VHF seems quiet this morning. Worked a couple of SOTA portables before noticing that RI1FJL were on 15m CW. I already have them on 15, but CW would be a new slot. Initially they were quite weak, but came up well and it was an easy QSO to make.
Just before lunchtime, there was an RS-44 pass and I thought I'd give it a go as it was a low pass over North America - my favourite sort of pass! Couldn't raise anyone on CW so I tried SSB and worked N2FYA and WT8D - fantastic! There was another station calling me as I lost the satellite, perhaps a WB8 with HH in the call. If you read this, I'm sorry! I hope I can work you next time!
A little Es going on on 6m. Worked IW0HLE and saw a couple of other stations, but fairly weak. Nice to work Peter G8BCG this morning on 6m - some sort of scatter going on as there was a lot of 'fuzz' on the waterfall from Peter. Switched to the vertical and absolutely nothing whereas on the beam (beaming SE), Peter was +3.
Interesting mode comparison on 2m around lunchtime. Peter MW0PJE/P was out on a SOTA summit north of Swansea. I could just detect him on FM working Don GW0PLP. On SSB he was audible, just, but at 'I can't be bothered strength'! But had an easy QSO with him when he moved to 2m FT8, with signals varying between -10 and -5.
Pleased to work RI1FJL on 17m CW this afternoon after a session of beekeeping. Not too difficult to work. That was a new one on CW.
Chatting to Pete MM9SQL this evening about OscarWatch, it reminded me I hadn't tried a satellite QSO recently, so popped on a fairly high pass of RS-44. It was nice to work SV1IW and also George GI4SJQ, both on CW. Not sure I've worked Greece on a satellite before!
Tuned across 15m after finishing the satellite pass and could hear a weak PJ2/NA2U who managed to pull me out - so that was a surprise. no other CW on the band, although FT8 looked busy.
Since there doesn't seem to have been much 6m DX from over the Atlantic in recent weeks, I've turned the beam from its' usual westerly heading towards the East - it'll be interesting to see if anything comes in from that direction. Probably need to be looking south really, but we'll see what happens.
HF seems fairly poor again this morning (A and K quite high), so I'm guessing it's going to be a SOTA day!
Some interesting propagation around 1150z on 2m FT8; two decodes from EA7KNR (IM77). Probably an MS burst although maybe it could have been a brief bit of Es, especially as I saw two decodes. Nothing on 6m at the time, which makes me think it wasn't Es. I was the only station outside Spain to hear him, so propagation must have been quite selective, which perhaps points more to Es. I have no idea! But, good to see - whatever it was!
Six metres very quiet this morning, just the odd bit of scatter. HF not much better!
RI1FJL on 20 and 15, where I don't need them, so worked a few SOTA stations which is always enjoyable. I took the opportunity to upload my SOTA log to the database for the first time in a. few months and it appears I'm heading towards my 3rd Shack Sloth award!
Around lunchtime, I noticed IK0FTA come out of nowhere at huge strength on 6m. Couldn't resist a QSO!
I've been rather quiet with my updates for a little while. I've been a bit preoccupied, to be honest!
I think I mentioned some health issues. Well, the investigations into this morphed into a MRI and then a biopsy, looking at whether I had Prostate Cancer. Following the MRI, it looked like I did and for about a month, that was the very unpleasant possibility that we were looking at. Yesterday, Julie and I met with the consultant to discuss the biopsy results. To our huge surprise and delight, only a very minor amount of cancer was detected and at such a low level, the consultant wasn't concerned. Major relief for us both, I can tell you.
The original issue that sparked the investigation remains to be solved, but a fairly simple operation can correct this, so hopefully that can be done shortly and the whole episode put behind us.
In the background, I have been on the radio! It's been a good summer for 6m and I've been pleased to work a couple of new countries; 3A (Monaco) and VP2M (Montserrat) on the band. There's been loads of Es. It's tailed off a bit now, but even today there have been stations to work.
I spent a bit more time on 70MHz FT8 this summer too! I found that the FTDX-10 and the 40m dipole worked ok to make a few QSOs here and there and I've worked a few new squares on the band.
HF has been fairly poor over the summer. Conditions seem to be starting to change a little bit now. In the CWT session on Wednesday evening, I worked a couple of west coast NA stations on 15m for the first time in a few weeks. The RI1FJL expedition to Frans Josef Land has been very QRV and I was pleased to work them on 15m FT8 for a new DXCC from Wales, followed shortly after by a 20m FT8 QSO. As ever it will be nice to pick up a CW QSO if possible.
Well, hopefully updates will be a bit more frequent again now.
