15m earth-electrode

Well, because of my stroke and bad weather, a few days ago was the first chance I had to go into the garden to inspect the far grounded electrode. To my great surprise I discovered  my wire was not connected to the ground rod at all and was as my son had left it last September - the wire was just connected to  a rolled up piece of coax laying on the ground, in effect a capacitive ground connection: that was why I needed series inductance then! The feed wire is about 1.5m off the ground along a fence. Since the start of the weekend I have been using the far end grounded (as I thought it was originally) to the ground stake. Impedance is still very high (around 200-300 ohms) but I no longer need the series inductance. As for results, it seems perhaps more directional and (maybe) a few dB down on the  previous (unintentional) arrangement. Whether the antenna was working as an NVIS wire is not clear but at the old QTH running the wire back through the grass made little or no difference to performance of the earth-electrode antenna, confirming the " loop in the ground" behaviour at MF/LF.  I may next try extending the poorly grounded wire further along the fence top to compare performance. The maximum run possible is about 30-35m.

Burwell Hobbies and Interests Weekend

This weekend, our local church hosted a very successful Hobbies and Interests Weekend aiming to raise money of the "Building to Serve" fund to pay for improvements to the church interior so it is better suited for more general use by the community.

Had I been fit, I might well have taken some amateur radio gear along as I did some years ago at another occasion in the village. As it happened a church member Rob G4PZW was running a special event station GB1BHW and was working plenty of 10m stateside SSB stations when I arrived mid-afternoon. My walking is still very wobbly and I need support for longer walks. I had not met Rob before, a really nice guy, who lives down the other end of the village.

This coming Tuesday evening the ex-archbishop of Canterbury is speaking at the church and I am being taken along. The ex-archbishop now works in a Cambridge College, St Johns I think.

President Lincoln II prices

Today I emailed Nevada to see what their best cash price is for a delivered President Lincoln II 10m transceiver. I have seen it for £234.95 on eBay, but this is with just  a 12 month warranty. I did not ring Nevada because of my breathlessness due to the stroke after-effects. As yet, they have not responded. Other people have recommended the (less expensive) Anytone series which are available under a range of brand names for around £149.

President Lincoln 2 Transceiver

Some years ago I owned a 10m band (only) President Lincoln multi-mode rig.  Many bought this rig to convert it  to CB use.  As a 10m rig it performed very well with plenty of DX QSOs in the log including a real mobile mobile SSB QSO with a VU (India) stastion one evening when driving in the outskirts of Cambridge (Fulbourn).   Power was a maximum of 20W PEP.

Now there is a new version of this rig available from Nevada and others. The new version, President Lincoln 2, has a maximum SSB power of 31W and includes USB/LSB/AM/FM and CW modes, lots of nice features and a 2 year (maybe 3 year?) warranty.  It is basically a high class, multi-mode CB radio, designed and made in China  and selling for around £250.  The Nevada price is very slightly higher. It is reported to have been 3 years in the design and well made.

I am very tempted to buy the new version if I can negotiate a good deal as 10m remains my very best band. Running it at 10-20W, the rig should be reliable and well capable of decent DX.

Sunspot count over 200, VLF earth-mode, and my stroke

Today I have taken a day off from 10m, but I see the sunspot count is 202 and the transatlantic path is well open with lots of EU stations being spotted in the USA and Canada, and vice versa. There are good spots from Europe to S.America too and the band was open EU to Australia again this morning.

VLF  earth-mode beacon TX

Later today, if my energy levels improve (very low currently because of my stroke after-effects) I want to match my 8.97kHz VLF earth-mode TX  into the earth-electrodes better. At 472kHz they look quite a bit different here compared with at the old QTH (here more like 200-300 ohms with some capacitive reactance whereas at the old QTH it was more like 40-60 ohms resistive. At VLF it might be a lot different, of course. My initial earth-mode VLF results from this new QTH last August/Sept (before my stroke) were disappointing and this may have been due to poor matching?

If I can get more power into the ground I may ask my wife to help me with some drive tests locally to check earth-mode VLF performance. This is where I REALLY miss my health and fitness. I tire SO easily at present, but have been told this should improve given time and more healing.

Guess I have to slow down and let things take their time and not expect instantly to get better. Apparently I was VERY poorly last autumn - my heart stopped at one point and the first 4-6 weeks in hospital are just a blur -  and feel I am almost living a new "second chance" life. Certainly I have never seen a more beautiful springtime.

UPDATE 2045z:  In the end the VLF work will have to be later as I am too tired right now. The simplest way of increasing the output impedance is probably to reduce the PRIMARY turns on the 3C90 output toroid s long as the frequency response is OK. This is currently set for a 4:50 ohm step up. Reducing by a few primary turns may be all that is needed. We'll see tomorrow.

