500kHz QRPpp WSPR TXing - success

Well, my unbelievably simple 500kHz station DOES get out! I've now received four WSPR beacon reports from G3XVL in Ipswich some 61kms away. I've also had lots of spots from G6ALB some 3kms away.

My rig....

Antenna: 15m of wire a few metres above ground, just 2m is vertical.
Ground: The radiator in the bedroom!
ATU: A ferrite rod with coil taps and a 500pF variable capacitor
TX: 700mW out of the PA from a 2N3904/2N3906 pair
ERP: just a few microwatts (I can barely measure the antenna current!)

Sure, a big antenna, plenty of power, a loading coil the size of a dustbin would all help get further and more often, but I am TOTALLY surprised and delighted that my ultra-simple, uWs ERP, station gets out on this most interesting band.

500kHz TX transverter built

Today I completed breadboarding a very basic TX down-converter which takes a 28MHz signal from the FT817 and produces around 700mW out on 500kHz at the TX 50 ohm output. When connected to my random 15m long wire antenna the ERP is just microwatts so real QRPpp. I have managed to match my wire antenna with a tapped coil on a ferrite rod and a variable capacitor as ATU. At this stage it is not the massive loading coils that you see in the pictures of "proper" 500kHz stations but this will have to come if I am to make any real progress along with more power.

This evening I've put this TX on the air on 500kHz WSPR, more in hope than expectation! It is just possible that some of my near local 500kHz stations (around 40-60kms away) might just manage to decode me at around -30dB S/N on WSPR. A test is planned with G6ALB a few miles away on Tuesday evening when I shall try both CW and WSPR transmissions.

New (and lower) sunspot peak predicted

The latest sunspot prediction from NOAA dated Sept 8th 2009 shows a predicted peak of cycle 24 in May 2013 with a high of just 90. See http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/weekly/Predict.txt

500kHz WOLF - transatlantic?

This evening, I'm going to have a go at listening out for one of the USA stations on 500kHz who will be testing with WOLF (very weak signal mode) overnight. Not sure what my chances will be but it's worth a go. WE2XGR/2 (Burlington CT, USA) will be on 508.5kHz for about 4 hours from 2230z.

UPDATE: Sadly no copy. I left the rig and software running all night but clearly my system did not have enough sensitivity.

WOLF weak signal mode success

After a frustrating evening of not decoding a WOLF signal, I was told how to calibrate my PC's sound card. Then I retried decoding M0BMU's signal and met with immediate success:

2009-09-10 21:15:29 >WOLF10 -r 8100.257 -f 1000 -t 1 -w 0.0000
t: 24 f:-0.339 a:-1.5 dp: 85.6 ci: 7 cj:272 M0BMU IO91VR 2W -

It seems this mode is more critical than WSPR but offers the prospect of decoding even weaker signals on the LF bands. The calibration is easily done using the 198kHz Radio 2 signal and takes only a couple of seconds.

Electricity from trees?

A company called Voltree has some information on a system that generates electrical power from living trees. No, this is not a joke. See also the article on this in New Scientist magazine today.

Power levels are low, but the people involved believe there is enough energy to power monitoring systems and alert people of forest fires using energy derived from trees.

WOLF mode on 500kHz

Just set up my PC to receive and decode LF signals on 136kHz and 500kHz using a very weak signal mode called WOLF. DL4YHF, has written a GUI program to run WOLF and it's available at: http://freenet-homepage.de/dl4yhf/wolf/index.html . The program itself is available at: http://freenet-homepage.de/dl4yhf/wolf/wolf_gui_060118.zip . You need to unzip this and run the WOLF_GUI.exe file. Having set this up I am now waiting for some activity in this mode to take place so I can see if it all works. Last night M0BMU was active on the mode on 503.5kHz and was widely reported around the UK and Europe.

Human hair solar panel??

The Daily Mail carried an article yesterday about an invention by a boy from Nepal for a solar cell array using human hair. The article claimed huge cost reductions compared with conventional solar panels. This sounds a bit like cold fusion and needs peer reviews by respected scientists in the developed world. It would be nice if was true.

BTW, do YOU still believe there was something in cold fusion?

10m WSPR (inter-G)

This afternoon I left the WSPR beacon running on 10m. Although the band was quiet, there was a weak trace that appeared and then faded out. It turned out to be G3JKV some 123kms away by tropo. On the stronger traces around 1422z you can see additional Doppler shifted lines as a result of aircraft reflection.

160m WSPR

On 160m I have an almost useless antenna by accepted standards: just 15m of low wire down the garden and a central heating ground. Not only that, but my Elecraft auto-ATU cannot find a match on 160m. So, I get around this crudely by putting a 1dB pad between the antenna and the auto-ATU and it then manages to find a match. OK, I lose another 1dB but that is a fraction of an S-point.

Now, even with this crude set-up I have had reports from G, GM and PA0 on WSPR running 5W (less 1dB) into the antenna, proving that a piece of wet string is very nearly all you need to get out. Clearly, with a bit of effort I could make at least 10-20dB improvement on my signal - adding loading coils in the antenna, running out more wire and higher up, improving the ground system etc. I shall need to all of these if my efforts on 500kHz are to come to anything.