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Today, so far, it has been exclusively local G4IKZ (18km) on 6m WSPR  One thing I have noticed both on his spots and those by G4FFC (45km) yesterday is that when there is a lot of Doppler my reports are poorer. I assume the aircraft reflections sometimes result in destructive interference and an effective drop in S/N.

This month, so far, sunspot numbers have been lower (70 today), although 20-30MHz propagation is described as “normal”. I think the slide downwards is starting, sadly. But, even next autumn 10m should still be good though – we are a LONG way from the minimum yet. I think long distance 6m F-layer propagation openings will be few unless one is lucky enough to be closer to the equator and may catch TEP openings. CN8LI and stations in Israel were managing to catch 6m TEP openings quite recently, as were some VK and JA stations.

UPDATE 1700z:   Just G4IKZ (18km) spotting me since I switched on 6m WSPR at 0556z – a very very quiet day on 6m so far today: no Es and no GDX seen here, so far. There is at least one “wandering” signal that has been seen several times drifting across the band but with too much drift to decode. Strong, but no Doppler. At one point it was stable enough to decode but the signal faded out after 1 minute. I think this was an Es signal. May never know though. I am tempted to QSY to 472kHz WSPR this evening unless things markedly improve on 6m.

UPDATE 1808z:  another new local(ish) station has just appeared on 6m spotting me:   M0MVB (30km) up in the Fens.  Still no 6m Es here.I presume M0MVB is just in from work and just turned the gear on.

UPDATE 1925z:   Still no 6m Es here today. Tomorrow can only be better.

UPDATE 2050z:  I stuck with 6m, but only locals today. Very disappointing indeed.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

Nick (KE0ATH) and his new Baofeng UV5

So Nick’s info showed up on the FCC site today.  His call is KE0ATH.

Nick is a great, hard working, fun loving teenager – we are very proud of him.

He will be a Junior next year in High School and is spending the summer running his mowing business, playing radio and building a few projects.

This year he also completed the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout and had his Eagle Court of Honor in May.

It is so much fun to watch your children develop into young adults, especially when they are as solid as Nick is!

Love you son!

Burke Jones, NØHYD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Kansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Apart from G4IKZ (18km) and G4FFC (45km) all has been quiet on 6m WSPR since the 14 spots exchanged with CN8LI (2113km) – last spot 1558z.

On 2m late afternoon stations were calling “CQ sporadic” on SSB, although when I listened no DX was heard from Europe.  I think the Es MUF must have exceeded 144MHz briefly.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

Its not often I get a bumper crop of contacts on the UKAC series but 2m offers probably the best opportunity. Last weeks 6m contest gave just a handful of contacts but last night 26 contacts that ranged from Perthshire in the north to the south coast. I usually don’t hang about past about 21:30 anyway and as conditions were deteriorating I decided to come home and sort out the log.

Operating /p with just 10w and a 5 ele beam means I can go out with the minimal equipment but I was very jealous of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue truck who had not read the memo about Sandwith being ‘my spot’. Not only had they beat me to the best spot but they had a Clark pump up mast that looked great. I’ll bet their best dx was worse than mine

All in all a good evenings work. Made better by the warm and wind free evening. I’m beginning to think I’ll wake up in a bit.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

I just came across this on the internet the other day, but I thought it was a very cool way to package the KX3 for portable operation.


Check out www.oe2atn.at/tom/gobox

If  someone would commercialize this, I think it would be very popular.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Apart from G3RCE (GDX tropo) there has been no EU DX here on the band all morning. There is some doubt that OZ7IT, in the early hours, was Es, but if it was Es it was indeed very early at 0438z. I shall stick with 6m for a while to see what happens.

UPDATE 1328z:  Right out of the blue CN8LI (2113km 5W) was spotted at a strong -11dB S/N . Magic Band does it again!

UPDATE 1420:  Now CN8LI spots my 1W ERP  at a massive +5dB S/N! During the afternoon we exchange spots 14 times at colossal strengths even though I run 1W ERP only.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

Last night I went on 2m SSB with 5W in the monthly UKAC activity contest. After 1 hour and 40 minutes I had to stop as my voice was gone (stroke).  Best DX missed was GI6ATZ in N.Ireland. I called him a few times without success.

In all 16 QSOs were completed showing that modest power and antenna from the home QTH is enough to enjoy the contest. Had I stayed on longer I’m sure I would have worked more squares. Quite a few stations in northern England worked too on the small, hand rotated, 3el beam, from the home QTH.

Looking at the map, I should have turned the beam towards the SW.  Hardly likely I’ll come other than close to the bottom, but that was not the point – it was good fun taking part.

2m stations worked with 5w/3el UKAC June 3rd 2014

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.