FT817ND UK price

Last year the Yen was around 130 to £1 whereas now it is about 165 to £1, an improvement of around 27 %. It was 174 to £1 a short while back. If  this translated to end user price, an FT817ND that retailed at £535 (with VAT) should now retail at closer to £421 but the best price is still way over £500 .  

Me thinks the UK dealers are taking us all for total idiots. 

Yes, I accept the Japanese costs may have risen because of supply shortages, but the exchange rate improvement should have SLASHED prices. Demand a very good discount if paying cash. Don't  ever tell me a UK dealer has a hard life. Dealers, please pass on your savings to us your faithful customers.

Over 1000km on 474.2kHz

Reception this evening of LA4ANA at 1042km (JO59cu) is a new personal WSPR distance record on RX this season on the 472-479kHz band. I think LA4ANA is using a version of my little transverter too. This is the 21st unique station copied so far on the band with a far from ideal RX antenna (untuned Par 10/20/40 end-fed). This is the 7th country copied too. I am hopeful of copying SM6BHZ if he comes on and don't now rule out transatlantic reception one night if conditions are very good. There are also a few EA stations yet to be copied.

Unique 474.2kHz WSPR spots on RX this winter as of Feb 4th 2014

Remembering that first QSO on 500kHz

Strange how one forgets things. My very first MF QSO, on 500kHz some years ago, was keying the antenna lead of my small AF/LF/MF generator. Power can only have been in the low mW level (at best) and both drift and chirp were terrible but it worked over the path to G6ALB 3km away in the next village. Antenna was not properly tuned and way too short.

474.2kHz TX - soon again, I hope

Up to now this winter I have confined my MF activity to receive only as I have had no suitable system of antennas for TX. Andrew G6ALB is ordering me some earth rods, so I hope to put in place a better earth-electrode "antenna" for 474.2kHz TX soon, possibly with Andrew's help. My recent stroke more or less put a stop to ladder, antenna and earth-electrode work sadly. I am improving but have a way to go still yet. I have managed to prune a few roses, but just this exhausted me! A visitor today (for 45 mins only) left me breathless.

It will be interesting to see how a longer baseline earth-electrode system works at the new QTH on MF   I had great success with the 20m baseline system at the old QTH in earlier years and the new one SHOULD be longer.  It will also be interesting to compare performance on LF and VLF. A lot depends on buried pipes and cables. The position of the new earth rods should be optimal in the space I have.

MePads and MeSquares

Someone asked me where I get these useful pads to stick to copper laminate for bread boarding. Well go to http://www.qrpme.com where you can find both varieties for $10 a sheet. They make any breadboard look so much neater and easier to build. You break out individual pads to use them.

There are a lot of pads on a single sheet (see above). A couple of each type (pads to join discrete parts and pads for ICs) should keep the average builder going for 12 months. They are much simpler than a PCB for small build runs and nearly as neat. You just stick individual pads onto the copper laminate where you need a pad.

See Dave Richards AA7EE's web pages of excellent examples of how to use these pads effectively. His layouts look superb.

http://www.pbase.com/daverichards/image/150083520/original.jpg

474.2kHz WSPR RX totals

The last few weeks have been very successful with respect to 474.2kHz USB WSPR receive.  I have been using just my untuned Par 10/20/40m antenna.  So far 20 unique station reports, which is close to all the active stations in Europe. The evening of Feb 3rd saw IQ2CJ in the log too at 989km - best RX DX yet this season.

20 unique WSPR RX spots on 474.2kHz in last few weeks

Wind Farms - good or bad?

On my Facebook page I asked a simple question: am I alone in LIKING on-shore wind farms?

Although I would not like to be right next to one, I find wind farms good additions to our 21st century life. They look natural, are graceful and elegant. Some folks violently disagreed. Do you have a view?  BTW I live about 10m from a 200 year old corn windmill.

474.2kHz WSPR this evening

Although the 630m 200Hz wide WSPR sub-band is busy, most stations in range this evening seem to be listening. I am listening too as I have no TX antennas currently and cannot erect any until I am fitter (stroke). I am hearing a good number of the active TX stations and will leave the set-up running overnight.

630m WSPR stations copied 2.2.14

New version of WSJT-X

A new version of WSJT-X has been released.. See http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx.html  .   As the webpage says:

WSJT-X implements JT9, a new mode designed especially for the LF, MF, and HF bands, as well as the popular mode JT65.  Both modes were designed for making reliable, confirmed QSOs under extreme weak-signal conditions.  They use nearly identical message structure and source encoding.  JT65 was designed for EME (“moonbounce”) on the VHF/UHF bands and has also proved very effective for worldwide QRP communication at HF; in contrast, JT9 is optimized for HF and lower frequencies.  JT9 is about 2 dB more sensitive than JT65A while using less than 10% of the bandwidth.  World-wide QSOs are possible with power levels of a few watts and compromise antennas.  A 2 kHz slice of spectrum is essentially full when occupied by ten JT65 signals.  As many as 100 JT9 signals can fit into the same space, without overlap. WSJT-X offers a "bi-lingual" operating mode in which you can transmit and receive JT65 and JT9 signals, switching between modes automatically as needed.  Displayed bandwidth can be as large as 5 kHz.  If your receiver has as upper-sideband filter at least 4 kHz wide, you can have all the typical JT65 and JT9 activity on screen at once, available for making QSOs with a click of the mouse.  Even with standard SSB-width IF filters, switching between JT65 and JT9 modes is quick and convenient.  Be sure to read the online WSJT-X User's Guide.

Future plans
Plans call for future versions of WSJT-X to include the other popular modes from WSJT: JT4, ISCAT, and FSK441.

2m WSPR - Sunday

Already I see G3WKW's 20W of 2m WSPR (134km) is appearing on my screen at 0902z at -22dB S/N. As there are 4 UK stations active on 2m WSPR I wonder if I shall see, or be seen, by others too?

Stability is the main issue with the FT817's warm-up drift. The trick is to check GB3VHF's dial frequency as this GPS locked. Use the same offset on WSPR and one should be spot on. A 0.5ppm TCXO would help too, but not worth the outlay. I  have a similar issue (not as great) at 6m where I always set the rig 40-60Hz low after allowing it to stabilise. This seems to get 6m WSPR pretty close.

At 0956z  I see my 2W WSPR to the halo has been spotted by G8XWR in IO91oc at 150km. That is encouraging as it is the far side of Guilford and Farnham and further away than Bob. I notice strong Doppler, so probably aircraft reflection.

Lae in the afternoon G3WKW swapped to a lower loss feeder and his signal increased and he began to copy my QRP signal.

In all it was a successful day on 2m WSPR but my drift issue does need to be improved. The DX spots are due to aircraft reflection (when Doppler suits - i.e. little) and the SW package mentioned below helps to predict best opportunities.

144MHz WSPR spots sent and received today (2W and halo)