When we got back from holiday we found these growing in our two tomato bags. Home grown always smell and taste delicious.

We returned from our week in Malta yesterday to the cold, rain and green countryside. Everyone we met was kind and helpful. It was hot and sunny almost all the time we were there. The hotel and food were excellent.

However, Malta is very built up (the most dense in Europe) and what little countryside there was was rocky and barren.

If you go on holiday for sun, swimming pools and food it might suit you. Overall, I am glad we went, but I doubt we will return.

Often I forget to submit my entry into this UKAC session. With my pathetic score I shall never even be close to winning, but it is good to show my support. 

It is great to see the activity. The "real" stations were working some serious DX.

 Just 3 stations in the UK spotting me so far today.

UPDATE 0940z:  Just 5 UK stations spotting me.

My 500mW beacon has been on since just before breakfast. Just EA8BFK (2880km) spotting me multiple times. I assume this is F2 propagation. 

 One of my Facebook memories today was the circuit for my 10m WSPR RX on which my 10m FT8 RX was based. See my website for details.

 Solar flux is 205 and the SSN 147. A=7 and K=1.

This was St John’s Co Cathedral in Valletta yesterday. I prefer East Anglian simple churches! It seems there is gold leaf everywhere.

My 2.5W 6m FT8 has been on for the last few hours. Spotted by 7 stations (mostly England) with the furthermost DK8NE/6 (702km). See map.

Since returning home again from Malta this afternoon, I have been on 10m QRP WSPR with my little beacon. Already spotted by 5 stations with the furthermost the German research station in Antarctica.

 This is this evening starting at 1900z. I usually go on for a short time with 10W to the 2m big-wheel.

UPDATE 1956z: I did not stay on long, but worked 3 stations with the furthermost G4CLA (105km). It was a miserable evening with lots of rain.

 Solar flux is 215 and the SSN 213. A=9 and K=3

 It will soon be time to go back to 472kHz. For some reason a myth has grown up that you need very big antennas and extensive ground systems. Also that high power helps! Nothing could be further from the truth.

I can only speak from personal experience. My transverter produces about 10W into 50 ohms and gave about 10mW ERP into my earth-electrode antenna in the ground. My earths are about 10m apart. It has been received on WSPR as far away as Finland and I got spotted in Norway most nights. It was in QST about 10 years ago. It is also described on my website.

 We visited the capital of Malta called Valletta. We had torrential rain ☔️ earlier but it was hot and sunny ☀️ whilst we were there. Home tomorrow where I gather it’s turned autumnal.

 Many people want to have a dabble at VLF reception and want to know what is down there but most receivers don’t go that low. Many years ago I designed and built this up converter so I could take a listen. Receiving commercial stations such as time signals and MSK signals is easy . Reception of AMATEUR VLF signals is highly unlikely to work as this usually needs very narrow bandwidth and precise frequency setting. Details of this upconverter and how to improve it are on my website.

 

All week we’ve had hot sunshine ☀️ until today when we had heavy rain.

Solar  flux is 228 and the SSN 176. A=9 and K=2.

 Today we visited the fishing “village” of Marsaxlokk in SW Malta famous for its colourful fishing boats. It was not what I would call a village!

 It’s many years since I last did these tests and I remember being amazed that on a cloudless night I could clearly receive my 481THz beacon way over the horizon without any signal visible. Had my stroke not got in the way, I am sure much much further would have been possible even with my simple QRP system. The receiver I used is attached. It was also in RadCom. It is also on my main webpages.