Lunch - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday I posted the homegrown runner beans I grew. We ate them for lunch and they were very good. 

Sunspots - Thursday August 5th 2021

Solar flux is 71 and the SSN 14   A=4 and K=0. 

ID help please - NOT amateur radio

We saw this small beetle on our walk earlier. It was about 5mm long. 

It is probably very common, but I am no beetle expert! It stayed on my arm for a long time.

This was in East Anglia, not far from a small river.

6m FT8 RX with the V2000 vertical omni antenna

Most of the morning I have been monitoring 6m FT8 RX apart from a very brief period on TX early on with 2.5W (5 G spots received). It is now 1112z and, so far today, 51 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1246z:  76 stations spotted so far today.

UPDATE 2041z: 124 stations spotted today on 6m FT8 RX with the furthermost VY2ZM (4447km) on Prince Edward Island, Canada. QRT now.

10m QRP WSPR (Wednesday)

Most of the morning I have been on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW. So far today my TX has been spotted by 6 unique stations, some many times.

UPDATE 1248z:  So far today, my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon has been spotted by 9 unique stations.

UPDATE 2023z: 10 stations have spotted me today.  All in Europe. QRT soon.

Runner beans - NOT amateur radio

For the first time, this year I have grown runner beans. 

To my surprise, they were very successful. The photo shows the first crop. Next year I shall grow more. 

Sunspots - Wednesday August 4th 2021

 Solar flux is 76 and the SSN 13.  A=10 and K=1. 

160m FT8 QRP

I am now on 160m FT8 RX after a few CQs with 2.5W. My "antenna" is the earth-electrode in the ground. Unsurprisingly, seeing it is still daylight, no spots on RX or TX. I shall leave it on RX until after dark to see what I spot.

UPDATE 1820z:  The first station in Europe has been spotted - DL8LAS (702km) near Kiel.

Stations spotted on 160m
FT8 this evening

UPDATE 2032z:  Plenty of EU stations being spotted now: 22 stations spotted so far this evening. See map.

2m activity contest this evening

All being well, I shall be on for about an hour at 1900z for the 2m activity contest  (UKAC) organised by the RSGB running 10W pep to the big-wheel omni antenna. ious

Normally, I can work out to about 200km.

UPDATE 2020z: I was puzzled why my Vd was low and also that the battery of the IC-705 was not charging. After I stopped, the reason why became very obvious. The wire from the PSU had been disconnected so I was using battery power at 5W all the time I was active! After I found the loose wire, the Vd was back to normal and the battery was on charge. Operating at 5W off the battery seemed to make little difference!

OFCOM August Communications Monthly

OFCOM has updated its "Communications Monthly" with the latest figures it has for August 2021. See the OFCOM website for details.