Report from 7th country on 500kHz

This evening I got my first report from Germany on 500kHz WSPR - DK6NI in JN59ln at 805kms. This brings my countries total to 7 now.

FT817 successor coming?

Has anyone heard any intelligence/news on what is happening at Yaesu regarding new hand-held all-band, all-mode, successor to the FT817 with new features such as internal auto-ATU, speech processor, maybe 70MHz included on EU version, LiIon battery pack, etc...

Transatlantic 500kHz reception - VX9MRC

This evening at around 2200z I heard my first ever North American ham station on 500kHz. VX9MRC, the beacon operated by VO1NA was coming through on CW (about 10wpm) on 507.77kHz in and out of the noise at about RST339 at best. On WSPR he would have been solid copy.

A 30th reporter on 500kHz

Lots of trouble getting my 500kHz antenna to match tonight, so late getting on to WSPR tonight. To my surprise (as the antenna current was lower as a result of the rain I think) I got a new report from France - F6CNI in JN19qb which is 418kms away.

Back home - on 500kHz tonight

Just been to Paris, by Eurostar, for our elder grandson's 2nd birthday. At home, the 500kHz antenna is being battered by the very stormy weather at the moment, but I hope to be on the band again tonight ..... if the antenna and roof are still there at teatime.

Voice powered transatlantic 20m test

AA1TJ's historic attempt to span the Atlantic with just a "voice powered" TX (powered only with DC generated by rectifying audio from a LS into which he was shouting) started at 1500 UTC on Tuesday Nov 10th. Power out was about 15mW QRP from the coast of Maine, USA. They had a 2el vertical antenna aimed at Europe and a good clear sea path, but unfortunately the test was unsuccessful, although they did make contact (not voice powered though) with Europe on 160m QRP. For a report see http://www.QRPme.com .

Norway gets some new bands

Stations in Norway now have new, quite large, allocations at 500kHz, 5MHz and 70MHz as well as certain other changes. If you can read Norwegian, see http://www.lovdata.no/ltavd1/filer/sf-20091105-1340.html ).

SM6BHZ hears me on 500kHz WSPR

SM6BHZ heard me at last on 500kHz WSPR at 0556z this morning, so my best DX has now gone up to 951kms with the tiny station. He reported my WSPR signal at -26dB S/N. The distance beats my previous record on the band by almost 100kms. Gus, thank you so much for country number 6 on the band and Joe K1JT for designing the software to make this possible.

Climate change - Copenhagen

A binding agreement in Copenhagen next month seems to be slipping away because no-one wants to make firm commitments on the reduction of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Personally, I think it would be a tragedy if our leaders came away with just a "wishy washy" set of political statements and nothing concrete. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8345343.stm . For the sake of our children and grandchildren we need ACTION from our statesmen, not words.

500kHz improvements - summarised

The spiral top-hat on the 500kHz antenna.

Since first putting a signal out on 500kHz a few months ago, I believe the ERP has increased by about 18dB. These steps were:

• Initial PA 500-700mW (0dB reference)
• PA output increased to 5W (+10dB)
• Additional grounds added (+2dB)
• Antenna spiral top hat added (+6dB)

No further changes are planned as I am close to fulfilling my original objectives of seeing how effective a small and simple QRP 500kHz station could be. The two remaining goals are to get reports from Germany and Sweden.

After that, it will be farewell to 500kHz and welcome to the next challenge!