The following have been notified to me. Always check before going far.

• Sat Oct 5th - Carmarthen ARS Surplus Equipment Sale, Cwmduad, SA33 6XN. Contact G0JLX @gmail.com (shown as ....@mail.com which I think is an error?).
• Sun Oct 6th - Welsh Radio Rally, Newport, NP18 2YE. Contact welshradiorally@gmail.com. 

 My tiny stand-alone 10m QRP WSPR beacon was turned on about 0812z. 

UPDATE 0851z:  Plenty of (I think) F2 spots.

 My 2.5W to the horizontal low dipole was turned on at about 0812z. The usual "watering hole"  for both FT8 and WSPR is 40.680 MHz USB dial. If you set your receiver here you will catch most of the activity.

UPDATE  0951z: G0KTN (211km) has at last spotted me. Pretty sure he has been trying for some time. Not sure if he has a better antenna, higher antenna, more sensitive RX or if conditions were up. Also spotting me was EI3KF (574km).

UPDATE 1000z:  It would appear that every time I try 8m QRP FT8, I get spotted by several stations. If I get spotted with my very tiny power (2.5W) and low dipole then imagine the results with 50W and a beam. There  have been some amazing 10mW FT8 QSOs. Under ISM rules many countries can TX on the band  without a special permit or even a licence. Check what the rules are in your country.

 Solar flux is 291 and the SSN 180. A=8 and K=1.

This was "our" windmill next door this morning. 

 This was King’s yesterday in the sunshine.

Just UK spots so far.

UPDATE 1309z:  22 spots of me with several in mainland Europe.

Looks like F2 spots.

UPDATE  1931z:   80 spots of me today including many in the USA.

 Solar flux is 312 and the SSN 229. A=8 and K=1.

My stand-alone W5OLF 10m QRP WSPR beacon has been on most of the day. 45 stations have spotted me. 

UPDATE 1807z: 62 stations have spotted my 10m 500mW WSPR today with the furthermost ND7M (8408km).

Having been on most of the morning I have been spotted by 32 stations so far today when running 2.5W FT8.

Both in John Lewis and Marks and Spencer they have Christmas stuff on display. 

 

Last evening, our son cooked us duck. 

It was very good with all the trimmings.

Based on the last few days, it would appear 8m conditions are improving. F2 propagation is getting better, and more frequent. 

Yesterday, my 8m FT8 2.5W to a low dipole was spotted across the Atlantic by 2 stations. We can expect  8m F2 propagation to be good at this time of year with high sunspot numbers.

 Today I think I shall try 6m FT8 as 8m was good yesterday so I am wondering if the F2 MUF will exceed 50MHz.

Solar  flux is 275 and the SSN 194. A=7 and K=1.

 Despite the increasing tension in the Middle East, the price of oil seems remarkably stable.

 After all, I decided to try 8m QRP FT8 today. So far, no spots.

UPDATE 1202z:  So far only G4BAO (8km) spotting me.

UPDATE 1229z: My first 8m spot from "across the pond" this season by WW1L (4976km).

Stations spotting my 2.5W 8m FT8

UPDATE 1252z: Now spotted by 3 stations.

Stations spotted on 8m FT8

 

To the west of us, there has been some widespread flooding. We have avoided it over here thankfully. One of my friends on 365project posted this photo of her local park flooded and closed.