Sunspots - Thursday July 11th

 Solar flux is 214 and the SSN 190. A=6 and K=1.

Lunch with old work colleagues - NOT amateur radio

Quite regularly, a group of old work colleagues meet up for lunch. A regular attendee is a lady who is over 100 years old. She is still as sharp as ever.

10m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

My main concentration is 10m FT8 with 2.5W today. At 0917z my QRP signal has been spotted by 33 stations across Europe. 23 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX too at the same time.

UPDATE 1451z:  65 stations have spotted me and I have spotted about twice as many here. See map for the stations spotting my QRP today so far.

10m 500mW WSPR

My QRP 10m WSPR beacon was on and I was quite surprised to get spots from Germany way after midnight. Es is more common in daylight. Perhaps there are more people on in the daytime?

Solar cycle 25 peak

 According to my favourite site for solar data, the maximum for solar cycle 25 was probably June 2024 i.e. quite recently.

8m permanent amateur allocations

 Around the world, several nations have granted radio amateurs permanent access to the 8m band. Others have granted experimental licences. Being between 10m and 6m this would be a really useful small allocation for propagation research.

To my knowledge, the following have granted radio amateurs permanent access. My list may well be incomplete:

• Eire
• Slovenia
• Belgium
• South Africa
• Cayman Is.

Others are trying,  Maybe this is a trend that will continue. 

Countries that I know have been active (not in the Amateur Radio Service) include:

• Croatia
• Latvia
• Luxembourg
• UK
• Falklands
• Bonaire
• USA
• Australia
• Israel
• Lebanon
• Italy
• Greece

There are probably many more. I don't think Croatia has a permanent amateur allocation.

Sunspots - Wednesday July 10th

 Solar flux is 180 and the SSN 143. A=6 and K=1.

8m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

According to the European Es map, it looks like bands are open towards Spain, so I am active on 40.680 MHz with my 2.5W FT8.

UPDATE 1510z:  No spots.

UPDATE  1540z:  Spotted by EA3ERE (1153km). No QSOs.

UPDATE 1626z:   One QSO with a different Spanish station. Many Spanish stations copied on 8m FT8 RX.

UPDATE  1740z:   S01WS (3043km) in Western Sahara is the furthermost I have copied on 8m FT8 RX with a total of 10 stations spotted on 8m FT8 RX. The map shows the stations spotted on 8m FT8  RX.

4m transverter

Looking through some old photos I chanced on this one of my 4m transverter. 

There’s no way I could do this now with my poor fine motor skills.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/homebrew/4m-transverter .

6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

About 1030z, I went on 6m FT8 with my 2.5W.  

163 stations had spotted me at 1327z. See map.