Rally this weekend

The following rally has been notified to me. I always advice contacting organisers to check the details are correct.

Sunday July 2nd - Barford Norfolk Radio Rally, Barford, NR9 4AB. Contact radio@dcpmicro.com

Sunspots - Friday June 30th 2023

Solar flux is 162 and the SSN 112. A=17 and K=3.

8m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

My 8m 2.5W FT8 was turned on this morning.   At 1728z, just spotted by S50B (1220km) and EA3ERE (1153km).

10m QRP WSPR TX (Thursday)

My 500mW 10m WSPR TX beacon was turned on this morning. So far (at 1719z) 23 unique stations have spotted me.

Faulty BNC plugs

 A couple of my antenna leads with BNC plugs have become intermittent or broken. I first noticed one last night in the 2m CDARC 2m FM net when the SWR was very high. Years ago, this would have been a trivial task. These days it is far more taxing sadly.

Riga, Latvia - NOT amateur radio

I don't think this photo has been on this blog recently. It shows a seaside resort close to Riga in Latvia. We went there several years ago and were expecting a dump. Actually Riga was a lovely city that was once a Hanseatic League city with many fine buildings. 

Sunspots - Thursday June 29th 2023

 Solar flux is 155 and the SSN 141. A=8 and K=4.

Fossils - NOT amateur radio

We have walked over tiles in the Grand Arcade in Cambridge for years. Only in the last few months have we have noticed the fossils in them. Now when we look down there are hundreds!  

How can we live here for so many years and not see these?!! I bet if we missed these, many others have too.

I think this is an ammonite millions of years old.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonoidea .

Es poor?

Sporadic-E is, well, sporadic! Some days can be very good and others poor. Certainly up to now (1132z) the Es has been poor here. Most Es seems to be in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Even that seems poor. In the northern hemisphere, the best months are usually May, June and July, although Es can occur at any time.

So far, this season has been disappointing for me. There have been some good openings, but my overall impression that this is not a great Es season so far. To get a quick"snapshot" of European Es I now take a quick peek at  https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/europe-sporadic-e/ .

8m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

Although, at the moment, Es is poor, I am again on 8m FT8. So far, no spots at 0805z.

As reported yesterday, another country has granted a small 8m allocation. Personally, I would happily lose 5 kHz off any band in exchange for 5 kHz in the ISM band at 8m. Personally, I think this would encourage self training and research.

UPDATE 1438z:  No spots.  So far, today has been disappointing. I shall keep trying .... and hoping!

UPDATE 1533z: Just GM0SXQ8 (575km) spotting me. If there were more stations monitoring, over a wide area, I am sure there would be many more spots.

UPDATE 1538z:  HC02 (1808km) in Portugal has now spotted me.