VLF transatlantic

In recent weeks a number of amateur tests have been running from the USA to Europe around 74kHz and at 29.499kHz using several hundred watts to large antennas.  74kHz has been well copied , but the surprise is 29.499kHz with SWL Paul Nicholson and Marcus DF6NM, and others, copying the test signals, for example,  at over 15dB S/N in  424uHz bandwidth.  As far as I know, these 29.499kHz VLF signals are the first amateur VLF ones to span the Atlantic - fantastic results by well equipped stations using suitable RXs and good software.

10m WSPR - first Japanese spot of my signal

Although I have copied 10m WSPR signals from Japan before, this morning I received the first WSPR spot of my 2W signal.  JH1GYE (PM96mi) at 9380km spotted me at 0858z. 10m is clearly in good shape again today.

Also spotting me was R0AU in central Siberia at 5579km. Of course 4X1RF spots me whenever I appear on WSPR for some reason - he must have a very low noise floor and good system there in Israel. Isn't it amazing that G8KNN just 12km west of me gets me at about the same S/N as the station in Japan!

Also worth noting is the high level of European activity. In my log this morning  are OH, SM. OZ, DK, F, HB9, PA, CT1, LZ  and G for starters. This could be Es or more probably F layer including some back-scatter. Come next month the regular summer Es season will bring consistently strong EUs in.

Late morning ZP5BAB copied my 2W WSPR signal at 10333km in Paraguay and at 1848z I was spotted by PY4XX at 9252km.

As before, lots of transatlantic spots both ways again today.

10m - best yet tonight

At 2100z, way after darkness fell here, my 2W 10m WSPR signal was spotted by K3ZV at 5692km. At 2108z this was bettered by KB9AMG  at 6300km. This is the latest spot of my 10m signal yet and the band is STILL open transatlantic!  I  had planned to stop 10m WSPR for now, but conditions remain SO good I feel compelled to continue. The band is closing later and later in the evenings. Transatlantic conditions remain brilliant on 10m.

UPDATE 2130z: The band appears to have closed transatlantic just after 2108z,much later than last night which was late.

Tomorrow I shall try JT9-1 instead.

Simple gear

A reminder of my current station: recently I bought an FT817ND to add to the FT817 I have owned for YEARS. I also bought a Z817 LDG auto-ATU. These are the "workhorses" of my station feeding either the Par 10/20/40m end-fed, the V2000 6m/2m/70cm vertical or the 2m halo. Via the 472kHz transverter they also feed the 15m spaced earth-electrode antenna on 630m MF. The FT817ND and LDG auto-ATU were supplied by Martin Lynch and Sons and they were a pleasure to do business with. I can recommend them for price, speed and good customer relations.

I also own an Elecraft K1 CW transceiver (40, 30, 20, 15m), a Mizuho 200mW pep MX2 2m SSB handheld, tiny Yaesu VX1 and VX2 FM hand portables and an MFJ Cub for 15m CW. These are hardly used, although all have worked some decent DX. My Elecraft T1 ATU is in need of repair as it operates intermittently. The FT817s are used at 500mW to 2.5W maximum and I have been spotted in Australia at 2W or less on 10, 20 and 40m this year. This power is quite enough.

I also have simple beacons for sub-9kHz and 137kHz QRSS3 as well as kit for optical comms to use /P.  I  neither need nor want QRO gear, preferring to work QRP.

To be built is a GPS locked, stand alone (no rigs or PC needed) Ultimate 3 WSPR beacon TX for 10m, but I am waiting until my stroke is somewhat better before starting this as I am still a bit too clumsy and tire very quickly.

The VLF and LF beacons, the 472kHz transverter and various other QRP rigs (e.g. the WISPY, Fredbox and Sixbox) not listed are homebrew and much fun too.

Very early start on 10m

Overnight I left my 2W 10m WSPR running and was surprised to exchange spots with 4X1RF just after 0700z. I was exchanging WSPR spots with FR5ZX very early too and have spotted several Japanese stations such as JE8GSV and JH1GYE (both running 5W) around 0900z. The band looks wide open and very early too. There is plenty of other activity too.

At 1212z a single 10m 2W WSPR transmission resulted 6 spots with  3 N.Americans, 1 S.American (CX2ABP at 11127km) and the rest EUs. 10m is fair humming.

UPDATE 1650z: a couple of stations in S.California (KD6RF and N6RY - the latter 8756km) have just spotted my 2W WSPR signal.