BitX 20m and 17m single band SSB kits

If you are looking for a basic 10W pep rig for 20m (or 17m) you can do a lot worse than build a BitX kit from Hendricks QRP kits.The basic "no nonsense" design came from India but these kits are well documented and on a neat PCB. See http://www.qrpkits.com/bitx20a.html  . The full kit is $180 in the USA.

Image is at http://www.qrpkits.com/images/tn_bitx20acase1.jpg

Hendricks do a number of other (mainly CW)  kits of interest.

Moonbounce or EME

This is a part of our hobby I have never done and am unlikely to do. Moonbouncers are a special breed with excellent equipment carefully optimised, low noise preamps and usually lots of power and a big steeraable antenna capable of tracking the moon in the sky. I am full of admiration for those who take the time and effort to overcome the immense technical challenges. With new digital modes EME is a little easier and some people with single horizontal yagis and more modest power are able to work larger stations off the moon. For me, it is all a step too far though. I shall stick to VLF, LF, MF, lightbeams, QRP and WSPR.

5mW on 40m WSPR

With considerable difficulty (because of my stroke) I made a 20dB attenuator to reduce my 500mW down to just 5mW. This attenuator is right at the FT817's output coax connector. It also reduces the RX signal by 20dB too of course. Let's see what happens!

Normally such a small project would take just minutes but I found the whole job hard work taking at least twice as long. In the same way, PC work takes me longer as I am forever correcting  typos.

My 5mW has been spotted locally once and in Denmark 853km away on 2 occasions and once in Holland. Results are in line with expectations so far. Sunspot count still good at 95. The last report of my 5mW signal was at 1744z. It must just be popping out of the noise with a few stations, rarely. I'll leave running overnight to see what happens.

On RX I see I spotted VK6XT, even with a 20dB pad in the antenna line.

RX reports (mine) with 20dB pad in line on 40m

40m 5mW WSPR spots this afternoon

Best Amateur Radio and SWL apps

The excellent Southgate ARS News page had a link http://wp.me/pn3uc-2cL to the best apps for smart phones (iOS and Android). If you have such a device some of these apps are worth considering.

500mW on 40m WSPR

Following on from the 500mW 10m WSPR tests yesterday and the 2W 40m WSPR tests overnight,  I am now going down to 500mW WSPR on 40m to see what spots I get. Initial results are encouraging with plenty of western European spots at 500mW to the (inadequate) antenna.

40m 500mW WSPR spots this morning

Optical Comms in Vancouver Canada

This morning I received an email from Steve, VE7SL, reporting on his experiments with VE7CA over a 2-way distance of 54km using red LEDs.  They are doing really well and Steve is writing an article for a Canadian journal. They seem to have been encouraged by my own modest efforts,which I hope to restart before too long. At present my poor fitness and temporary inability to drive because of the stroke are real handicaps.

Image of optical path spanned from VE7SL

40m WSPR this evening

As 10m has closed here, I've moved my WSPRing to 40m at 2W RF.  The band sounds quite quiet here, but I have been spotted in Israel (4X1RF) at 3519km as well as in plenty of European countries. I am also spotting plenty of others on the band even though my low Par antenna cannot perform brilliantly on the band. A few weeks ago my 1W out on 40m was spotted in Australia with the same Par antenna.

Morning update: Overnight some Stateside DX was in evidence.

40m unique WSPR spots (36) with 2W since last evening

Ten-Tec Argonaut VI 1-10W QRP HF transceiver

In my recent QRP rig comparison I omitted the Ten-Tec Argonaut VI.

http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server1500/ooh0w/products/358/images/724/539_web_photo__37987.1373600182.1280.1280.jpg

By all accounts and reviews this is a CLASSY little HF radio, with very good performance figures in a neat and simple desktop design. People have compared its performance to the Elecraft K2,although it is considerably smaller. Size wise it is little larger than the FT817ND. The major drawbacks in the UK are price(see below) and the lack of 60m, 12m and 6m coverage. (No 2m or 70cm coverage too). If these are not important considerations and you want a small desktop QRP radio then the Argonaut VI may be worth considering.

See http://www.tentec.com/argonaut-vi-qrp-1-10-watt-transceiver/
and http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/10849 

In  the UK Waters and Stanton supply this rig, but the current price is £999.95, which is very expensive compared with its competitors, even though a very nice transceiver.

500mW tests on 10m

In preparation for building the Ultimate 3 WSPR beacon for 10m, today I was using 500mW RF on transmit. Reports from LZ and IT9 this morning looked promising. I suspect my current 10m antenna (the Par 10/20/40) may not be that brilliant or is directional.  A vertical may be a better choice.

Currently it seems MUCH harder getting spots with 500mW than with 1 or 2W RF. Probably the signal is being buried under others?

In the afternoon the band opened to the USA and Canada with reports from the usual suspects, but less often than with higher powers. The band closed transatlantic today here at around 1640z.

500mW 10m WSPR spots received today

Wintertime Es on 10m?

In amongst the DX calls today I notice callsigns from 4 European countries. I assume the propagation was F layer or F layer backscatter, but it could be wintertime Es which peaks in the northern hemisphere around Dec and Jan. Signal levels suggest Es may be more likely. All the more reason to use WSPR to seek out fleeting Es openings that might otherwise go unnoticed at any time of the year.