10m QRPP 500uW WSPR (Saturday)

My 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR has already been spotted multiple times this morning by EA8BFK (2880km). Perhaps this is not too surprising with the solar flux and sunspot numbers so good.

UPDATE 0948z:  12 spots already.

UPDATE 1808z:  34 spots of my 500uW QRPP WSPR, one with about 20dB in hand!! See table.

UPDATE 1850z:  Now spotted in Italy by IZ2DQB (1033km). First signs of 10m Es?

10m QRPP WSPR (Monday)

 All day, I was trying with 500uW (0.5mW) on 10m WSPR. No spots.

Sucker for punishment? 10m QRPP WSPR (Wednesday)

 Yet again I am on 10m WSPR with 500uW (0.5mW). 

UPDATE 1431z:  No spots. At the moment, I get spotted on this tiny power a few times a week.

Ultra QRPP

It seems to me that, when conditions are good, very  little power is needed to be spotted on WSPR. I tried 10m WSPR with 500uW and was spotted in the USA. I tried running legal ISM powers on 22m and, again was spotted widely.

What's next?

Probable last day (for now) on 10m WSPR at 500uW

Unless things dramatically change today, today will probably be my last day testing at QRPP on 10m WSPR. I shall try again in the Es season. It is now over a week since I have been spotted.

10m QRPP WSPR (Saturday)

 Another day has passed and not a single spot obtained at 500uW. Unless things dramatically change  tomorrow, I propose to stop these tests now until the next Es season.

10m 500uW WSPR (Wednesday)

For several weeks I have had spots of my QRPP 10m WSPR most days. Interestingly, there have been no spots of me this week. It looks as if conditions have to be really good to get spots at 500uW (0.5mW).

10m QRPP WSPR TX (Wednesday)

My 500uW (0.5mW) beacon is running and already 2 spots from EA8BFK (2880km). At these powers, my mind is "blown away".  This is just amazing.  With WSPR, it would seem the impossible becomes possible.

UPDATE 1530z:  EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted me 5 times today. Even though the beacon is pre-programmed to report the power as 0.5W, it is actually 30dB lower at 0.5mW.

How simple?

Many have wondered just how little do you need to communicate on HF?  Well, running really simple rigs is a compromise often with the receiver being the weakest link. For ideas, try my main website. Use these ideas as a starting point. Half the fun is experimenting to see what works.  Specifically:

https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/80m_xbm80
https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/feter-80m-qrpp-cw-transceiver
https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/chirpy

Sputnik QRPp Days

A reminder from Oleg has appeared in my inbox:

"Dear Space Friends,
tonight (October 4) at 00 UTC Sputnik QRPp Activity Days begin.
Over two weeks (before October 18) "Sputniks" (valves) and "Vanguards"
(pnp Ge transistors) will be sound "beep-beep-beep..." or "V V V...".
All  QSOs  are approved. SWLs must copy Sputniks or Vanguards QSOs or
CQs. See details on the Club 72 page - www.club72.su
I  welcome  all  operators  to  take  a  part and looking for photos,
schemes,  comments  daily.  All info will be published on the Club 72
page,  on  the blog page - http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/ also in the
mail "Sputnik" group and "72 Newsletter" bulletin.

72! beep-beep-beep...
Deep Space Communications Center
operator on duty -
Oleg ("Mr. 72") RV3GM / KH6OB"

"Dear Space Friends,
don't  forget  to send reports about your Sputnik/Vanguard QSOs/SWLs,
please.  Also  pictures, schemes of your TXs are appreciate to add on
the Sputnik gallery.
Victor UA1CEX operate on the old valves military TX 1 W G5RV on 20 m.
Peter  PA0PJE  informed he QRV on 21 MHz on Sputnik clone TX with two
"rod"  valves.  Also Peter operate on 20 m with Vanguard TX on Ge pnp
AF118 transistors 40 mW.
Sergey RV3DSA informed about his 1960 valves TX made in Germany
RV3GM  used  50  mW  TX  on  14060  +/-  kHz  (old USSR Ge pnp GT320b
transistors) together with DC RX also on old Ge types transistors (CQ
and RBNs reports so far only).
Sorry,  I  have  not info about Sputnik/Vanguard QSOs for the moment.
Check "Sputnik Days" page on the Club 72 site - www.club72.su

72! beep-beep-beep...
Deep Space Communications Center
operator on duty -
Oleg ("Mr. 72") RV3GM / KH6OB "

QRPp WSPR and small antennas

One thing the last few days of 5mW WSPR beaconing has taught me is others must be using better antennas than me.

At 5mW I am really struggling, whereas, for some, DX reports still flow in at this very low power level. All my antennas are low and compromised which is why 1-2W is a more sensible level for me. I suspect my ERP is lower than other QRPp stations when I use 5mW RF. Nonetheless, it was an experiment well worth doing.

