This beacon is about 530km from me yet it appears to be on the edge of copy at all times - wait a few minutes and out of the noise pops the callsign and QTH locator. This appears to be a high powered beacon at an excellent site. Its 4 el beam aims towards England so is just about optimum. This is another useful propagation indicator and at a good distance too.
I am still in the process of finding out which 2m beacons are always there, which are usually below the noise floor and which ones can be expected to be copied in reasonable lifts. At the moment it looks like this:
GB3VHF (Kent) always there
ON0VHF (Belgium) always there
PI7CIS (Holland) always there
GB3NGI (N.Ireland) just below noise (peaks copied)
GB3ANG (Angus, Scotland) just below noise (peaks copied)
GB3MCB (Cornwall) below noise - not yet copied
Others - still TBA.
As a reminder, I am using a barefoot FT817ND with a 3 el 2m yagi (5m AGL) fed with 17m of low loss coax. My site is on top of our local"hill" (20m ASL) next to the windmill with a decent take-off in nearly every direction.
On 70cms SSB/CW I have still yet to hear anything - no beacons or stations yet, but I am still looking. The antenna is a 5 el with the same low-loss Westflex coax feeder.
I shall be active in the next 2m and 70cm UKAC contest sessions (next 2 Tuesday evenings) trying to find out how well the station works.
2 May 2014
More 2m beacons
This morning (around 1100z) I positively identified - full calls and QTH locators by ear - GB3ANG (Angus,Scotland) and ON0VHF (144.418MHz, 350km - Belgium). As yet, I'm not sure if I can copy these in totally flat conditions, or not, but certainly ON0VHF is a very solid signal and is still there now hours later. It is weaker than the Kent VHF beacon, but not too much. This should be a very useful marginal signal.
Tuning through the beacons there are a lot of very weak carriers that are not beacons, so it is important to listen for callsigns and QTH locators to be sure of the beacon ID. I am still exploring beacons and beam headings, so it will be some time before I know what can be copied at any time on 2m. On 70cms I have hardly started looking.
UPDATE 1900z: ON0VHF is still audible, so I think this beacon will be a very good propagation indicator in that direction. Likewise PI7CIS (2m).
Tuning through the beacons there are a lot of very weak carriers that are not beacons, so it is important to listen for callsigns and QTH locators to be sure of the beacon ID. I am still exploring beacons and beam headings, so it will be some time before I know what can be copied at any time on 2m. On 70cms I have hardly started looking.
UPDATE 1900z: ON0VHF is still audible, so I think this beacon will be a very good propagation indicator in that direction. Likewise PI7CIS (2m).
After local midnight transatlantic on 10m
Well, 10m is full of surprises!
As late as 2318z (after our local midnight) I was still spotting K3NAL on 10m WSPR. He was using just 5W and was a decent -17dB S/N suggesting he could still have been copied at 500mW on a clear noise-free frequency. This is very late for 10m and way after dark here. I was surprised to see the band open to the USA at all. W4MO was also copied until quite late.
This morning, 4X1RF was spotting me on 10m as early as 0636z, so maybe conditions will be good again today? Sunspot count is 93 (a tad higher than yesterday) with 20-30MHz conditions shown as " normal" whatever normal means! The WSPR kit is running on 10m in readiness.
UPDATE 1000z: Apart from 4X1RF, all reports so far have been Europeans, presumably by Es propagation. Nothing special as yet.
UPDATE 1615z: DX into South America (PY2RN) in evidence, but no signs here of North Americans. Maybe the 10m band will open up to the USA and Canada much later this evening as it has done a few times this week?
UPDATE 1800z: 4X1RF has been pretty consistent on 10m all day. Several Europeans are coming through now, presumably by Es.
As late as 2318z (after our local midnight) I was still spotting K3NAL on 10m WSPR. He was using just 5W and was a decent -17dB S/N suggesting he could still have been copied at 500mW on a clear noise-free frequency. This is very late for 10m and way after dark here. I was surprised to see the band open to the USA at all. W4MO was also copied until quite late.