Actually, I've not been feeling that great! I won't go into details, but had a rather painful occurrence involving a trip to A&E at the end of May and I've been recovering since. Hopefully making some progress now. So, I haven't been as active as normal.
But this morning there was an excellent 2m Es opening when I worked around 35 stations. I was very happy about that as I missed a good opening last night!
Later on in the day there was a brief opening into the Baltic area and I was delighted to work UA1ASA (KO48). 25 new squares on 2m in a day. That's not bad!
It's been a busy few days here! We were able to collect a swarm of bees from the garden of a lovely family close by. We've now settled the bees into the hive and all is well so far.
Had a bit of fun and games with the TS-590SG. When I went to transmit, the rig reset and rebooted, even at a 5W power level. I tried two power supplies and the same thing happened. I tested the power lead and it had a low DC resistance so I was getting ready to send the rig off for repair. Somehow, though, it felt like a power related issue. Rob MW0RLJ a mile away has a TS-590SG and I asked him if I could take my TS-590SG over there and see if it worked on his power lead. Of course, he said, but have you tried re-seating the fuse? I said I hadn't, but didn't think that was the issue as the DC resistance of the lead was so low. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, I took the fuse out and re-seated it. And, that was the problem - no more rebooting rig.
So, that's great. I'd missed the ability to monitor 2m and 6m simultaneously! Not much doing on 6m over the last few days, but this afternoon, I was pleased to work several VO and VE1 stations as well as HI3T.
Pete MM9SQL's Oscarwatch program continues to develop and it's been fun to make a few satellite QSOs again. No real DX worked, but it all seems to be working well. I've been on RS-44, JO-97 as well as the ISS so far, with CW and SSB on RS-44, CW on JO-97 and of course, FM on the ISS crossband repeater.
Not much in the way of Es today on 6m and certainly not on 2m. Just the occasional decode.
Pete MM9SQL has written some new satellite tracking software and he's kindly allowed me to test it. I've got it hooked up to the FT-847 and although I only have a poor antenna for satellites (ie the dual band vertical) I've had some fun today on RS-44 with a few QSOs. Pete's software sorts out doppler control, so for the first time in a very long time, I can actually tune around on the transponder and have a fairly reliable sense of where I need to transmit!
Missed both the CWTs today - the band was very noisy with static crashes this afternoon and then we went out to Abercastell in the evening.
First things first! I was completely wrong about the opening to JA on 6m. No sign of anything. Although, in my defence I did see mention of some people having heard XW on 6m this morning. Certainly not here! It was a good Es day though and had just under 50 QSOs. Nothing really unusual, but just a nice day of waiting for signals to build and calling them. Quite intense Es this morning on 6m and I'd guess that 4m opened up. I didn't see anything on 2m.
Why, oh why, do people use these filters like 'hide stations I've worked before' on VHF? This morning, there was a station calling CQ on 2m FT8. Tried calling him and I know he heard me because I could see it on PSK Reporter. He didn't reply to me. He'd even gone out portable and I didn't see him work a soul. Was it finger trouble having left the filter on? Or some other reason. On FT8, a QSO takes little over a minute to complete. Is your life so busy that you can't spare a minute to work a station you've worked before? Are you too important to be bothered by people calling you for repeat QSOs? Perhaps you are only interested in QSOs for an award and not VHF propagation and how it varies from day to day. Well, of course, we're all entitled to operate as we wish, but I. JUST. DON'T. SEE. THE. POINT. OF. THIS.
Sigh! Rant over :-)
The Es seemed to fade in the late afternoon.
With 6m quiet, when we got back from a nice evening at the harbour, I went on 15m and was pleased to find the band open quite nicely into the USA.
I'm typing this up at the end of the day as it's been a busy one. Two cruise ships in today, so we were at the port for most of the afternoon.
6m seems to have been open all day! It was open when I got to the shack and it's still going at 23:!5 as I write this.
I saw EA5MY on 2m Es as well, around 1815-1830 UTC. Not too strong here most of the time and I couldn't get him to hear me. Having said that, I just checked PSK Reporter and EA5QA heard me at -6, so that's great.
Spoke to Allan GM4ZUK this afternoon who said that HF had been good this afternoon with west coast US on 15m. I listened to 3G0Z (Robinson Crusoe Island - is that really a name for an island...) on 10m this afternoon while looking at VHF. Will have to try and work it over the next few days.
Just as I was about to switch off, I noticed a couple of SM2s on 6m FT8. Now that's interesting. Sometimes that path late at night suggests that it will extend to JA in the morning. Probably not for me - but maybe for others. Let's see!
