Heathkit HW8 QRP HF CW Transceiver

Looking back on all the rigs I have owned over the years, the Heathkit HW8 must be up there near the top of the list. I bought mine secondhand ready built in totally unmodified state. It stayed in its original state all the time I owned it. It was eventually sold back to its original owner when I bought a Yaesu FT7 I believe.

https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8/hw8a.jpg?attredirects=0

I could go on the air most days and be sure to work something including plenty of DX on 15m. There are lots of mods on the net but as it is it performs pretty well.  It gets a good score in the reviews on http://www.eham.net . The power out was around 2-3W and the RX a decent direct conversion design. Style-wise it was typical Heathkit - very neat on the desktop. I used mine with the Heathkit PSU.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8 .

These days, the HW8 is hard to find and not cheap, for good reasons.  I liked the looks and performance of mine and regret selling it. I actually preferred it to the 4-band superhet based Elecraft K1 CW rig. If you own no other radios, you can do a lot worse than the HW8. It just works well.  A couple of watts of CW is quite enough to work DX on 20 or 15m as well as loads of UK and EU stations on the lower bands.

JT9-1 QSO on 10m

This evening at 1650z I had a first QSO, in a long time, on 10m JT9-1 digital weak signal mode with 2W RF following my CQ call on 28.078MHz USB dial.  The 2-way QSO was with N8HTG at 5937km.

My calls were also received by several other USA stations such as WO4R, KQ8M and WC0Y according to the PSKreporter website.

JT9-1 is about 2dB less sensitive than WSPR, but it allows 2-way contacts to be made. Using WSJTX software the QSO was straightforward.

Incidentally, K9AN was still copying my 2W 10m WSPR at 1724z which is late in the evening.

10m WSPR Success

Yet again 10m is wide open and USA spots are "ten a penny" this afternoon at 2W. The band has been in good shape now for many weeks. In a moment I am going to swap to JT9-1 to get some 2-way contacts in the log. My speech is still too poor (because of my recent stroke) for SSB, FM or AM.

4X1RF's RX system?

This station in Israel seems to copy my WSPR beaconing on ANY band and at ANY power down to 5mW. I have no idea what he uses on RX but he must be situated in a nice and quiet radio environment to hear so well. Now I EXPECT to be copied in Israel and think my gear is faulty if I am not!

Auto-ATUs for FT817ND

Until it started to misbehave recently, I have used the Elecraft T1 auto ATU with my 12yr old FT817 with good results. Its main use has been to resonate end-fed wire antennas on HF bands.  I always struggled on 160 and 6m.

Does anyone know how the LDG  Z817 auto-ATU compares? It is larger  than the T1 but less expensive.

What would  YOU recommend? I intend to get a new FT1817ND (as a second radio) and auto-ATU, then to fix the old ATU.

Second peak for cycle 24?

It looks more and more likely that cycle 24 is going to have a second peak with a greater magnitude than that of the first peak of Feb 2012. Today the sunspot count is 150. It will take several months before the smoothed sunspot number is known, but the indicators are good.

Recent excellent conditions on 10m are further evidence of good times. Since home from hospital (Jan 3rd) 10m has been open to N.America every afternoon that I have listened.

As the slope down to the minimum is more gradual than the ascent to the peak(s), we can expect decent HF conditions for a few years to come.

The new peak is not great and we may we be heading to a Maunder Minimum with very little sunspot activity for perhaps 40-50 years. Enjoy these HF conditions while you can  because we may not see them again in our lifetimes.

See http://www.solen.info/solar/ .

UPDATE 1300z:  My first report from the USA (running 2W WSPR) was as early as 1244z, indicating a VERY early 10m stateside opening today at my very low power level.. Conditions remain excellent on 10m.  7088km, not bad.

JT65B - limited 2m success this evening

This evening, I managed to successfully copy G3WKW in Hampshire on JT65B digital weak signal mode on 2m, although Bob only copied a few pings from me, so no QSO. We will be trying JT9-1 soon. One of the issues is lack of experience with the JT65B software package. Bob was running up 40W to a beam whereas I was just using 2W to the halo. The power difference mattered. I think with patience and more time we could have completed a 2-way QSO.

This experiment makes me think that I need more VHF power if I am to take the 2m band seriously. Somewhere around 50W to a small beam is probably what is needed to regularly work decent ranges with weak signal modes in flat conditions.  Working 2m with 2W and a halo is fun but this is a case where more power would be more fun.

JT65-HF

In an attempt to brush up on my JT65 message techniques, I shall try a few QSOs today with JT65-HF (basically JT65A). I've used this mode before successfully. Then it will be back to 2m and JT65B to see if I can make that work.

JT65 is a very weak signal mode for 2-way communications, unlike WSPR which is essentially a 1-way  beaconing mode but WSPR will work with even weaker signal levels.

UPDATE 1645z: Plenty of EU and USA stations heard on JT65-HF around 28.076MHz,  but none raised for a QSO.  Moved to 28.078MHz for JT9-1 but band was dropping out.  Will try on HF again tomorrow AM.

JT65B on 2m

This evening I had an unsuccessful JT65B sked on 2m with G4DCV in Aldershot. I was using WSJT 9.7 software. Although I could hear his JT65B tones well (and his CW) I could not once decode his callsign in JT65B despite Paul using 200W. Later I checked with GB3VHF and was easily able to copy callsign and QTH locator in JT65B mode. I shall have to try this mode again until  I succeed. I have used JT65-HF successfully on several occasions. Paul could receive me despite me using just 2W to a halo at around 135km.Several times the WSJT 9.7  reported a runtime error and closed the program.

If anyone has any ideas why I did not decode Paul's transmissions please let me know.

6m GDX

Late evening yesterday and today I have returned to WSPR with 2W to the V2000 vertical on 50.293MHz WSPR. G4IKZ 18km west of me is monitoring with a Moxon antenna and despite polarisation differences gets a strong signal from me. G8EPA (61km) is about -22dB S/N with me. No other stations copied so far. Stations in Holland and Germany are too far for tropo and I have not seen any evidence (yet anyway) of wintertime Es on 6m. I keep hoping to copy some GDX from further afield.

UPDATE WED EVENING:  Having been on 6m ALL DAY LONG and only heard G8EPA  (61km)  I have QSYed back to 10m WSPR and intend to be on with 2W overnight and all tomorrow.