Sunspots

Sunspot number is 166 and 10m propagation is again forecast to be "good".

UPDATE 1632z:   Although, yet again. the 10m band was open to the USA and Canada, my 500mW has not (yet) been copied in South America or further afield today.

10m overnight

Overnight on 10m WSPR just local spots with DX spots only starting after 0730z with spots of Russian stations over 5100km from NO square. More recently, LZ1OI is now spotting my 500mW.

Last stateside reports on 10m WSPR

My 500mW 10m signal was last spotted by KJ4SPG (6328km) KB9AMG (6300km) and KD6RF (7547km) at 1744z. I was spotting USA stations over one hour after this. G0LRD (25km) running just 50mW has been a weak, but consistent, signal since the band closed for DX. G4IKZ (18km) has been spotting me consistently in recent minutes.

Stroke update

In the last few weeks, I seem to have made little progress. I still find many liquids hard to drink, I still get giddy when walking and most physical activities exhaust me, although on many days my level of stamina may be a little better. I do so want to be back to my old self again.

Soldering and experiments out in the field are still off the agenda for now as I am too clumsy.

Nevada bargain on 10m Multi-mode radios

See http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/transceivers/mobile-transceivers/alinco-dr-135dx-uk .

Nevada is selling Alinco multi-mode 28-29.7MHz radios on special deal at £99.95. For "export only" they can be expanded to also cover CB frequencies. Such expansion is not legal in the UK. At less than £100, this is a very good price for a 10m multi-mode rig.

I admit I "lifted" the original image from the Nevada website. As it was Javascript, I was unable to link, as I had wished, to the original images. If using this image on this blog is a problem, it will be immediately removed, although I hope Nevada see this as free publicity.

CX2ABP on 10m WSPR

Although I have copied CX2ABP (11127km)very many times here today, he has not managed (well yet) to copy my 500mW. In the log are lots of reports from across the USA but no-one further has spotted me today. Time is running out, although I suppose someone in South America might copy me yet? North America is likely to close quite soon now on 10m.

500mW on 10m WSPR

Today I am again on 10m WSPR running 500mW on TX. Currently I am using the FT817 at 20% TX, 80% RX so that I am looking for others far more than TXing. I am assuming the propagation is F layer although some of the spots e.g. Italy, seem too close, so these could be F-layer backscatter or even Es? I am still hoping to be spotted well outside of Europe.

Sunspots - Friday Nov 28th 2014

Sunspot number has dropped back a little to 155, but 10m conditions remain "good". Already this morning, my 500mW WSPR has been copied widely across Europe.

500mW on 10m. Going QRT shortly.

For a lot of today I have been on 10m WSPR with the FT817 on TX at 20% TX time and on RX for the remainder of time. With the WSPR-AXE beacon, I am on TX for 100% of the time, but the frequency randomly moves around over 100Hz of the 200Hz wide WSPR allocation to minimise the chance of being clobbered by other higher powered stations.

I shall be going QRT very shortly on 10m, but will be on 10m WSPR again in the morning. For several hours now I have only been copied by local G4IKZ and have copied no stations at all.

UPDATE 2305z:  Now gone QRT.  There was a weak station that did not decode copyable just before I closed. There was no Doppler, suggesting this might have been a non-G station, but I shall never know.

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.