Storm risk passed?

See http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en  .

About 3 hours ago there was thunder and lightning less than a mile away and very heavy rain, but all is now quiet here.  The nearest storm activity was at Wicken and Dullingham but these have subsided now. I suspect the main danger has now passed and I can safely reconnect rigs and antennas.

Will probably go on 6m WSPR later today.

Back to Par 3 band external antenna

Now the threat of storms has gone for the day I am going back on the external Par 10/20/40m end-fed wire antenna. This happened at 1515z.

Sunspot count today is zero (very low) with 20-30MHz propagation forecast to be just "fair". I shall be lucky to see F2 DX today on 10m. Es has been very good on the indoor loop.

UPDATE 1520z:   First 10m WSPR spot back on the external Par antenna was from SM6WZI (1007km)  at -1dB S/N for my 2W. This is a very good report. Again, the Es seems to be favouring more northern latitudes.

10m WSPR spots since going back to the Par wire antenna outdoors

UPDATE 1727z:  Still just the mix of EU Es stations since going back to the Par antenna.

UPDATE 1830z:  Just G8JNJ/A (184km) being spotted currently. All Es seems to have disappeared.

UPDATE 1940z:  Out of the blue pops OK2SAM (1283km) just detectable on 10m WSPR at -32dB S/N. So there is still ES about on 10m.

UPDATE 2140z:   Plenty of 10m Es this evening including spots from 3VSWL in Tunisia and DK0SC . I spotted I and EA.  As thunder storms may build overnight I shall be going QRT and disconnecting rig and antennas.

10m WSPR with Wander Wand Compact Loop

Averaging all the signals over the day so far on the Wander Wand Compact Loop indoors on 10m and comparing with the external end-fed Par 10/20/40m wire antenna, I believe the loop is perhaps just 2 S-points down or less. With Es and widely varying signal levels, it is quite hard to do the comparison. Also, the loop was not rotated, and it is possible the difference is slightly less.

On lower frequencies I think the difference will be slightly greater. Overall, I am impressed  with the indoor loop. Seeing how it is not positionally optimised (it just sits above the rigs and runs just over 2W), it does pretty well.

For future 10m WSPR use I think a 6mm or 10mm copper pipe (fixed tuned) loop will make a good external antenna. I suspect a thicker loop will be only be very little down on a 1/2 wave vertical or dipole at a similar height. The disadvantage of a loop, especially an efficient one, is the narrow bandwidth. This of course, helps on receive as the antenna rejects out of band interferers. Bandwidth should just about cover JT65/JT9-1, PSK and WSPR allocations 28.076-28.126kHz.

WSPR distances

LB9YE and I have exchanged WSPR spots several times today. When he spots me the distance is 1489km. When I spot him it is 1533km. I assume it is to do with where in the QTH square the measurement is taken from.

Storms to miss us?

According to the lightning map, it looks like the nasty thundery weather is tracking up west of us (Peterborough and Stamford area?)  and could miss us altogether. We'll see.  See http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en . For now, I shall keep on the Wonder Wand Compact indoor loop to see how it performs.

UPDATE 1127z:  Storms are dying out now. I think we'll miss them.

Wonderwand loop on HF

http://www.wonder-wand.co.uk/WonderWand/WW_Photos_files/TCL-ad01.jpg

Rather than go QRT because of the approaching storms, I decided to try my Wonder Wand Tunable Compact Loop antenna indoors on 20m WSPR. The loop is about 0.5m diameter. In my case, more for convenience, it goes to the rig via my Z817 ATU. SWR is perfect 1:1 on the tuned frequency. No TX spots seen yet at 2W, but no shortage of RX spots across Europe so far. The loop is just above the rigs in a far from ideal, indoors location.

WSPR spots so far today on 20m with the indoor Wonder Wand Compact Loop

UPDATE 0916z: My first TX spot on the indoor Wander Wand Compact Loop came from DJ6LB at -28dB S/N.

UPDATE 0944z:  Second TX spot was by DJ7KA at -26dB S/N.

UPDATE 1010z: I QSYed to 15m and am getting lots of spots on TX at just 2W.  Best DX report on 15m is from SM6WZI (1007km) at -6dB/-9dB S/N (i.e. strong) - it is amazing this tiny indoor antenna works so nicely. So far 6 TX spots of my 2W in just 8 minutes on 15m. Incredible. Sorry about the poor photo of the loop, but you get an idea of the set-up. It will work even better on 10m and 6m as the loop is larger electrically. Set-up is totally un-optimised: the loop just happens to be where it is.

UPDATE 1230z:  Now QSYed to 10m and the best DX on the Wonder Wand Compact Loop indoors is now LB9YE (1489km) at -25dB S/N with 2W.

 

10m WSPR spots with 2W today with indoor loop

Storms ever nearer

Currently, there are violent storms over North London and East Midlands, and they are moving towards us in East Anglia. Not sure of the pace yet, but looks like we could have storms within hours. For now, I shall keep antennas disconnected and the PSU disconnected from the mains, just in case. 10m and 6m can wait. Or I  may use an indoor wire loop instead?

See http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en  .

Approaching storms

Although the nearest electrical storms are some way off (West Country and over the Cherbourg Pennisula) they are likely to be here tomorrow. As a precaution, I shall disconnect all rigs and antennas before bedtime. Probably they won't be here until later in the day, but better to be safe than sorry.

See http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en .

SPAM comments WILL be deleted!

In the last 24 hours on both my blogs I have had SPAM comments from someone in India extolling the virtues of yoga and meditation. Nothing wrong in the right context, but the comments are totally out of context and therefore SPAM.  Both have been deleted as soon as noticed.

A word of warning to potential SPAMMERS: similar irrelevant and totally off topic comments will always be treated as SPAM and deleted.  Go away or expect such comments to be immediately deleted.

10m - evening Es

Quite out of the blue IK1WVQ (1084km) was spotted just now at -12dB S/N. Es just happens - sporadically. Also copied was G8JNJ/A (184km) by GDX. There have been watery, Doppler affected, signals visible for hours, without decodes.