6m - Tuesday May 20th - some lunchtime Es

A very uneventful morning so far on 6m WSPR with just the usual strong reports from Nick G4IKZ (18km) on the far side of Cambridge. No Es yet, although it is early in the day. At  the moment, 6m is very slow going with LOTS of WSPRing during the day for (maybe) a fleeting opening. At least with WSPR you can do something else whilst monitoring and TXing.

Maybe the 6m band will open up later?  Sunspot count is 130 and 20-30MHz forecast to be "normal". Again, 10m propagation will be whatever. 6m will remain "sporadic" with lots of white noise. It would be good to hit a period of 6m Es that lasts all day. It is early in the season I guess. On 6m I'd be very lucky to see any real long distance DX.

UPDATE 1435z: Well patiently 6m WSPRing paid off with spots from Morocco by CN8LI (2113km) late lunchtime today (best -5dB S/N at 1404z).  With that report, he would have copied me if my ERP was just a few mW, given a quiet RX environment his end.  This is a problem nowadays: often the RX noise floor can be quite bad, especially in towns and cities with so much RF noise pollution.   CN8LI was also spotting me (more weakly) at teatime (1612z) - see table above. 1W ERP seems plenty for Es.

UPDATE 1930z: No further Es in evidence here since CN8LI at 1612z. Think that is it for today?

East Cambs 2m Net

Every Monday evening at 8pm UK time there is a net on 144.575MHz (note 144.575MHz , NOT 145.575MHz) FM in East Cambridgeshire. The net started some years ago as an AM net on 144.55MHz but one joiner had no AM, so we went over to FM, vertically polarised.  Usually there are 3-4 people on the net and others are very welcome. Discussions are wide ranging and cover all sorts of amateur radio subjects.  Usually one person has a query and the others try to answer the question. Occasionally we do on-air experiments too. We always finish by 9pm latest and quite often earlier if we run out of topics.

6m WSPR today - very quiet

A full day on 6m WSPR and only G4IKZ (18km) and G6AVK (78km) spotted me. No Es noticed here at all, all day long. Perhaps tomorrow will be better? That is the nature of Es - it is sporadic! It is interesting seeing what GDX possibilities exist. On 6m, 4m and 2m I suspect WSPR is not ideal inter-G because of aircraft Doppler.

ARRL - thank you (in the end)

7 days and 5 emails later my ARRL user name has finally been reset, so I can now access the ARRL site once again with my 1 year paid subscription. Why did it take so long? Goodness only knows. 7 days should have been just a few minutes.

I wanted to say something good about the ARRL but this total fiasco has rather left me speechless and lost for words to adequately say how I feel.  They should have done better - NO excuses.

At least I can again access the ARRL site. As far as I can tell the site was muddled by having had a 90 day free trial membership before becoming a fully paid up member. Why it took 7 days to sort, goodness only knows!

ARRL:  1/10 for effective member support. I'd wanted to say something nice but just cannot,honestly. I just hope others fare better than I did.  Why cannot you reset your user name online? Their online help is flawed if you lose you user name as I did in a PC crash.

In my experience the RSGB does a much better job at supporting its members.

6m update

No 6m Es since yesterday (yet) and just G6AVK new in the log, both ways, last night at 78km. Today lots of good spots again from G4IKZ (18km) but nothing yet from Europe or elsewhere on 6m.  Sunspot count 138 today and 20-30MHz forecast is"normal" so 10m is anyone's guess. Of course on 6m I am mainly looking for Es.

Lesser Chirpy - a VERY simple 10m transceiver

This design is a couple of years old and evolved from Chirpy. Unlike the original design, chirp on 10m is negligible. This design really works and gives credible results on 10m with just a handful of parts. Sensitivity could be better  with a few more parts, but not this simple!

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

6m homebrew SSB/CW transceiver and the Sixbox

6m is an ideal band for experimenters. Local coverage is very good, Es DX possibilities in spring and summer are good (strong signals out to about 1500km) and the frequency low VHF so less layout critical than 2m.

I am always on the lookout for interesting ideas for 6m QRP rigs and just noticed this one from Japan. This amateur also manages to package his designs so neatly: they look like factory-made products.  See http://www.qsl.net/7n3wvm/xcvr-6m.html for a neat 3W QRP SSB/CW transceiver.

For a really simple AM transceiver design see my Sixbox on my main website. Ideal as a basis for further design for local natters. Very simple concept that works.  On the main website click images and schematic for clearer versions.

See also http://www.pg1n.nl/articles.php?lng=en&pg=145  for a list of 6m designs. His website also has lists of designs for other bands.

6m update

After a very brief Es opening to Italy this afternoon, all is again quiet on 6m WSPR. I have left the kit running but only G4IKZ is spotting me at the moment.

6m is an even more fickle band than 10m and even more challenging because of it. At the moment Es is starting to wake up the band, although stations further south (around the Med.) have been able to work remarkable distances by TEP in recent weeks. Also,  there has been 6m TEP between Japan and Australia.

ARRL website - crap!

Don't lose your user name or ID or you may never get in again!

I was a 90 day guest member, decided to join for one year on a special offer. Lost my user name (PC crashed) so asked ARRL for help getting back in to read QST etc.. 6 days later (6 DAMN days!!!!) and not a single reply from ARRL. What a load of tossers!  They have now had 3 emails.

Next year, it is very unlikely I shall rejoin.  This level of member support is totally pathetic. I am not at all impressed with their "help". If you lose you user name it appears the on-line help does not help at all, but (so far) neither does emailing ARRL!

How can a national society's website be totally inaccessible to paid up members? How come ARRL is so bad at supporting its members?

10m and 6m

Sunspot number 146 and the 20-30MHz forecast is "normal" so it is anyone's guess what 10m will be like today.  I am now monitoring (and TXing) on 6m WSPR but all is very quiet on that band so far with just locals G4IKZ and G4KPX copying me so far, and very well. Things on 6m (and 10m) can rapidly change of course and that is half the fun.

On 6m there is a decent level of  European activity, so if  Es appears I should be spotted. 6m is a nice challenge right now. On 10m I pretty well know who will copy me when the band opens by F2 and 6m QRP is a good new experience on  WSPR.  Spots from 4X1 were a real surprise a few days ago.  6m at the moment is likely to be mainly Es but there is just a chance of some F2 layer propagation.

UPDATE 1535z:   IK1WVQ (1084km) spotted at -8dB S/N at 1528z on 6m WSPR. Some Es about.  A little later he was +9dB. Typical Es.