Returning home

After 3 nights staying in Goostrey, Cheshire with my brother in law and his wife we return home later. Back to WSPR later today. After the blackouts on HF yesterday propagation looks more promising.

FT991 - late 2014?

According to the Yaesu website this new radio is due to be released later this year.

10m transatlantic again

Although away from home and not able to operate on 10m, I see from WSPRnet that 10m was open from the USA to Germany today.

Sunspots

Count today is a good 158 and 20-30MHz propagation "normal"

FT991

The FT991 is unlikely to be available in UK until next year says the MLS website according to G1KQH.  Price likely to be just under £1000. That would be a LOT more than the FT450D.

Sunspots

Sunspot count today is 154 (with blackouts) with 20-30MHz propagation described as "normal". This means some N-S 10m F2 propagation is quite probable.

Yesterday was quite a productive day on 10m with GDX, Es amd F2 all in evidence.  Best DX was CX2ABP in Montevideo at 11127km.

10m Es and F2 - this evening

It was worth waiting for. Since 1834z OH5XO (1943km) has been spotted 4 times already. This is the second station on Es seen here today. I am glad I did not QSY to 472kHz too early.

      OE6PWD 
      OH5XO

Yet again, 10m Es is still with us.

UPDATE 1946z:  Now DK6UG (633km) has spotted me a couple of times. Es a May, June, July phenomenon?  No - with WSPR it is longer.

UPDATE 1958z:   CX2ABP (11127km) in Uruguay is now spotting me via F2. This was a long time coming, but come it did.

UPDATE 2130z:  No DX (Es and F2) for the last hour and a half. Is that it for the day?  Time to go QRT now.

10m Es and F2 today

Es is still there today on 10m in the form of OE6PWD (1232km) spotted strongly (-13dB S/N) at 1238z. ZS1ANF was again being copied at 1240z, 1252z and 1300z. It appears I was using 500mW and not 2W on 10m this morning - wrong settings on FT817 - as I forgot to change from the FT817 settings used on 630m (472kHz) into the transverter on that band.

UPDATE 1342z:  The solar forecast has improved with 20-30MHz propagation now "good" (was fair). Is solar forecasting like weather? Hang up better seaweed or look out the window?

UPDATE 1347z:  There are currently 41 active 10m WSPR stations, but a total absence of stations in S.America at the moment. Great pity as that is where the N-S F2 will be next.
UPDATE 1550z:   There are now 44 active stations on 10m WSPR but still no South Americans on. V53ARC in Namibia (Africa) is the nearest active station. Such a pity. Not copied V53ARC here today though. ZS1ANF seems to be QRT now.

UPDATE 1835z:  No DX seen here since 1300z.  Thinking about QSYing to 472kHz but may wait another hour or so in case some 10m surprises appear. CX2ABP is monitoring 10m WSPR: if the band opens he may copy me. 38 active 10m WSPR stations listed currently - far too few.

10m F2 this morning on WSPR

This morning has started promisingly on 10m WSPR with ZS1ANF (9720km) logged at 1034z by F2 and a few GDX stations out to 184km. All stations were using 5W or less.

Sunspot count today is 170 (good) but 20-30MHz propagation described as only "fair".

UPDATE 1326z:  ZS1ANF has already been spotted 5 times today. F2 seems pretty good N-S on 10m today.

2m contest this weekend

Using my voice in an SSB contest is very hard work, so I tend to have short bursts of operation. It really does EXHAUST me!

Stations worked (from home, 5W 3 el) include:

F6KCZ/P  IN99pi (332km)
ON4KHG  JO10xo
PA6NL   JO21bx

Stations nearly worked (call got wrong or lost) included:
GD8EXI  IO74pc (got "BM" but missed the rest)

Several new UK squares worked too. In the end, I had to give in: my voice cannot yet cope.