Sunspots are GO!!

At the end of April we seem to be seeing green shoots of recovery not only in the economy, but also in the sunspot count: today the sunspot number reached 15, a number not seen in some while.This was just a few days after another spot was present, albeit very briefly. Can we hope that this signals the real end of the minimum with better HF days ahead? Let's see what things are like in another 28 days .....and keep fingers and toes crossed.

Sporadic-E

For most of April I've been putting out CQs on 10m CW/SSB/FM and checking the DX cluster for signs of sporadic-E propagation into Europe. So far, all is very quiet. It is still early in the season, but usually there've been some openings by now. May, June and July are the best months in the northern hemisphere.

At times, sporadic-E signals can be very strong indeed. I recall some Icelandic stations on 6m SSB 2 years ago who were truly S9+50dB suggesting that, on a clear frequency, they would have been workable with microwatts!

There is a nice tutorial on sporadic-E at this link.

As of April 29th, still no spor-E yet detected this season here.

Quaker News

The QRP community has a lot in common with Quakers (Society of Friends) , especially their ethos of living simply and fairly. If you have never done so, do check them out. They have been instrumental in much good work around the world, but this is usually done quietly behind the scenes e.g. they did a lot of work on reconciling the groups in Northern Ireland helping to work for peace there. The latest copy of Quaker News is available on-line. It has some interesting articles e.g. on the upcoming Copenhagen climate change conference later this year and on the need for urgent and fair action worldwide.

Morse's birthday

Today is the anniversary of Samuel Morse's birthday. To mark it, Google has its usual banner in Morse rather than letters - a nice touch to remind the world about CW.

Simple 500kHz TX design by GW3UEP

A very neat and simple MF TX called the E-QTX has appeared on the Google UK500khz group website. This design looks so straightforward that even I should be able to make it in the back of the garage. It comes from GW3UEP (via G3XIZ) and is aimed at encouraging more NoV holders to come on the band. It produces 8-10W with a 12V supply and more than double this from a higher supply voltage.

See http://groups.google.com/group/uk500khz/web/gw3uep-cw-tx.

Simple SDR links

Already some replies on the quest for ultra-simple SDR transceiver ideas - thank you. For example see the LY1GP site http://www.qrz.lt/ly1gp/SDR/index.html

Simon Brown HB9DRV mentions work on the SoftRock which is simple and not too expensive. 1W 30m/20m/17m with a new console being written starting July 1st.

Simplest possible SDR transceiver?

A challenge - what is the simplest possible SDR transceiver that can be built that would allow credible results on HF QRP? Does anyone know of any links to such ideas? Is there an "SDR equivalent" to the Pixie or similar ultra-simple QRP rigs, possibly supporting all modes but using just a handful of parts?

Software Defined Radio (SDR) kits

Received this today about SDR kits from Australia:

Hi Roger -

Here is a piece of information that may be of interest to your blog readers / website visitors: our little SDR KIT project is gaining momentum - we've been in business for less than one month yet we now have builders in 14 countries. See http://www.genesisradio.com.au/G40/ . We also have 2 new models coming out very soon: 20m and 30m duobander and single 80m SDR transceiver.

Thanks for reading.

Best 73
Nick VK1AA

Anyone built the Gnat-1 micro-transceiver?

Has anyone reading this blog built the neat little GNAT-1 transceiver featured in SPRAT 138 (Spring 2009) by Chris Trask N7ZWY? This looks a very elegant design making good use of the small number of parts needed. I must have a go. Unlike the FETer and similar micro-transceivers it doesn't need complex switching and it produces a decent RF output.

Chris tells me he hasn't actually air-tested the circuit (surprisingly), so I'd like to hear how people get on. It is important to keep the key leads short Chris advises.

Hurrah - a sunspot!!!

Solar flux reaching the giddy heights of 71.0 and today there is 1 sunspot on the visible side of the sun. Things may be looking up after an absence of spots for 2 months.....

Next day it had gone :-(