In the end, 4X1RF at 3519km was my only report with 5mW on 10m.  I had no luck with transatlantic reports despite myself copying plenty of US and Canadian stations yet again,even with a 20dB attenuator in circuit.

From tomorrow I propose to run 100mW RF on 10m being much the same as the unmodified Ultimate 3 kit, although I intend to run 1-2W on my final version.

UPDATE 1700z:  10m closed transatlantic at 1700z.

5mW on 40m WSPR

With considerable difficulty (because of my stroke) I made a 20dB attenuator to reduce my 500mW down to just 5mW. This attenuator is right at the FT817's output coax connector. It also reduces the RX signal by 20dB too of course. Let's see what happens!

Normally such a small project would take just minutes but I found the whole job hard work taking at least twice as long. In the same way, PC work takes me longer as I am forever correcting  typos.

My 5mW has been spotted locally once and in Denmark 853km away on 2 occasions and once in Holland. Results are in line with expectations so far. Sunspot count still good at 95. The last report of my 5mW signal was at 1744z. It must just be popping out of the noise with a few stations, rarely. I'll leave running overnight to see what happens.

On RX I see I spotted VK6XT, even with a 20dB pad in the antenna line.

RX reports (mine) with 20dB pad in line on 40m

40m 5mW WSPR spots this afternoon

1mW (0dBm) TX on 40m WSPR

Just for fun I'm having a go at QRPp WSPR on 40m. The set-up is the FT817 on 500mW going directly into a 26dB attenuator that feeds the Par 10/20/40 end-fed longwire antenna in the garden at around 5m above ground. So far, after about 10 minutes a few spots received: G3XVL at 61km being the best DX with reports also from G4IKZ and G4NRG.

Six continents on 10m WSPR

This afternoon I exchanged WSPR reports with RI1ANF in the South Shetland Is in Antarctica on 10m. This now means I've had reports this year from every continent on the 10m band using 5W or less with the wire halo antenna.

PA1B's power attenuator calculator (see link below)

As this is all getting rather too easy (!) maybe I need to follow Bert PA1B's advice and build a switchable attenuator so I can repeat the challenge with much lower powers. See his power attenuator design page for details of how to make suitable RF attenuators to reduce QRP rig output powers to milliwatts.

PA1B's QRPp website

Bert PA1B has an excellent website describing his experiments with very low power on HF. Using his FT817 with various simple attenuators he has been able to work some remarkable DX with powers ranging from 1mW to 500mW. His website explains how he has achieved this. It is an inspiring page showing just what is possible.

How little power do you need to communicate?

Last night G6ALB and I did a test on 2m to see how little power was needed to communicate between the two of us. Andrew is 3km from me. We both use V2000 triband vertical antennas. We started the test with Andrew using about 0.5mW pep from a simple DSB rig. We then switched to CW (from a decent low leakage signal generator) and G6ALB reduced power in 10dB steps. The lowest level I could still copy his signal was -55dBm which is around 1.8nW. The screenshot above, taken from Spectran, shows his signal at that level.

This sort of power level could be generated by power harvesting, even rectified RF from the HF antenna. Now there's a thought - a free power TX.

More QRPp testing on 137.7682kHz

My QRSS30 137.7682kHz beacon is on until 0800z Tuesday morning sending XBM in QRSS30 with the full call at 10wpm periodically for full ID.  Reports (including no copy) would be much appreciated.  I'm hoping to improve on the recent best DX a few days ago - a report from G3WCB at 101km who got the signal pretty well at times despite the 140uW ERP.

1mW DXing on 40m

Today I reduced the power from my 40m WSPR beacon TX from 10mW down to just 1mW. The FT817 is run at minimum power setting (1W) then via a 20dB attenuator within a few cm of the antenna connector and then into a 10dB stepped attenuator. My antenna is the 5m coax feeder (inner and outer strapped together) up to my 10m halo and tuned via the Elecraft T1 auto-ATU. The first report received at 1436 today was from DC4FS at 523km (-28dB S/N).

PA1B's QRPp website

Whilst looking at the links on PC4T's blog I noticed Bert PA1B's excellent website all about QRPp operating with lots of tips on how to produce mW power levels and have real fun on the HF bands.

This has encouraged me to have a go, so I am currently WSPR beaconing on various HF bands using 10mW out from the FT817 via a 20dB attenuator right next to the rig.These were the results from 40m late this afternoon and into the early evening. Encouraging!

Best DX 983km with 10mW in just a few hours!

G3XIZ's 15mW successes - updated

Chris G3XIZ has just sent me an updated list of his beacon reports and 2-way QSOs with his 15mW FETer transceiver. His best 2-way DX is now over 450kms and he has worked 3 countries already. Remember this is ordinary speed CW, not QRSS and sub-hertz digital signal processing stuff. Chris has "good ears" and is a very good operator. A lot of his success is down to his skills.

He told me, "The little TX is doing far better than I had ever imagined and as a result I must now re-appraise my perception of QRP operations - Hi !"