Sunspots - Monday April 6th

 Solar flux is 118 and the SSN 112. A=12 and K=1.

Museum open

The museum next door was open for the first time in 2026. The windmill sails were turning. This is our hedge in front!

10m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

My TX was turned on at about 1045z. 

UPDATE 1148z:   19 stations have spotted me with the best V51F (8209km) in Namibia. On RX 44 stations were spotted with the best northern Australia.

UPDATE 1537z:  Spotted by 90 stations today with 4 being in Brazil and 1 in Argentina. 230 stations have been spotted here. No North Americans.

Easter Sunday

 In the Christian calendar this is celebrated as the day when Jesus was resurrected. Whatever our beliefs or none, we can reflect on kindness that is the most important thing in the world. Happy Easter!!

Joe Blogs video

These videos are usually about economics or politics. I watch them most days. 

UPDATE 1152z:  Apparently the airman was rescued by the USA.

Classic QRP rig

The Heathkit HW8 was a classic HF transceiver. As I recall it was about 2W CW and covered 80m, 40m, 20m and 15m CW with a direct conversion RX. I owned one for a while and (I think) sold it back to the original owner. This was about 40 years ago, so my memory is not clear!

The image was found on the internet, but I cannot remember where!

A few years ago Heathkit tried to make a comeback. The original Heathkits were excellent, but later products were expensive and nothing exciting in my view.

See https://shop.heathkit.com/collections/products.

The advent of Japanese rigs led to there being no real advantage to building a kit.

Ephemeral

Our ornamental cherry tree comes into blossom in the spring.  I can see the white flowers appearing now. 

 Usually it lasts 1-2 weeks only. Whilst it lasts, it is great, but it soon goes.

This photo was from a few years ago.

Oscar 100 geosynchronous satellite - narrowband

It is a while since I gave an update about narrowband activity on this geosynchronous satellite. Activity remains low. 

I appreciate that some have risen to the challenge of producing a microwave base station, but overall I remain surprised how low activity remains. 

The latest snapshot was mid evening in Europe on Easter weekend when I expected activity to be good.

Sunspots - Sunday April 5th

 Solar flux is 128 and the SSN 113.   A=16 and K=3.

Times News

At the time of writing we do not know the fate of the second US airman missing in Iran.