QRPp WSPR and small antennas

One thing the last few days of 5mW WSPR beaconing has taught me is others must be using better antennas than me.

At 5mW I am really struggling, whereas, for some, DX reports still flow in at this very low power level. All my antennas are low and compromised which is why 1-2W is a more sensible level for me. I suspect my ERP is lower than other QRPp stations when I use 5mW RF. Nonetheless, it was an experiment well worth doing.

In the end, 4X1RF at 3519km was my only report with 5mW on 10m.  I had no luck with transatlantic reports despite myself copying plenty of US and Canadian stations yet again,even with a 20dB attenuator in circuit.

From tomorrow I propose to run 100mW RF on 10m being much the same as the unmodified Ultimate 3 kit, although I intend to run 1-2W on my final version.

UPDATE 1700z:  10m closed transatlantic at 1700z.

10m 5mW WSPR so far

After beaconing at 5mW WSPR on 10m all afternoon, I have received not a single spot so far.

20dB attenuator directly on 500mW output of FT817 (note chokes on ground side)

I have copied many stateside stations today and yesterday. On Monday morning my 5mW 10m beacon as spotted by 4X1RF at 3519km, a new 5mW DX record for me. RX reports suggest reception in N.America of the 5mW beacon might  be possible, but no luck as yet.

10m WSPR spots, 5mW TX and RX via 20dB pad

40m 5mW Summary

After leaving the 5mW 40m WSPR beacon running for 24 hours, this is the summary.

In all I received 7 spots in that period with the best DX being a single report from Italy and a couple of reports from Denmark.

In all, quite an interesting exercise with very low power.  Clearly  my signal was sitting in the noise most of the time, being just over the noise floor on a few rare occasions for very small number of stations. I am convinced that 2W RF is a better level to aim for in any dedicated WSPR beacon. Even with a 20dB pad in series with the FT817 output, I was still copying stations from near and far including VK6XT on 40m. On TX it was much harder to be copied.

 40m 5mW WSPR spots received

Still, with my modest, low, 40m antenna 1183km is not bad with just 5mW. See later post about 10m results.

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