2m/70cm yagi erection

Andrew G6ALB is erecting my new VHF/UHF yagi for me as my health is still too poor. He hopes to return later today. Andrew is hoping to fit a decent N connector to the failed Moonraker patch lead. With luck, the whole installation may be done this weekend depending on Andrew's time and the weather.

I am so grateful for Andrew's help - amateur radio spirit at its best.

472kHz spots from G3XIZ

During the day time I get -15/-16dB S/N spots on 472kHz WSPR from Chris Osborn G3XIZ who is 46km away. G3XIZ is about 20dB stronger here, which is about right for the ERP difference (500mW to 5mW).  At night, my reports are poorer, probably because the local noise at G3XIZ is higher? This all seems about right.

Chris has seen my WSPR on 137kHz from the old QTH, but with the 15m  baseline earth-electrode antenna at this newer QTH 137kHz would be marginal or not good enough except perhaps when the band is exceptionally quiet. A longer baseline earth-electrode antenna may allow the path to Chris to be useable on 137kHz again. It may be some time before I can find out.

UPDATE April 26th 0900z:   G3XIZ says my WSPR sigmal is strong enough for a CW QSO. We must have a go sometime.

Moonraker 20m patch lead is rubbish

Having spent almost as much on a low loss antenna lead (20m long Westflex with connectors) as on my dual band 2m/70cm antenna, I was expecting quality. It was NOT. The N connector end just fell apart in my hand - so poor were these crimped joints, so I am unable to complete the antenna erection when G6ALB kindly comes around later to fix the wall brackets. I want this lead replaced but have zero confidence the replacement will be any better! In days gone by I would have bought the cable and fitted plugs myself but cannot because of my stroke. This was meant to have saved time and effort!

Moonraker  - you score 0/10 for quality control on patch leads!  Folks you have been warned!  So far, the 2m/70cm antenna itself looks fine.  Such disappointment and so unnecessary.

LNR FX-4 transceiver?

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/1278189_519456928132890_1956196588_n.jpg

See http://www.lnrprecision.com/ and scroll down the page.

This looks "Chinese" in origin and I am wondering if this is a badged product?  It looks a bit like a poor man's KX3. It is a 4 band, 5W QRP CW/SSB transceiver.  In the USA it retails for $450. It is clearly aimed at backpackers.

See https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.519456908132892.1073741827.229134337165152&type=3 for some images of the little rig.

DC0DX on 472kHz WSPR

Several spots during the night of DC0DX (467km) running 10mW ERP on 472kHz WSPR. There may have been later spots but sometime during the night the Win 8.1 PC decided to stop the WSPR software running (again). I have reset the clock and restarted the software on 474.2kHz USB dial.

472kHz WSPR unique reports over last 2 weeks

Looking at the results over the last 2 weeks, I see that I've had reports of my 5mW ERP (15m spaced earth-electrodes) from 8 different stations. Best DX is F1AFJ at 607km followed by reports from 3 different Dutch stations. I'll leave the set-up running overnight in case I get any new stations reporting me.

HF wire fallen down

http://www.lnrprecision.com/endfedz/

My Par 10/20/40m end-fed has, this afternoon, fallen down, explaining the high SWR on 10m just now. I think I must have knocked it when seeing if the brackets and pole for the 2m/70cm yagi will fit OK outside the guest bedroom window (they will).   My son, or maybe Andrew G6ALB, will be asked to help re-erection. It has come adrift at the 40m trap I think, so should be easy to fix.  Just need to remake the joint and ask someone to climb a tree (with a small ladder) to tie the end off.  I am just too wobbly for ladders, more is the pity.

I was thinking of fitting the wall brackets for the 2m/70cm antenna myself, but this will prove too hard in my current poor state of health I have decided. I am too clumsy and wobbly (stroke).

For the coming days I'll have to concentrate on 472kHz instead using the earth-electrode antenna.

Interestingly, by about 1516z, there were no USA or Canadian stations being copied here but I was getting/giving decent spots into South America, even with the antenna half down and a poor match on 10m. It appears there was some 10m propagation to the USA for others.

6m super DX

The evening of June 25th 2007 was a very memorable one here: K1TOL (Lefty) was worked on 6m QRP CW from the old QTH when I was using just 2.5W from the FT817 to my V2000 vertical fed by a long and lossy length of RG58 coax. ERP could not have been more than 1W. His big antenna certainly helped, but this was a great contact in the log. The mode was multi-hop Es.

K1TOL's 6m QSL card

2m/70cm antenna

Today I unpacked my 3/5el beam for 2/70cm, the wall brackets and the coax leads. I am missing a small SMA female to SMA female connector  (just ordered from eBay) to join the 20m long Westflex coax to the small patch lead to the FT817.

As far as I can tell, I have everything I now need, when the SMA connector comes. I shall have to wait until Andrew G6ALB can come over to help with the wall brackets. At the moment my health is still too poor (too giddy/clumsy)  to do the erection on my own, sadly.

Better 10m conditions today

With a sunspot count of 168 and a forecast of "good" 20-30MHz propagation, 10m should be good, and it is. I can say with quiet confidence that 10m will be good to S.America very soon and to N.America this afternoon. The good times are very much still with us!

Already this morning I have spotted EX1UN (5423km) and VK8TH (13800km), twice now in Darwin N.Australia, and have been spotted (Es I assume) by IZ6QZB. All between 1016z and 1040z.

At 1038z CX2ABP (11127km) was spotted (Montevideo, S.America).