This morning, 4X1RF was spotting me on 10m as early as 0636z, so maybe conditions will be good again today? Sunspot count is 93 (a tad higher than yesterday) with 20-30MHz conditions shown as " normal" whatever normal means! The WSPR kit is running on 10m in readiness.
UPDATE 1000z: Apart from 4X1RF, all reports so far have been Europeans, presumably by Es propagation. Nothing special as yet.
UPDATE 1615z: DX into South America (PY2RN) in evidence, but no signs here of North Americans. Maybe the 10m band will open up to the USA and Canada much later this evening as it has done a few times this week?
UPDATE 1800z: 4X1RF has been pretty consistent on 10m all day. Several Europeans are coming through now, presumably by Es.
1 May 2014
10m opens to the USA (after all)
Much to my surprise W4MO (7177km) running 1W from Florida, has just been spotted, by me, on WSPR at 2120z and 2128z.. After the mainly N-S propagation this came as a surprise.
With a lot of Doppler (2Hz) I wondered at first if this was coming by moving spread-F from clouds close to the equator? We saw similar a few evenings back. He has just spotted me (-26dB S/N) with 0Hz drift, so that is my spread-F theory gone out of the window!
Still puzzled why just W4 (Florida) call area though i.e.. only lower latitudes of the USA.
With a lot of Doppler (2Hz) I wondered at first if this was coming by moving spread-F from clouds close to the equator? We saw similar a few evenings back. He has just spotted me (-26dB S/N) with 0Hz drift, so that is my spread-F theory gone out of the window!
Still puzzled why just W4 (Florida) call area though i.e.. only lower latitudes of the USA.
GB3VHF
The GB3VHF beacon on 144.430MHz (and soon to be GB3UHF on 432.430MHz) is 107km more or less due south of here. Although it is decent signal on the 3el beam, it does not move the FT817 S-meter.
Does anyone know roughly the difference in the Cambridge area of this compared with the old Wrotham beacon? As I recall it Wrotham was a lot stronger.
A weaker signal is no problem, but I hope it is not just me that gets the Fairseat beacon on the North Downs in Kent weaker than the old Wrotham beacon used to be.
I expect to be able to copy the GB3UHF beacon when it comes on-air on 432.430MHz. Currently it is awaiting site sharing permission. It already has a licence from OFCOM.
Does anyone know roughly the difference in the Cambridge area of this compared with the old Wrotham beacon? As I recall it Wrotham was a lot stronger.
A weaker signal is no problem, but I hope it is not just me that gets the Fairseat beacon on the North Downs in Kent weaker than the old Wrotham beacon used to be.
I expect to be able to copy the GB3UHF beacon when it comes on-air on 432.430MHz. Currently it is awaiting site sharing permission. It already has a licence from OFCOM.
10m - all N-S so far today
No signs (yet anyway) of North American stations. PY4AJ and FR1GZ are there, along with others, but all these are N-S rather than E-W paths. I suspect this is going to be the pattern in the months ahead with fewer openings across the N.Atlantic. Summer time we will get a few E-W openings on 10m and 6m by multi-hop Es too.
The path to 4X1RF seems to be regularly open. This is a single hop by F-layer.
UPDATE 1800z: IK1WVQ has been consistent in the last hour. I assume the propagation is Es. IZ6QZB is spotting me.
UPDATE 1902z: EA5CYA being spotted. Es.
UPDATE 2050z: M0MVB (30km) the only station exchanging spots with in last hour. Has the 10m band died out for today? No, then I spot EA5CYA again!
UPDATE 2110z: After resetting the clock and restarting the WSPR software (yes, it had stopped) I see that EA5CYA running 200mW WSPR is still a decent signal. This must be Es.
The path to 4X1RF seems to be regularly open. This is a single hop by F-layer.
UPDATE 1800z: IK1WVQ has been consistent in the last hour. I assume the propagation is Es. IZ6QZB is spotting me.
UPDATE 1902z: EA5CYA being spotted. Es.
