432MHz Contest - June 14th

Tuesday June 14th is the 70cms activity contest from 1900-2100z. I've made a small 4 element yagi for portable use and this mounts on a small 20mm diameter pvc conduit pipe fixed in the window of my car (see image). It is all very lightweight. At the intended portable site I was able to copy the GB3BSC beacon some 200km away today in a trial run. All being well I should be able to work a few stations around the country.

Solar peak THIS year?

The more I look at the data the more convinced I am that we are now reaching (or may have already passed?) the peak of solar cycle 24 much earlier than expected and at a very low peak level. See some interesting data at http://www.solen.info/solar/polarfields/polar.html about solar magnetic field reversals and the latest plot of solar flux and sunspots at http://www.solen.info .  For several months now the general smoothed trend, ignoring blips, is downwards.  We may never again experience the exceptional HF conditions seen at the peak of some sunspot cycles in the last 50 years, at least not in my lifetime.

6m Super DX - use WSPR!

We are now in the season of super-DX Es openings on 6m when the band opens spectacularly across the Atlantic to the USA and the Caribbean as well as northern South America and Africa. WSPR could be a superb tool to help track fleeting openings over these very long paths, but we need more stations on 6m WSPR for this to be possible. Ideally stations need to be operational 24/7 on 6m but as a minimum from around 1100-2400z and located in Europe, the eastern USA, Canada, the Caribbean and northern South America. When not busy on 137kHz I propose to make 6m my WSPR home this summer. If the band opens across the Atlantic then 5W to a small vertical or dipole should be enough to get transatlantic spots. Let's fill the 6m WSPR slot with activity.

6m WSPR today

Good conditions on 50MHz today with WSPR spots from GM4SLV, PA0O and CN8LI when using 5W to the V2000 vertical antenna. The report from John in the Shetlands was -2dB S/N suggesting just a few milliwatts would have been enough. PA0O is interesting as it may not be Es but tropo propagation as the distance is pretty short for Es skip.

137.5kHz WSPR

This evening F8BOJ was testing on 137.5kHz WSPR so I had a go at copying him, although he is around 700km south of me in the null of my fixed loop. G4WGT was copied but so far no sign of F8BOJ. I've also been TXing with 100uW ERP but no reports this evening although GW3UCJ thinks he may be seeing signs of my bursts but too weak to decode.

144MHz Cumulative Contest

Last evening I went out portable with my halo and FT817 to a local (small) hilltop to operate in the RSGB 144MHz cumulative contest. What surprised me was the great amount of activity: the band from 144.17 - 144.36 was packed with SSB stations from all over the UK.  Just over an hour of operation gave me best DX of 203km and 7 stations worked. It was great fun. Next Tuesday evening is the 70cms cumulative contest, so I may well give this a try too from the same spot.

Elector valve radio kit

Not having built valve radios (far too young at 62, HI HI!) my eyes were drawn to the latest offer from Elector magazine for a complete valve radio kit built into a neat wooden case. See https://www.elektor.com/Uploads/2011/6/Valve-Radio-Kit.pdf. This uses a low voltage valve (6J1) in a regenerative design with a transistor audio amp. At around £50 with shipping it is not cheap, but it is a complete kit. For the offer see https://www.elektor.com/extra/valve-radio.1843103.lynkx .

WSPRnet database issues

Several times in recent weeks the WSPR on-line database has been unavailable. Not sure what the problems are. It is a pity as this database of reported WSPR spots is a remarkably useful resource. Maybe it is simply that there are too many users now and the database cannot cope? Like many, I'd like to thank all involved in providing and maintaining this database - thank you guys.

Amateur VLF transmissions this week

G3XIZ as received at 45km 4.6.11

Both Marcus DF6NM and Chris G3XIZ have been active on VLF this last few days. G3XIZ was a good signal on 8.976662kHz with his improved antenna and DF6NM has been copied in Yorkshire by Paul Nicholson. Although QRN can be a problem at this time of the year there is still activity. The screen shot here shows G3XIZ's VLF signal with me today.

6m WSPR

At this time of the year 6m is a great band for sporadic-E DXing with QRP and simple antennas. All of Europe and North Africa is in range with 5W SSB and a dipole, halo or small vertical. At the moment I'm putting my WSPR beacon on 6m whenever I can in the hope of catching some short openings in unusual directions. Best DX reports so far are to/from CN8LI in Morocco at 2113km. With some luck, the band will open up to the USA and Canada soon (multi-hop Es) and I'll get some spots from across the Atlantic on 6m.