South America on 10m WSPR

KD0VWO (7412km) monitoring in Brazil has copied my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon again today. This is not the best DX today, but good to see my signal getting to South America. The question is will there be any North American 10m WSPR spots tonight?

UPDATE 2014z:  No signs of any North American spots on 10m WSPR. I shall be going QRT on 10m shortly. Below are the unique stations spotting me on 10m WSPR today. Note that the KD0 is actually monitoring in Brazil and not the USA.

Unique spots of my 10m WSPR beacon today

UPDATE 2042z:  Now QRT on 10m WSPR but will be monitoring 630m RX only overnight.

The SLOW decline

Well, we are on the down slope of the current solar cycle.

The down part of the cycle is usually slower than the climb from the minimum to the next peak, so we may have a few more years of reasonable conditions.

At the present time, conditions, even on 10m, are quite good. This time next year I think we may be losing 10m (largely) as a DX band although N-S paths may still have some decent openings. I have mentioned before that I have worked LU on 10m SSB even with QRP right at the lowest part of the cycle.

It is a pity that more don't stick with WSPR on 10m as this is a good way to "smoke out" transient openings. Activity levels on 10m WSPR are way down on last year. Next year I suspect there will be even fewer stations on 10m WSPR.

4X1RF (3519km) again spotting me on 6m WSPR

Since lunchtime, 4X1RF (3519km) has again been spotting my 1W ERP WSPR signal on 6m. I am pretty convinced this is E layer, but remain skeptical this is multi-hop Es which is the conventional wisdom. 3519km is a long way for Es multi-hop. This path seems pretty regular so I wonder if some other E layer mechanism is going on? Possibly some E layer chordal hop?  Signal levels suggest even lower power would have been successful such as 250mW or even less. So far today he has spotted me 6 times already. He has spotted me on several days this season as well as last summer. There are a reasonable number of stations active on the 6m WSPR band.

UPDATE 1607z:  Yesterday was one of the worse days I can recall in recent months on 6m and 10m WSPR. Today has been one of the best with plenty of Es on both bands.  Both are "magic" bands and you can never be quite sure what the day will bring.

Fredbox - 2m transceiver

Many years ago I designed and made the 2m AM Fredbox 2m AM transceiver. At the time it was the smallest 2m transceiver I'd ever seen or used.  Several close copies were made.  It worked some impressive DX including several 60 mile handheld contacts and one over 100 miles to Brittany from the South Devon coast.  All these were with whip antennas on the rig and not beams. Most QSOs were with locals. The power was only 10mW AM. It was ideal for contacts around Cambridge where I lived at that time.

Some years ago, I rebuilt the transceiver and had some decent QSOs yet again.

As with the Sixbox, I would suggest the design is taken as a springboard for your own version. It is certainly ripe for further development.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/fredbox .

10m WSPR - DX spots of my 500mW beacon

The first USA spot of my 10m 500mW beacon was by K9AN at 1304z. I see I have also been spotted by VK6XT (14719km) a couple of times today and by FR5ZX (9740km) a couple of times. Considering the forecast of "fair" 10m propagation, today has already been very good.

UPDATE 1630z:   Plenty of USA stations still spotting my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon.

UPDATE 1745z:  Still plenty of USA stations still spotting my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon.  I suspect this opening will continue until well past 1800z. It has been dark here  since about 1715z.

UPDATE 2140z:  The last USA station to spot my 500mW 10m beacon was K9AN (6505km) at 1824z. Still being spotted in Europe until 1908z.

10m WSPR

10m WSPR has been good again today with GDX, Europeans from Iberia and DX from much further afield.  Although sunspot numbers have slid a bit, propagation is excellent. FR1GZ (9724km) is the best DX so far, although I see there are USA stations coming through now.

10m WSPR - F2 this afternoon

FR1GZ (9724km) running 5W was spotted on 10m WSPR today at 1352z at -21dB S/N.   No other DX  - Es, F2 or GDX - has been seen since (yet).  The band did, at least, open deep into the Indian Ocean (Reunion Is). Maybe we'll see South America later?

UPDATE 1812z: G8JNJ/A (184km) was spotted after a very quiet afternoon at 1708z, but nothing since then.

UPDATE 1923z:  CX2ABP (11127km) copied at -22dB S/N at 1844z (and earlier) from Montevideo. Yet moretdecent F2 propagation. LB9YE was spotted at  1858z. No Es seen since then.

UPDATE 2145z: With a (distant) threat of storms, WSPR has been closed down, antennas disconnected and rigs and PC unplugged from the mains. Think the risk is greater tomorrow, but better safe than sorry. Will resume on either 6m or 10m tomorrow if weather safe.   According to http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en there are storms moving up from France. By tomorrow morning they could be here?

