DX reports with JT65 on 10m QRP

This evening I called CQ on JT65 on 10m as the band was closing (I thought) and was surprised to see a couple of reports appear from LW9DC (Argentina) at 11272km. No QSO resulted, but a report of -16dB was quite good with the 5W and halo antenna. A little later I got reports from LU2XPK (13419km) and LU2XPL (13426km). Again no QSOs, just reports from these stations on http://jt65.w6cqz.org/freceptions.html.

VLF activity this last week

Whilst I was away on holiday there was considerable activity around 8.970kHz from Europe with Henny PA3CPM now putting a consistant signal from his small home station antenna on the G3ZJO grabber. Activity is continuing this weekend.

One of my priorities in the next 2 weeks is to get my VLF receive set-up back in full working order as this has been off-air for a couple of months. I will try a new E-field probe this time around and see how results compare with my 80m square wire loop. The PA0RDT or DK7FC E-field probes are well proven designs that work well if mounted high and in a low noise environment. See https://sites.google.com/site/sub9khz/antennas for details. Antenna size is less important than S/N and dynamic range on VLF RX. This is why tiny voltage probe antennas can work so well.

160m WSPR

Just back from a week away on holiday and sorting out things like washing, post etc. So, whilst this is going on I have set the WSPR beacon running with my 5W into the short loft vertical to see what is about.  In the next couple of weeks I have some work to do on antennas in the garden.

Holidays and light

Starehole Bay near Salcombe today

Being on holiday in South Devon at the moment it is a good time to do some walking on the cliff tops in the spring sunshine. Now, most people looking at the beautiful coastal scenes will think, "this is a beautiful view" or "aren't we lucky having such good weather".

So do I, but I find myself looking out to sea and thinking how would a 481THz light signal scatter off waves in the sea? Would my beacon be copyable around the coast by aiming a few miles out to sea and aiming a receiver (located down the coast) at the same spot in the sea? How would my QRSS3 light beam beacon signal scatter off those metamorphic schist cliff formations? 

I need a holiday .....oh, I'm on one!

All for the want of an SMA-BNC adaptor

This week my wife and I are on holiday at my brother's home in South Devon. I don't bring much ham gear with me these days, but I packed my VX2 dual bander and a small mag-mount to erect when static on the car roof.  Packed the rig, charger, several whips, mag mount  ......but I forgot to put in the essential SMA-BNC adapter.

Never mind, there are plenty of things to do instead of amateur radio including seeing the house in Island Street, Salcombe where my dad used to live in back in the 1920s now on sale as a second home for rich bankers at £325k. The house has no views, is tiny, has nowhere to park the Rolls and floods when there is a very high Spring tide.
 

KX3 - more pictures

Some nice shots of the new Elecraft KX3 QRP transceiver at http://www.worldwidedx.com/elecraft-kx3/134267-elecraft-kx3-hands-preview.html.  This rig has still to start shipping nearly 12 months after first announced although the first units should be on their way to happy customers within weeks now. There were some late changes following extensive field testing and some supplier issues.

QRM on VLF?

DK7FC, PA3CPM and DF6NM have all been TXing today around 8.970kHz with reception reports coming in from many of the western European grabbers. DF6NM is running some 20dB less ERP than Stefan yet is appearing on UK grabbers quite well just HF of DK7FC. PA3CPM is a much weaker signal although he has been copied by Paul Nicholson in Todmorden UK. Activity is likely to continue over the weekend. Here is a screen grab from Eddie G3ZJO's VLF grabber today showing 2 of the active stations quite clearly. Notice the timescale on Eddie's grabber: between markers it is 4 hours in his DFCW6000 window, so don't expect snappy QSOs on VLF.

Dropbox Windows Registry issue - NOT fixed!

Having struggled to get Dropbox files sharing working on my main WinXP PC I today did a full uninstall and loaded a new version 1.1.45.exe from http://dl-web.dropbox.com/u/17/Dropbox%201.1.45.exe and I was back in business for the first time in 3 months. Within 10 minutes though, the same "unable to access vital Windows registry data" message reappeared! What the heck is going on???

iPod Touch external audio - success!

Thanks to some input from Robin G7VKQ I have now managed to get an external mic to work with my iPod Touch 4g. He referred me to http://www.blackcatsystems.com/ipad/iPad_iPhone_iPod_Touch_Microphone_Wiring.html which shows that a resistor to ground is needed to make the device recognise the external mic is in place. In the end I found a couple of ways to make the connection work (shown below).

When used with the Spectrum View app from Oxford Wave Research I was able to connect my lightbeam receiver to my iPod Touch 4g and record QRSS3 and CW transmissions. This is 10wpm CW being received at home between rooms by scatter in broad daylight.

iPod Touch 4g repair video

Ever wondered how one would go about repairing an iPod Touch 4g if one went wrong? I chanced upon this video describing how to disassemble it. This Apple device is quite remarkable as it does so much in such a small space and having seen just how it is constructed inside I am even more impressed. However, even having seen this excellent video I think it is beyond my skills to repair it if it went wrong.