Solar data and 60m

As we move off the peak of sunspot cycle 24, it is useful to look at how things are progressing. It will be a few years still before conditions really hit rock bottom, but the progression to a solar minimum is usually faster than the climb from the minimum up to the next maximum.

I have not checked the very recent opinions of experts, but they were predicting that solar cycle 25 would be a dismal affair. This is one reason why a world-wide contiguous 60m band would be so useful. It would be a mix of 80m and 40m propagation - VERY useful in the quieter years to come.This will be discussed at WRC2015 late next year but we have no idea what the outcome will be. Even if allocated to the Amateur Service, it could be several years before it is made available to us. So, even if allocated, it could be 2018 or 2019 before we could use this new contiguous allocation. Of course, we may never get it at all!

In the meantime see http://www.solen.info/solar/ for solar data.

Last USA stations on 10m WSPR

The last spot of my 500mW WSPR signal was by N1FF (5327km) at 1754z. I was spotting KZ8C (6290km) at 1902z. No stateside since then.  Presumably the band has closed in that direction now.  Since then, just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me.

Costa Rica on 10m WSPR (500mW)

500mW was enough to exchange WSPR spots with TI3/AB4AW (8752km) in Costa Rica earlier this afternoon on 10m WSPR.  Much further has been achieved, but this is very satisfying as spots were exchanged both ways.

Rapidly rising sunspots

Today's sunspot number is 170, way up on even yesterday.  10m propagation is "good". Long distance F2 propagation is certainly confirming very good 10m conditions.

Enjoy these excellent times on 10m as things will be getting much tougher in the quieter years ahead.

500mW 10m - 16 spots off just a single transmit burst

My 1406z 10m WSPR transmission with 500mW resulted in 16 reports!  These came from the USA, all over Europe and the Canary Is off W.Africa. 500mW seems plenty. Earlier today, VK5MR (16144km) was again copying my 500mW on 10m WSPR.

Hendricks QRP Kits BitX20A

See http://www.qrpkits.com/bitx20a.html .

If I was looking for a simple, reliable QRP SSB rig for HF use in the coming years then the Hendricks QRP Kits version of Ashlan Farhan's BitX transceiver for 20m would be in the frame. They also do a version for 17m, but there is more chance of QSOs on 20m.  The rig has a useful 5W pep output and looks straightforward to build for most people. The Ashlan Farhan design is well proven. Going from 100W down to 5W is only just over a couple of S-points. 5W will get you plenty of QSOs on 20m SSB. 5W is fun.

A 10m version would be fun, but sadly is not available, but likely to be less useful in the years to come, apart from summertime Es. A 10m design would need better MOSFET PA devices anyway I think.

Last North American on 10m WSPR today

K9AN (6505km) was the last USA station to spot my 500mW WSPR beacon at 1724z today. Since then, just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me.

South America

I see CX2ABP (11127km) was spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon this afternoon. I will have to check my records to see if this is the first time he has copied the WSPR-AXE beacon. I know I've already been copied in South America by a station in southern Brazil.

Climbing sunspots

Sunspot number has climbed back to 120 and 10m propagation is again expected to be "good". So far, what looks like single hop F2 stations (or maybe back-scatter?) spotting my 500mW WSPR-AXE beacon (EA8, OH, LZ, CT and UR). No exceptionally long DX reports on 10m as yet here, but these are quite likely.

At the moment I am QRV on 10m WSPR TX (500mW) only and monitoring dT (timing errors) by receiving locally on the FT817 tuned to 10m WSPR.  So far, dT errors are a maximum of 1.2 seconds.

QRT on 630m and 10m WSPR

This evening and overnight I decided not to go on WSPR at all.  Both my 10m WSPR-AXE beacon (500mW) and my 630m (472kHz - 5mW ERP) WSPR stations have been turned off and antennas disconnected. 

I shall probably resume on 10m WSPR in the morning after breakfast.