472kHz WSPR overnight

Last night was average on 472kHz WSPR. In all, I was spotted by 10 stations with best DX PA0O (440km) and I spotted 11 stations.

Then I looked at a well equipped station, EI0CF, who was spotted by 117 different stations including 5 North Americans. So, a decent antenna and ground does make a real difference! Mind you, it proves that even with a very compromised set-up and low ERP like mine results are possible especially with WSPR.

Stations that spotted me overnight on 472kHz WSPR

Stations spotted here on 472kHz  WSPR overnight

10m FT8

Much of the morning I have been on 10m FT8. At the moment, just G4HZW (212km) spotted. A brief CQ earlier was spotted by no-one at all. It looks like this will be another dire day on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 1448z: No further spots. All very quiet on 10m FT8.

SETI - NOT amateur radio

In the visible universe there estimated to be 1 billion trillion stars. And that is just the ones we can see!! If you say 1% of these have planets this is still a huge number. Of these, you would have thought some would have life and some of these intelligent life.

To my knowledge, we have been looking for over 50 years yet found nothing via the SETI (search for extra terrestrial intelligence). Either intelligent life is very rare indeed, or we are looking the wrong way, it is too weak to detect, or it is not there.

Should we ever find out that we are not alone, it should have a profound impact on life on Earth.

See https://www.seti.org/

Sunspots Thursday February 7th 2019

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0.  A=10 and K=3.

Bouncing along the bottom of the solar cycle?

BREXIT - NOT amateur radio

The recent statement by Donald Tusk about there being a "special place in hell for BREXITeers" was ill timed and counter-productive. Yes, Theresa May is struggling to get her plan approved by MPs in UK parliament, but this smacks of sour grapes.

Although I voted "remain", I am probably not alone in wishing the EU gets not a penny of the £39 billion the UK was due to pay unless the EU agrees a sensible deal that suits both the UK and EU.

Mr Tusk, think before speaking.

Wicken cottage - NOT amateur radio

This is one of the cottages we saw on our walk at nearby Wicken last week.

More crappery - NOT amateur radio

This appeared on my blog maintenance pages earlier:

"Following the announcement of Google+ API deprecation scheduled for March 2019, a number of changes will be made to Blogger’s Google+ integration on 4 February 2019. "

So the new buzz word is "depreciation". 

USA rally

8-10 FEBRUARY : 73rd ORLANDO HamCation®

Central Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Park, 4603 West Colonial Drive, Orlando, Florida 32808, USA. Over 150 commercial vendors, more than 200 swap table vendors and the largest tailgate area in the southeastern US, will show and sell amateur radios, parts, computer hardware and software and other interesting electronic items for a growing group of radio enthusiasts. Over thirty forums held at the Lakeside Pavilion will present a diverse range of topics including digital amateur radio, new software developments, youth and amateur radio. K1AA will be the operating as a special event station and talk-in station. HamCation® is the second largest ham shows in the United States and third largest in the world after Tokyo and Hamvention with over 22.300 visitors last year. www.hamcation.com.

Good night on 160m FT8

Overnight was good on 160m FT8 with lots of North Americans spotted plus 2 Caribbeans. Even my brief CQ call (2.5W) was spotted by 6 stations in 3 countries

Stations spotted on 160m FT8 overnight with 

the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

Stations that spotted my 2.5W CQ with 

the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

6m FT8 then MSK144

As no-one has made any suggestions, I am QSYing to 50.313MHz FT8 in a minute. I doubt the activity will be as high as 2m.

UPDATE 0930z: The QSY to 6m FT8 was at 0922z. At first I called CQ (2.5W) and now RX only. So far, no spots!

UPDATE 1018z: A local told me that 50.280MHz MSK144 was the main 6m MS channel, so I QSYed to that mode and frequency. A brief CQ call got no spots, so I am RX only now.

UPDATE 1145z: No spots.

UPDATE 1158z: A CQ call (2.5W to the vertical) bought a spot from M1BXF (13km) of +9dB S/N.

UPDATE 1551z: No further 6m MSK144 RX spots. At the moment I am calling CQ, although 6m seems a dead loss: I have spotted no-one at all and only a local has spotted me! I shall stay on until teatime, then QSY to either 630m WSPR or 160m FT8.

UPDATE 1628z: OK, so 6m MSK144 was a dead loss!! QSYing to 630m WSPR.