6m Es and GDX

Well 6m "came good" today with Es to  IK1WVQ and CN8LI as well as GDX in the form of G8JNJ/A (184km) G4FFC (45km) and G4BRK (134km).  I get the feeling that daily Es is now more likely until later in the summer. Tonight I shall have to go QRT as we have thunder forecast, so I need to disconnect antennas. Today has been a good day on 6m.

It is interesting to see just how much variation there is on Es signals.  For example, my 1W ERP signal level with CN8LI varied by 27dB over lunchtime. Strongest was 0dB S/N and the weakest -27dB S/N.

G8JNJ/A on 6m WSPR

All very quiet on 6m so far today apart from the usual G4IKZ (18km)  spots. Then at 0914z G8JNJ/A in IO90hx (184km) spots me weakly at -29dB S/N. No Doppler, so aircraft reflection less likely, so presumably tropo?

Sunspot count 126 and 20-30MHz forecast to be "normal" again, so 10m propagation is, again, anyone's guess. Still waiting for first Es openings today on 6m.

Mark Thomas (Channel 4) Secret Map Of Britain

Maybe, like me, you had not seen this YouTube video before. Mark explores some of the places left off some UK maps to preserve their secrecy. In many cases the information is readily available by other means. Apparently the number of places left off maps runs into thousands (at the time the film was made) and yet many places which you might expect to be hidden are not. Bizarre.

At one time Devonport Docks (Plymouth) were blanked out from 1:25000 scale OS maps. Not sure if this is still so. Looking at the map it was very obvious this was a secret place and no doubt a prime Russian target back in the Cold War.  Blanking out the area drew attention to it - the reverse of the intention. Doh!

I make no judgments, just sharing an interesting YouTube link.  I assume sharing this publicly available YouTube video does not contravene any state secrets. Mark filmed this for Channel 4 TV here in the UK.

Yaesu and that (never coming) FT817 replacement

Yaesu amaze me. They would have a near certain HUGE market for a more up-to-date version of the FT817. We punters have been waiting YEARS and it has still not appeared.

Instead they mess about with VHF/UHF digital radios. They could probably re-use the FT817 mechanics and just update the insides. The FT817 is a good radio, but it is 14 years old and there are many features it could do with. The FT817 and FT817ND must have sold over 500000 worldwide! The window for releasing a new version is rapidly closing as the sunspots fade.

My wishlist (just some features, no particular order)

• LiIon battery pack
• Auto ATU
• Speech processor
• OLED display
• DSP noise reduction 
• 70MHz
• 1296MHz

None of these should be hard (or expensive) for Yaesu to develop. So just why have they not done this?

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 .