Sub-9kHz NoV - still awaiting Met Office OK

I chased Rod at OFCOM this weekend to see if there was any further news on the NoV application to TX below 9kHz. The hold-up is still the Met Office, from whom OFCOM are awaiting approval. I'm carrying on with sub-9kHz earth-mode and induction tests at 4W meanwhile as I can't imagine anyone will object. My transmissions last about 10 minutes and the radiated power is picowatts!

Earth mode and induction testing at 1kHz

Today I restarted my earth-mode and induction communication tests at VLF using with my 4W transmitter and 10m separated earth electrodes. After some false starts, I ended up by field testing a simple receiver consisting of 30t of wire 80cms square into an active high pass filter followed by 3 stages of audio gain into a crystal earpiece. 2N3904 transistors were used at each stage. With the loop over my shoulder I set the TX sending 1 second "beeps" at 1kHz and went walking....

Even with 20-30dB of 50Hz rejection it was still an issue in many places. Walking across the field behind my house, and well away from cables and pipes, the signal could be heard in the earpiece at RS53 to a distance of 0.35km. Mains hum and LW/MW interference (the RX is not in a screened box) rather than signal level  limited further range. This week I'll add more high pass filtering, put the RX in a screened box and make the whole thing more immune from BC breakthrough. As I can hear this signal by ear at 0.35km with essentially no narrow filtering, then I'm confident that twice as far will be possible with QRSS/WSPR and a PC based receiver. Not bad for 4W at 1kHz.

10m Es

Put the 10m QRP WSPR beacon on early today and already there are spots from the G, CT and OY. The sporadic-E season is gathering pace.

The Spirit Level - a book I recommend

"The Spirit Level" is a book by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett published in the UK by Penguin showing hard evidence that almost everything - from life expectancy to mental illness, violence to illiteracy - is affected not by how wealthy a society is, but by how equal it is. Societies with a bigger gap between rich and poor are bad for everyone in them, including the well-off. It is a book full of positive solutions and shows how we can move towards a happier and fairer future.

The Limerick Sudden receiver kit

The GQRP club has launched a new kit called the Limerick Sudden. This was the message from George G3RJV today on the GQRP Yahoo Group:

"Limerick Construction is an exciting new way of construction. Conceived by Rex Harper, W1REX, of Limerick Maine it offers a simple and attractive way of building equipment. Based upon the Manhattan construction method (surface mounted parts on insulated pads) it also lends itself to the production of easy to build kits.

For some months G3RJV, G3MFJ and W1REX have been looking into producing a basic receiver kit in Limerick format. The resultant project, based on the G3RJV Sudden is now available in kit form. See http://www.gqrp.com/sudden.htm . It is complete in every way ... all parts... board ...case...no coils to wind ... even a battery! We hope members will enjoy our new Club Sales offering. "

Shoe power source (from Elector Newsletter)

A novel way of generating a small amount of power using a piezo-electric generator within a pair of shoes is shown in the latest Elector Newsletter.

Useful Simple Signal Generator

Dom Baines has a useful blogsite and today I noticed this NorCal circuit on his page for a multi-band S9/S1 signal generator. It uses a switched crystal oscillator with 2 well-defined output levels at 50uV and 1uV, so is ideal to test receivers.

More VLF DX TX tests by DK7FC planned

Stefan DK7FC is applying for permission from the German authorities to erect a 300m long kit supported antenna for his next transmitting tests on VLF. Before this is possible he hopes to test with a 200m long kite antenna. The main concern now is summer noise levels on VLF and the effect this will have on DX possibilities. Some ionospheric propagation simulations by SQ7MPJ suggest that attenuation over an 800kms+ distance would be a few dB less if the TX frequency was reduced to around 5-6kHz instead of 8.97kHz because of the effect of the D-layer.

OY1OF on 10m WSPR - Doppler shifted

OY1OF was already receiving signals from me and G3ZJO at 0724z today on 10m WSPR. His signal with me had very distinct Doppler shift on each transmission suggesting that the E layer is moving or at least is unstable. The sunspot count (unrelated to Es I think) was at a very high 77 today. I've now reduced my TX power back to 1W as 5W is probably too much. I must try WSPRing on 10m with very low mW levels soon.

My shack in 1977

Thumbing through some old family photos in a box tonight, I found this one of my shack as it was in 1977 when my son was about 1.5yrs old.  It was interesting to see what gear I had then. On the far right  of the table is the Liner-2 144MHz 10W pep SSB transceiver. Next to it is a 28MHz 1W crystal controlled CW TX (xtals on the log book) and below that I think it was a 15W PA for 28MHz that I used briefly. On the left of this is the Eddystone EC10 receiver which was used with a down converter to RX on 28MHz. I had more space then than now!