UPDATE 2050z: M0MVB (30km) the only station exchanging spots with in last hour. Has the 10m band died out for today? No, then I spot EA5CYA again!
UPDATE 2110z: After resetting the clock and restarting the WSPR software (yes, it had stopped) I see that EA5CYA running 200mW WSPR is still a decent signal. This must be Es.
Unique 10m WSPR spots to 1420z
No stateside spots yet today. These are the unique station spots on 10m WSPR today. Most were spotted many times.
Slow deep fading on 2m
As the PI7CIS beacon on 2m seems a good propagation indicator it was interesting to see what happened in the rain today around 1325z. Whereas the beacon seems to be nearly always copyable, but not moving the S-meter on the FT817, it was in a deep,slow fade around 5 minutes long just now - still there, but maybe 6dB weaker. Looks like it is copyable most of the time but a bad fade would make it not readable.
10m WSPR - 0845z start today
An earlier 10m WSPR start today. Sunspot count 81 and 20-30MHz conditions "normal" so expect some Asians and South Americans and even a chance of N.America later in the day.
On 2m, the PI7CIS beacon (228km) is a consistent, if weak but fully readable, signal but the co-sited 70cm beacon cannot be detected at all.
By 0854z EX1UN and DL5ZBS had been spotted here and 4X1RF has spotted my 2W strongly twice. At 0907z FR1GZ (9724km) was spotted with a good signal. Everything as expected.
UPDATE 1120z: As well as a good crop of DX, there are plenty of EU stations in this morning's WSPR log including F, LA and DL These could well be by Es propagation.
On 2m, the PI7CIS beacon (228km) is a consistent, if weak but fully readable, signal but the co-sited 70cm beacon cannot be detected at all.
By 0854z EX1UN and DL5ZBS had been spotted here and 4X1RF has spotted my 2W strongly twice. At 0907z FR1GZ (9724km) was spotted with a good signal. Everything as expected.
UPDATE 1120z: As well as a good crop of DX, there are plenty of EU stations in this morning's WSPR log including F, LA and DL These could well be by Es propagation.
30 Apr 2014
10m WSPR this evening and (maybe) PI7CIS UHF?
Because of various non-radio factors I was " late on parade" getting on 10m WSPR today. I did not turn the rig on until 1750z. As yet, no spots given or received, but sunspot count is 80, and 20-30MHz conditions supposed to be "poor" with quite disturbed conditions.
UPDATE 1834z: At 1832z just spotted CE3YP (Chile, 5W, FF46qn, 11742km) at -24dB S/N.
The other RX (70cms on the 5el beam), may have detected faint traces of the PI7CIS beacon on 70cms. Signals were well LF of the indicated beacon frequency (about 1kHz) and were too weak to copy the callsign. There was something there for about 5secs at RST229. Looks like this beacon will only be copied under lift conditions.
UPDATE 1915z: At 1906z PY2RN (9550km) was spotted at -14dB S/N. A little later he was -9dB.
UPDATE 2030z: No further reports in the last hour. Unless there are very late surprises, like last night, this is probably it for tonight. I was surprised to spot Chile and Brazil on 10m WSPR!
UPDATE 2100z: I have closed the station for the night. A last look for PI7CIS (UHF beacon) was not successful.
UPDATE 1834z: At 1832z just spotted CE3YP (Chile, 5W, FF46qn, 11742km) at -24dB S/N.
The other RX (70cms on the 5el beam), may have detected faint traces of the PI7CIS beacon on 70cms. Signals were well LF of the indicated beacon frequency (about 1kHz) and were too weak to copy the callsign. There was something there for about 5secs at RST229. Looks like this beacon will only be copied under lift conditions.
UPDATE 1915z: At 1906z PY2RN (9550km) was spotted at -14dB S/N. A little later he was -9dB.
UPDATE 2030z: No further reports in the last hour. Unless there are very late surprises, like last night, this is probably it for tonight. I was surprised to spot Chile and Brazil on 10m WSPR!
UPDATE 2100z: I have closed the station for the night. A last look for PI7CIS (UHF beacon) was not successful.
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