Rail holiday in Switzerland

As I am currently in Switzerland on a Great Rail Journeys rail holiday (without amateur gear), posts this week will be infrequent. Having a good time though combining rail travel with excellent scenery.  Currently based in Chur for 3 nights and travelling to Arosa by train today. Later this week we travel on the Glacier Express narrow gauge line across the country towards the Zermatt area.

My blog on the holiday (adding to it each day) is at http://hb9trip.blogspot.co.uk/

28MHz BitX SSB transceiver

http://www.qrpkits.com/images/bitx20acase1.jpg

The very popular BitX SSB transceiver is, to my knowledge, available in kit form (from QRP kits) for both 20 and 17m, but I haven't seen versions for other HF bands.

What would be really nice would be a version for the 10m band where 6-8W would be enough to work the world when the band is open. The IRF510s would need to be changed to a Mitsubishi power FET such as the RD16HHF1.

Does anyone know if a 10m BITX has been done or if a kit is available for this band?

37 and 73kHz tests through the ground?

Further to my comment on VLF WSPR, I am still thinking about doing some earth-mode (through the ground) transmission tests at a couple of frequencies between the 8kHz dreamer's band and 136kHz. I'd like to test in the old 73kHz band (legal with earth mode and minimal radiation) and possibly around 37kHz too. A radiated test in the old 73kHz band would not be legal despite low uWs ERP unless I applied for the modern equivalent of a testing and development licence and paid £50 a year, stupid for a couple of tests taking a few hours. Getting MoD approval for that would likely take months and months too.

As my FT817 does not cover this frequency range, and the frequencies will be too high for direct sound card reception, I shall have to build an up-converter for the FT817 with a couple of front-end filters to pre-select the desired LF frequencies or a down converter to feed a sound card directly.  A loop, E-field probe or earth electrodes would be used on RX ahead of the converter with the eventual output feeding a PC running appropriate weak signal software (Spectrum Lab, Spectran, WSPR etc).

I made a request to OFCOM very many months ago to permit me to do some low ERP radiated tests in the band between 9 and 136kHz on the basis that the potential for interference with very low ERP (uWs) and transmissions lasting no more that a few hours at a time would be extremely low.  Such a request required lateral thinking and empowered decisions.  Many, but not all, people at OFCOM seem incapable of making common sense decisions any more. They are also hindered by stupid bureaucracy. Ho hum.

VLF WSPR test

Now I have a second small PC (a small Asus X101CH netbook) the possibility exists for me to try some VLF earth mode tests with WSPR. Although I did receive G6ALB 3km away on 8.97kHz through the ground when Andrew was running around 40W, I have never tried looking for my own signal using WSPR at VLF. Theoretically it should be about as good as QRSS10, so quite weak signals may be detectable.

One idea I have is to TX the actual WSPR tone frequencies at baseband through the ground using my small 5W VLF transmitter. Using either my loop antenna or E-field probe on the car retuned to around 1.4-1.6kHz VLF, I can take some trips into the field to see how things work out.

With stability not being an issue I could even try WSPR15 (15min TX) which has performance close to that of QRSS30. Mind you, waiting at a test site for at least 15 minutes for a result could be tedious. This is where some local help from other decently equipped VLF listeners within a 10-20km radius would be very useful.

Back on 10m WSPR with WSPY TX

Unique 10m WSPR spots using WIPSY TX today

Having given up on 20m CW this morning, I fired up the 10m WISPY beacon TX running around 250mW to see what spots I got. During the day I caught a couple of Es openings. 4X1RF seems to spot me whatever I do/run and on most days!

I have still to put the TX and RX parts of this project together (both parts have been separately tested) as a full WSPR/PSK31 transceiver for 10m.

Struggling on 20m CW

For the last 30 minutes I've been putting out calls and listening on and around 14.060MHz CW, the QRP frequency, using my QRP OXO transmitter. Although a couple of QRP stations have been copied (DJ2GL and IZ5OVM) I have only managed to be spotted on the Reverse Beacon network myself once by DJ9IE.
Although calling CQ and hunting can be fun with QRP, it can be very frustrating with less than 1W and an indifferent antenna when conditions are poor and activity low.

G4ILO is 60 years old

Julian G4ILO - 60 yrs old on May 14th - with XYL Olga

Julian G4ILO reached his 60th birthday this week on May 14th. As those who follow his excellent blogs will know, he has been successfully battling a brain tumour, although battling the DVLA to get his driving licence back seems to be harder, HI.  I am sure everyone here wishes both Julian and his XYL Olga a VERY happy 60th birthday and many years of happiness in the future.

See http://onefootingrave.blogspot.co.uk/

472kHz in the USA - when?

Anyone know what the problem is in the USA (with the FCC I assume) that is holding up the release of the 472-479kHz band to amateurs in that country? It rather makes the USA look like a backward 3rd world failed state, incapable of passing what should be a simple piece of legislation! I am sure that many in the USA are waiting with bated breath for the release of this fascinating new band that most of us have been able to enjoy for some months now.

Come on FCC - are you a mice or men?

HT-200 QRP HF transceiver from Tokyo Hy Power?

The HT-200 HF QRP transceiver

Some years ago (in 2006) I posted news of the HT-200 HF QRP rig from Tokyo Hy Power. There was a page about it on my old website. The image showed a prototype of what looked like a very useful little transceiver but, regrettably, nothing more was seen of it.

Unless I have completely missed news of it, I assume they decided not to continue the development and production of this unit. I expect this was to do with profit margins, development costs or the general state of the economy in Japan.

If anyone knows what really happened and why this never made it to market (I think) then please let us all know.

Solar flare and cycle 24

The BBC website has news of the solar flare on Monday. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22525233 .  As we are around the peak of solar cycle 24 - the jury is still out on whether or not we will have a second peak in the cycle larger than the one of Nov 2011 - such flares can be expected. They can occur at any time though. 

Of course the media, including the BBC, likes to "hype up" the dangers of extreme flares: talk of wiping out satellites and power grids etc. All these things can occur, but we have better ways of protecting from these risks and with some advanced warning the dangers of black-outs can be reduced.

In many ways, I prefer the quieter years in the sunspot cycle: working DX with QRP is more challenging on the higher HF bands and, as I mentioned a week ago, WSPR will really be useful in winkling out the openings that fleetingly may occur.