europe has had a very hot and dry summer. Oh, sorry, climate change is a Chinese plot - I forgot those wise words.

I have never seen our garden so parched.  It was the same at Ickworth, Suffolk yesterday with a pond there drying up. Normally it has plenty of water. We had a very wet winter. It would not surprise me if the USA soon experiences "dust bowl" conditions again. Climate change is a reality. The world is warming.

The photo shows the sky, and parched grass, at Ickworth yesterday.

Es'hail 2 - will it succeed?

Assuming this is successfully put into orbit (due Q4 2018), this Qatar satellite will open up a new era in amateur radio. Southgate News has a piece on this today. 2.4GHz uplink and 10GHz downlink. Fixed dish, modest powers, band always open. Predicted 15 year life.

There is another satellite due to cover the Americans as E'hail does not cover the Americas.

See http://www.amsat-dl.org/index.php/es-hail-2-p4a

and

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/august/coordinated-frequencies-for-p4a-es%27hail-2.htm#.W2bCMfZFzIU

Sunspots - Sunday August 5th 2018

Solar flux is 70 today and the SSN has returned to zero. A=5 and K=1.

6m and 10m FT8

Last night 21 different stateside stations were spotted on 6m FT8 RX.

Today, I am on 10m FT8 RX. Already, the logbook is filled with Europeans via Es. Best DX so far on 10m FT8 RX this morning is EK1KE (3581km) in Armenia. Not sure if this station is multi-hop Es or F layer single hop.

UPDATE 0944z: Well, I have stopped counting how many stations spotted already on 10m FT8 but it is a lot. 3 continents already spotted on 10m FT8. Not bad as we approach sunspot minimum.

UPDATE 1109z: Best DX on 10m FT8 RX is A92AA (5069km) in Bahrain.

UPDATE 2010z: A couple of USA stations logged.