Back to 10m WSPR from 6m

With little Es on 6m, I am going to QSY back to 10m, hoping to catch some F2 propagation.  6m is a great band but 10m is more productive of DX.   Initially I'll use WSPR but hope to try JT65 and JT9-1 later after I've finished helping my XYL with the ironing.

UPDATE 1340z:  Now QSYed back to 10m WSPR.

6m - afternoon Es

All afternoon, OH7AI and OH5MD have been consistent signals on 6m WSPR. I have the sense that, if 6m is to open for "super-DX" at all on WSPR, we are going to see it in the next few days. The band has already opened across the Atlantic on SSB/CW several times but, as far as I know, the only WSPR transatlantic was a report by CN8LI of KC1AWS (5607km) on May 30th at 1700z. PE4BAS worked Puerto Rico the other evening with 5W and a V2000 on 6m with JT65 mode proving that high power is not a prerequisite. WSPR should be better than JT65.

6m GDX - there if stations are active

Today there have been a good number of G stations active on 6m WSPR allowing a really good opportunity to explore GDX paths out to 134km. It seems that if stations are active out  to close to 200km (and probably further) then even a few watts of WSPR (polarisation probably unimportant?) will be decoded at the far end of the path eventually, depending on aircraft reflections and favorable Doppler.

This probably means JT65 or JT9 ranges on 6m probably extend to around 200km at least if the stations know the most favourable alignment of aircraft. The same probably applies on 10m, 4m and 2m ,as well as 70cms and microwave bands.

What I'm not (yet) clear about is the normal tropo range without aircraft reflections. For true tropo, polarisation is more likely to be important: one does not want to throw away valuable dBs with cross-polarisation losses. I don't think this matters where signals are randomly scattered off aircraft bodies.

Sunspots and HF conditions

Today the sunspot count is 155 (good) but 20-30MHz conditions are expected to be poor. Mind you they were meant to be poor yesterday yet CX2ABP was a decent signal on 10m WSPR last evening.

So far this morning 6m has been disappointing with just locals spotting me and no Es seen, as yet.  It was quiet on 6m yesterday , which was why I spent most of the day on 10m.

We are now in basically summertime conditions so we can expect F-layer DX to be mainly N-S with fewer E-W openings on 15, 12 and 10m. Of course Es livens the summer months and some quite exceptional DX is possible on rare days. This is one of the pleasures of summertime DXing, you can never be sure, even on 6m or even 4m. The latter is band I've rarely used.

10m - USA/Canadian DX

During this afternoon on 10m I have been spotted, and spotted myself, by several different stateside stations (3 and 4 call areas in the USA) with best DX 6505km so far.  Interestingly, I have spotted just one South American station PY2RN (9550km) around 1200z and later.  It is interesting to see such an opening to the USA as we approach summer conditions.

There must be a reasonably good chance of long path propagation to the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia later this evening on 10m.

UPDATE 1720z:   Only European stations by Es on 10m in the last few hours.

UPDATE 1725z:     VE3PLE just spotted. First Canadian for a while on 10m.

UPDATE 1935z:    TI3/AB4AW (8752km) spotted twice in Central America (Costa Rica).

UPDATE 1955z:     In among all the DX, G7FYO copied at 162km with -4Hz Doppler, suggesting aircraft reflection.

UPDATE 2010z:    DX from the USA still very much in evidence on 10m. K3NAL spotted at -16dB S/N.

UPDATE 2126z:   K3NAL just spotted (again).

GM4WJA yet again on 10m WSPR

Yet again GM4WJA (624km) has been spotting me on 10m WSPR. This is an odd distance as it seems far too close for F2 propagation. He must have spotted me nearly 60 times in all now.

There was an absence (here) of DX from South and North America: I was expecting decent conditions on the band but here at least there was nothing like real DX around.

Good start on 10m this morning

Already, at around 0700z my 10m 500mW WSPR is being spotted in Reunion Is (Indian Ocean) by FR5ZX and in Israel by 4X1RF. I was spotting Japan at 0842z and there is plenty of good DX around such as TJ3 and EX1. Sunspot count is 125 and we can expect stable conditions according to the solar forecast. 10m should open to the USA and Canada from around 1130z to about 2145z. Yesterday turned out better than I expected. 10m is such an excellent and interesting HF band.

Some of my reports from the USA have been VERY strong indeed, even when running 500mW RF.  In some cases just a few mW would have been enough to get spotted transatlantic.

6m F2 DX

Unless it was a band error, yesterday early morning G4IKZ 18km west of me was spotted on 6m WSPR in Australia over 17000km away by rare 6m F2 propagation. Nick uses about 6dB more power than me and a Moxon beam whereas I use a V2000 vertocal with near unity gain on 6m. I am currently on 6m and living in hope! Solar activity does NOT look promising though.

