Welcome to 2010

A very happy and peaceful New Year to you and your families. Do you have any New Year resolutions? Mine are:

1. To complete my QRP DSB/CW transceiver for 10m (possibly SSB using a phasing TX)
   
2. To make a DSB version of the Fredbox for 6m or 2m
3. To design and build some more very simple "micro-transceivers" for HF and 6m use
   
4. To do one long walk once a week
   
5. To give up sugar in tea and coffee
   

We'll see how well I succeed this time next year!

2009 countries worked

At the end of the year I've been through the logbook to see how many (few?) countries I worked in the sunspot minimum year with QRP.  Overall I worked 47 countries with 34 worked on 10m and 15 on 6m. This is fewer than previous years as I spent quite a lot of time in the second half of the year on WSPR beaconing, especially on 500kHz. With improving HF conditions I expect to better this total in 2010.

On WSPR, I was very pleased to end the year with 54 unique reports on 500kHz from stations in 9 countries and all with just 1mW ERP to a tiny antenna.

New country on 500kHz - EI0CF -(IO65ih) 602kms

Just got a string of reports from Finbar EI0CF in Eire on 500kHz WSPR. He is in IO65ih some 602kms north west of me. This is my 9th country.

New square and reporter on 500kHz

Just had a report from DK8ZJ on 500kHz WSPR from JO54ag at a distance of 685kms. This brings my total now to 51 unique reports on the band since I started in September 2009. Still just running 1mW ERP.

Conditions must be good as I've just had another report from  LA3EQ in JO28 at 769kms as well. I'll leave the WSPR beacon running overnight tonight.

Got my shack back

All the family apart from my wife Lis and our grandson have gone home after Christmas now, so I've got my shack back again and can do some evening operating and WSPRing. The 500kHz beacon is on at the moment and I'm getting decent reports from OR7T. I hear that Finbar EI0CF/GI4DPE is now getting active on 500kHz WSPR. If he is able to hear me - I hope so - this would be a 9th country.

500kHz WSPR running today

The 500kHz WSPR beacon is running today but is unlikely to be on this week very much as we have our grandchildren coming to stay, so there will be a happy chaos about the place! Only M0LMH has spotted me so far this morning, at 223kms. Last night I got reports from G, GM, ON and DL.

An eventful return home

Today we travelled back from our son's in Kent - and broke down TWICE. The car and battery were fine when we left but the car would not start after refilling with fuel. A jump start got us going again. Then on the M11 near Stansted we broke down again as the battery was hardly functioning and the engine was struggling. We came to a complete stop on the hard shoulder. Thankfully our Direct Line breakdown service towed us home.  A new battery will be bought on Monday and we'll see if that was the only fault.

OK1VEN builds my SAQ converter - see his video

OK1VEN has been building a version of my SAQ converter which up-converts the 17.2kHz signal to HF. He produced a time-lapse video showing him building it, which he put onto YouTube recently. His version looks a lot neater than the G3XBM original!

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Azk9wmIvg

Merry Christmas everyone

A very happy Christmas to everyone reading this blog. Whatever your circumstances, I hope the day is a peaceful and happy one. No ham operating here today as my wife and I are away from home at our younger son's home in Canterbury. Instead, we've been told to relax and keep out of the kitchen. Suits us!

WSPR reporting - the REAL advantage

This evening, after a brief foray on 40m QRP CW, I returned to 500kHz WSPR whilst getting on with other jobs in the shack. As an example of just how good WSPR can be, see the example shown here in which one brief WSPR transmission results in no less than seven reports. In an instant I could see just where my 1mW ERP signal was getting and how well it was being received. Using modes like CW this sort of thing is just not possible. OK, it is beaconing and not a contact, but to be honest I'm more interested in testing my TX system, checking propagation, seeing how my antenna changes have affected things than having a "rubber stamp" HF QSO in which little information is being exchanged.