ARRL renewal - no thanks!

Today, I got this email from ARRL. I have no plans to renew my membership, although I am still an RSGB member. It took a week to help me renew access to QST. Their online help was useless and it took a week to get anyone to help me. I was left unimpressed. Sorry, but no thanks.

You asked us to remind you by e-mail when your membership was about to expire. That time is coming.

Our records indicate that your ARRL membership will expire on Feb 28, 2015.

In order to receive uninterrupted delivery of QST, your membership journal, you need to renew 45-50 days prior to your membership expiration date.  I wouldn’t want you to miss an issue, nor any of the other membership benefits and services, such as:

- access to the members-only features of the ARRL Web site
- participation in the ARRL e-mail Forwarding Service (arrl.net)
- answers to your questions on FCC rules and regs
- help with antenna, tower and zoning problems
- participation in DXCC and other ARRL contests and awards
- our outgoing QSL service
- low-cost equipment insurance
- preferred subscription rates for ARRL's technical magazine, QEX

and much more!

It's a snap to renew. Visit http://www.arrl.org/join/WE1A to renew at our Web-Site with a credit card or download a membership application to mail. You can also call us toll-free to join at: 1-888-277-5289 (US Only). International members call (860) 594-0338.  Please renew today.

73,
David Sumner, K1ZZ
Chief Executive Officer

Sunspots - Dec 1st 2014

Sunspot number today is 153 and 10m daytime conditions are "good". 10m should be in recent shape again today. What happened to October and November? Time is flying by.

No 10m WSPR GDX overnight

Although 10m WSPR was running through the night here, no GDX was copied suggesting F-layer back-scatter was probably the GDX mechanism yesterday. First real DX was at 0722z (LZ1OI).

10m WSPR GDX

Today, during the day, a couple of GDX stations have been copied around 170km range, but these are no longer being seen. To me, this suggests I am copying these stations on back-scatter as once good F-layer goes, so does the GDX. Of course, it could be that these stations are no longer on 10m as the DX seems to have now gone.

UPDATE 2212z:    Only real locals spotting me or spotted by me. No GDX seen this evening, supporting to F-layer back-scatter as the most probable means of the GDX spots earlier in the day. I'll leave 10m WSPR running overnight to see if any GDX is copied. This, of course, requires others to be active too and currently there are very few active UK stations.

UPDATE 2252z:  Just re-synced the PC clock to internet time, so the WSPR should be spot on overnight. However, I am not really expecting to see other than locals until breakfast time, but any DX or GDX in the night would be very good. TX is on about 20% and RX (looking for others) about 80%.  Running 500mW, on the FT817 currently, so I can both TX and RX.

Last stateside 10m WSPR spot of my 500mW

WA4WW (6969km) was the last stateside station to spot me today at 1622z, quite early, at -22dB S/N. The last USA station spotted on 10m WSPR here was WB1FIG around 20 minutes later. He was also -22dB S/N. As I mentioned before, more power really does not seem to matter much. What is more important is that the path is open e.g to the USA. What I'm saying is running 5W, 50W or even 100W would make little difference if the path is closed and the MUF was not high enough. Maybe a few minutes?

First 10m stateside reception of my 500mW WSPR

My first report on 10m WSPR today was at 1150z by KE6BID (5295km) who spotted me at -21dB S/N. This station is located west of Boston, -23dB S/N.  New England, USA.   This is early, boding well for the day on 10m.

Apart from the USA, most stations spotting me are in Russia and nearer Asia. G8KNN (local) is also spotting me.

UPDATE 1241z:   Several other stations (the usual suspects!) spotting my 10m 500mW WSPR now in the eastern USA.

UPDATE 1245z:   M0ITF (170km) is being spotted here on 10m WSPR. Good to see some GDX. I did not check the waterfall in time to see if this was pure tropo or maybe aircraft reflections or F-layer backscatter. Nonetheless -19dB S/N was a decent report for 5W on 10m at this distance. In years go by I'd regularly work this sort of range on 10W with 10m SSB, so pure tropo is quite possible.

UPDATE 1450z:   Spotted CX2ABP (11127km) at 1442z on 10m WSPR at -23dB S/N. He was running 5W, so I am probably still too weak to copy at his end in South America.

UPDATE 1630z:   CX2ABP (Montevideo, Uruguay) has now been spotted here 9 times today already at up to -19dB S/N.  He has not copied my 500mW yet.

Sunspot number and 10m conditions - Sunday Nov 30th

Sunspot number today is 156 and 10m daytime conditions are expected to be "good" again.  As yet, my 10m 500mW WSPR has not been spotted at very great distance although the 10m band opened to the USA earlier than yesterday.

GQRP Club and SPRAT

I have many times said that if all radio magazines had to go, then GQRP Club's SPRAT would be the very last to go. This quarterly magazine is low in cost, very high in simple projects to build and the back page always has GQRP Club sales items.

Of ALL the magazines I see, SPRAT is without doubt the best. Back numbers of this excellent magazine are available on a DVD.

This is a little (sized) magazine but it is excellent value. The best in fact.

Last stateside 10m WSPR spots today

W3CSW (5886km) was the last USA station to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR this evening at 1802z. The last 10m WSPR USA station I copied was also W3CSW at 1808z. He was using 10dB more than I was! It seems that 500mW is quite enough usually if the band is open.

G0LRD (25km) - his 50mW is being consistently copied here.
G4IKZ (18km) - is copying me consistently all evening.

10m WSPR - stateside today

W3CSW (5886km) was the first stateside 10m WSPR station spotted here today at 1230z. My 500mW was first spotted in the USA also by W3CSW at 1246z. Yet again, the USA and Canada are coming through pretty well on 10m WSPR.