6m

For GDX on 6m at this time of year I think more than 1W ERP is needed. The cable loss to my V2000 vertical is at least 1dB as I use a run of RG58 coax. I was quite surprised just how few UK stations were active on the 6m band. Back in the summer months when Es was plentiful I used to copy and be copied by, GDX stations by tropo or plane reflection out to around 200km most days. It seems outside the Es season the band gets largely vacated at this time of year, on WSPR at least. The couple of active UK stations were not copied here and did not copy me. As Doppler from moving planes is a big problem on VHF WSPR, it can take all day to get a favourable reflection that actualy decodes.

So, I am giving up on 6m for now. Life is too short and I lack the patience. I could run 5W from my FT817 but don't want to risk blowing the PAs at full power for nearly 2 minutes.

Not on tonight

As my shack is being used as a nursery for a couple of nights, evening MF operation is out of the question. Normal evening operation will resume on Wednesday.

For now, I am giving up on 6m. After 4 days and not a single spot given or received, can you blame me? Day time I shall concentrate on 10m and in the evenings I'll QSY down to MF, 630m (472kHz) WSPR.

6m WSPR - one last try today

I was going to give up on 6m until next spring, but, having had early success on 10m, I've decided to give 6m one more chance today.  I am using 30dBm ERP from my V2000  tri-band vertical.  Nothing at all yet!

UPDATE 1720z:  After 4 days of trying, I have now given up on 6m, at least for now. In 4 days not a single spot given or received! Not even a hint of GDX.

10m - very early USA spot on WSPR

WG2Z (5600km) was spotting my 2W WSPR signal on 10m at 1110z today. This bodes well for North and South America later on 10m.  In addition, there is no shortage of Europeans on 10m.  This could be Es or more probably F2 backscatter.  Also spotting me on 10m WSPR this morning was VK5MR (16144km).

Sunspots

Sunspot number today is 157  but 10m conditions (daytime) expected to be "fair". Already 10m looks in good shape here.

QSYed from 6m to 630m (472kHz) WSPR

After 3 days of trying on 6m with not a single spot given or received I have decided to stop trying on 6m until next year. I have now QSYed down to MF and met with immediate reports both received and given, despite just 5mW ERP from my highly compromised antenna not at all designed or optimised for 472kHz use.  All I have done is resonate the strapped feeders to my existing V2000 vertical and HF end-fed PAR antennas.

Early WSPR results on 472kHz this evening.

6m WSPR - still trying

So, I have been on 6m WSPR most days in the last 3 days running 30dBm (1W) ERP from my V2000 vertical.  So far, I have neither received anyone and nor has anyone spotted me. I shall keep trying, but watching paint dry is more exciting!  I am very disappointed with 6m and will soon give up on the band, unless things look up, until the next Es season starting in April.

Portable SDR project

From Pedro:

Good morning Roger look at this fantastic project from Michael KE7HIA  I believe it will be fantastic for some digitals because of the low power.

hackaday.io/project/1538-PortableSDR
 
73 and fast recover

Pedro Almeida
CT5JZX

Sunspots and 10m

Sunspot number today is 115 (not bad) and 10-12m conditions are described as "fair". It remains to be seen how much F2 propagation there is on 10m today. I am currently ploughing a very lonely furrow on 6m WSPR - so far no spots given or received on 6m.

You will notice my "propagation" sidebar is now from a new source. I'm not sure how much longer the feed from SK G4ILO will continue to work. I suspect Olga (Julian's XYL) will close his sites soon.

Looking at the WSPRnet database I see both North and South America are being spotted in Europe.

G4SMX in JO01pc looks my best hope on 6m. Not copied him yet.

Microvert antenna

Quite a few people who use WSPR use the tiny Microvert Antenna whose design seems to have originated in Germany. For example, this diminutive antenna is only about 30cms long on 28MHz. It uses the coax intentionally as a counterpoise with an RF choke the right distance down the coax. Performance is several S points down on a full sized antenna like a 1/2 wave dipole. With small antennas there is always a compromise! Versions have been made for most HF bands. The  antenna looks ideal for portable or balcony use, being small and easy to erect. Perhaps I should test my (currently poor) build skills by making one for 10m or 20m WSPR use?

I wonder who reading this post has used a Microvert Antenna and how they found it?

See http://download.antennex.com/preview/archive4/Apr601/microvert.pdf .