SSB DX on 500kHz

Just heard SM6BHZ beaconing with 1W erp on 505.5kHz both on CW and on SSB. On CW RST559 and on SSB RS53. This is the first time I have ever heard an SSB transmission on the 500kHz band. SSB is not allowed in the UK NoV as the band is too narrow. Distance is 916kms. I've even got a QSL card already from Gus via the internet. Link is http://www.sm6bhz.com

10m PSK31 QSOs

Having found 10m open tonight as a result of some WSPR reports from the Faroe Islands, Italy and Portugal, I went onto 10m PSK31 and had a couple of QSOs with YL3GBF and S56EPX when running about 3W QRP. Solid contacts, but I don't really like PSK31 - the QSOs seem so "artificial" and PC generated. I do try to type as I go though to put some variety into the contact.

DM780 is an excellent package for this mode and many other digital modes.

RoomCap HF antenna?

Has anyone had any experience of this very compact HF antenna? the designer makes claims of performance well beyond those obtainable with the Microvert, EH and other small antennas.

To get build instructions costs money and, as a born skeptic when it comes to "something for nothing" antennas, I'd like to hear from anyone who has made one and how well it worked.

This is the link http://home.datacomm.ch/hb9abx/ant--abx-e.htm

30m WSPR logs

Today, out of interest, I made a list of the countries and distances covered just on 10MHz (30m) WSPR in the last few weeks of intermittent operation. So far I've had hundreds of reports from 22 countries in 4 continents with the best DX being 9616kms with 5W. Even 7147kms was covered with just 100mW! Even better distances have been reached on 40m. I've had reports on bands from 160m to 6m. It is truly an amazing mode!

Clearly, with WSPR, openings are being captured which otherwise would have been missed. This is especially true on the higher HF bands, which I intend to concentrate my efforts on next - bands like 10m.

Update - two more reports tonight - VE1 and 9H1.

Antennas at G3XBM

The current antenna farm at the G3XBM QTH is shown in the picture. The 10m antenna is a wire halo. 6m, 2m and 70cms vertical is handled with a V2000 triband colinear. There is also a horizontal 2m halo just below the V2000. Finally, there is an end-fed wire about 15m long running down the garden from just beneath the V2000 antenna to a post at the far end of the back garden. All pretty modest stuff really. Certainly not a beam in sight!

Click on the image to get a better view.

T61AA on 17m

T61AA has been a consistent, if weak, signal here all morning on 17m WSPR. His trace was last spotted at 1052z but too weak even for WSPR to decode. Although I've been beaconing all morning on 17m I've not been copied yet, although T61AA says he has an S9 noise level in Afghanistan. He is located 5564kms away.

Sporadic-E ....is it getting better year on year?

Since the 1960s I've enjoyed hearing and working DX via sporadic-E openings in the summer months. For me, it all started with DXTV reception on Band 1, much to the annoyance of my parents when I retuned the TV trying to find weak Italian and Spanish TV stations.

But have sporadic-E openings changed and become far more intense in recent years? Looking at the reports of summer 6m DX now and you will see DX as far as S.America, The Congo, Japan and Texas to name but a few. Now is this because there are more stations, DX clusters and the like or is the E layer now doing things it wasn't doing (at least not as often) 40 years or more ago? Indeed, are these super so-called multi-hop Es openings really sporadic-E as we understand it? Or is the E layer now more intensely ionised more often?

Incidentally, with WSPR I seem to find 10m open to Europe almost all the time, day and night.

SSTV

Never tried SSTV before so I used Digital Master 780 (comes with Ham Radio Deluxe) to receive on 20m today. Several pictures came through including this one from JN1VNW, the first I decoded.

2013 for sunspot cycle 24 peak?

A new sunspot prediction from Australia is showing we haven't reached the minimum yet and the new peak won't now be until 2013! If correct we have to get used to conditions remaining poor on 10m F2 for some time yet. See http://www.ips.gov.au/Solar/1/6

Afghanistan on 10m

Overnight I left my 10m WSPR station running 10% TX at 5W. During the night I was spotted a few times by a couple of Europeans. My best reception was of T61AA in Afghanistan from just after 0600z. Unfortunately he was unable to copy my 5W on 10m.

This is the WSPR chat log showing that T61AA was genuine. He has been trying EME and 6m at other times today.