Multi-hop Es or Es+F2?

Last night, around 2100z, 10m was open to South America by what I assume was multi-hop sporadic-E or possibly Es linked to F2 at lower latitudes. There was strong Es to Spain/Portugal at the time so the latter may be more probable. Stations heard but not worked included YP4DYP, YV5EAH and YV4DYJ all on SSB. Distance is around 8000kms - which is some distance for Es alone.

A QRPer's brain

Yesterday I went to get my brain MRI scanned as part of a Cambridge University research project on speech and language. The result is attached. I spent nearly 90 minutes being scanned whilst listening to various sentences.

Someone suggested the missing top part of the brain explains why I am a QRPer!

6m Es

A good opening on 6m his evening with lots of 59+ signals from southern Spain and Portugal coming through. There are supposed to be some CN8 and EA8 stations on too but not heard or worked any yet.

Some Es statistics (2008)

Check out http://www.vhfdx.net/states2008.html which has some fascinating data about the extent of Es openings in Europe in the 2008 season. At times, the MUF for Es reached 250MHz. The VHF.net has a great deal of other useful data and is well worth a regular visit.

Several stations worked by Es today - LA5AKA, SM4EXP, I0KNQ and YO2QC.

Increasing sunspot activity

Sunspot number running at 18 today, a value not seen in a LONG time and solar flux in the mid 70s. Even HF conditions shown as "fair" instead of "poor". Yet more signs we are, at last, coming out of the bottom of the cycle.

GMs on 10m (Es)

Two nice 10m QSOs today with 10W SSB and halo: GM8LFB and GM4JYB (in IO88HP). Usually I have to wait until later in the summer to work GMs on 10m. I was very happy when GM4JYB found me first in a minor pileup! At times the GMs were 59+20dB and would have been audible with 100mW, or even less, given a clear frequency.

DXing - realtime maps

This is a useful resource from VHFDX.net to track openings on 10m and upwards into the VHF bands. A mapping system that plots recently reported QSOs. Thanks to G4ILO for pointing this out to me.

See http://www.vhfdx.net/spots/map.php

Poor Es so far?

Is it just me or is this Es season well below par so far? Very little heard on 6m so far and even on 10m the openings have been short and signal strengths not exceptional. Most stations I hear I can work, even with my wire halo and 5-10W, but there don't seem to be that many on! Tonight for example, 2 EAs and 1 CT1 heard and worked, but that's all. Later I worked SM3EAE with 5W CW.

10m F2 DX

Well, last night 10m opened up a bit with PY2WAS in Sao Paulo, Brazil coming through weakly around teatime. At this time of year there are sometimes North-South openings in which part of the path is assisted by sporadic-E for the first "hop" linking then with F2 propagation further south. Last night's opening may have had a bit of this, but there was little spor-E about and that was all weakish. Earlier there was an OH8 station audible from Oulu in northern Finland and I swear he sounded auroral.

Scout Regen RX kit

Hendrick's QRP Kits in the USA have just introduced a nice little regen receiver kit for beginners and more experienced hams and SWLs. The Scout is a simple 2 band regenerative receiver covering from 3.5 -11MHz. It is based on the classic design by Charles Kitchin published in QST some years ago. It is to be launched at Dayton and on sale from May 12th.

See http://www.qrpkits.com/scoutregen.html for more details.