Crystal Set DX log from 1991

As I clear out my stuff ready for our move, I've discovered my Crystal Set DX Log from 1991, which was 2 sunspot cycle peaks ago. Looking through the entries in the log (all received with a VERY simple shortwave crystal set using a toroid, a germanium diode, a resistor and a crystal earpiece and a longwire antenna about 15-20m long) it is quite astounding how the HF world has changed.

Shortwave Crystal Set DX log - from 1991

For a start, many of the coast radio stations used to transmit in CW on HF and these could often be read due to the cross-modulation from other stations. This was the technique used to detect those shown in the log above.

Also, the shortwave bands were still filled with English language broadcasts. In the few days covered by this log I managed to receive broadcast stations from Cuba, UAE, India and Australia directly (not via relays) as well as plenty of Europeans. Before this date I had no idea that worldwide reception on a crystal set would be possible.

There is no doubt that conditions were very good back in 1991 and I am not so sure that it would be possible to repeat this in 2013, but I would be delighted to hear of success by others with crystal set DXing on HF in more recent times.

I still enjoy crystal sets: they are simple and fun to make yet there is still something unbelievably good about using the electricity from the TXing station to hear them, not my own, especially when the signal comes from very far away.

Back home again

Well, the week long holiday in South Devon is over and we are back home in Burwell again. The portable HF operation was very successful and enjoyable, operating from a mix of locations, mainly clifftop sites with excellent take-offs across the sea to the USA, Africa and S.America.  Average QSO distance with 2.5W SSB was over 3000km, with several QSOs with the USA and Canada on the higher HF bands using just 2W and a short base loaded whip.

In all, not that many hours of actual operation in between just relaxing and enjoying the very best part of England. I say this as this is my "promised land", where I was born and brought up. Out of season, when there are few tourists around and in weather like we had last week - perfect wall-to-wall sunshine - there is honestly no better place on this planet, but then I am biased.

My video, taken yesterday, shows the town of Salcombe in South Devon where I lived until I was 10 years old. In those far off days I took all this for granted: I knew nowhere else really. The view from my junior school window was up the beautiful estuary and the sunlight playing on the water would reflect on the classroom wall. Sunny days indeed, long before ham radio and the worries of adulthood.

Now I'm back home my challenge is that £20 (all new) portable backpack transceiver with decent performance that I've been challenged to design. In between cutting grass, weeding and paying the bills!

More DX on 10m today

This must rank as one of the most fun CQWW DX contests I've taken part in. Plenty of DX could be worked with just 5W SSB from the FT817 and my small Homebase-10 halo today and yesterday. If anything conditions were better on 28MHz today than yesterday.

HK1NA (worked today) operating CQWW

 ...and in contrast G3XBM operating CQWW today!

Stations worked include LR3M, LP1H (Argentina), C5A (The Gambia), HK1NA (Colombia), CR2X, CR3A, CT3HF (Azores), CN3A (Morocco), ER3AU (Moldova), A65BB (UAE), 3V8BB (Tunisia), ZW5B, ZZ2T, PY1NX, PS2T (Brazil), EY8MM (Tajikistan) plus loads of US, Canadian and other stations. My ears are sore with SSB signals! I have now filled my third page of contacts in the logbook.

Some of the operating skills were amazing: PJ4X was working stations at a rate of one every 5 seconds. He spoke so crisply and quickly that by the time I'd called he'd already worked another station! 

DX Chasing (no thanks)

Chasing DX is just not my thing any more. For example, on 10m CW this afternoon there was one heck of a pileup of stations trying to work 7O6T in Yemen. This is a rare country but those who get through tend to be the stations with the BIG beams, high power and who call and call. Occasionally, a QRP station with good skills can manage it. On rare occasions I have found DX before the pileups or the DX cluster shows it's there and then a QSO is possible.

But basically I am past this stage in the hobby now. I prefer to explore new things, experiment and have fun. I know that if I had 400W+  and a big beam up high I could work the world if I was patient, but having amassed well over 100 countries worked with 5W SSB/CW it matters not to me that I don't work that rare DX.

On VHF and UHF it can still be fun though, and counting squares is still my answer to train spotting, HI.

2m/70cm DXing

See http://www.f9ft.com/ antennas

On a few occasions in the last year I've operated /P in the RSGB's UK Activity Contests (UKAC) on Tuesday evenings and thoroughly enjoyed them. Even with just a small halo on 2m and a 4 el yagi on 70cms I was surprised how much could be worked and the high levels of activity.

It is some years since I've used 2m and 70cms from home with a horizontal yagi and I am tempted to erect something to give it a go. I know that outside of contests activity these days is low, but it still seems like worth doing. Whether I erect a rotatable yagi or a stacked turnstyle remains to be seen. It is a long time since 2m was filled with G8 stations using FT290s, 30W linears and Tonna 9el yagis!

Right now I have other antennas erected on the 2 small masts attached to the house and it may be some months before I make changes, but maybe I will get something in the air and see what happens. As well as SSB/CW DX there is so much more to explore these days with digital modes.