Sunspots - Monday Dec 8th

Sunspot number has declined a little further to 58. 10m daytime propagation is forecast to be "fair" only. We'll see what the day brings. I am currently on 10m WSPR (20% TX) running 500mW.

Android WSPR apps

Thanks (again) to Steve G1KQH, these are Android apps for WSPR. I see they now include a TX beacon.

Two new WSPR Apps for Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glandorf1.joe.wsprnetviewer.app&hl=en

WSPR Beacon

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iu4apc.wsprbeacon&hl=en_GB

and another I have just found:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xxx.wspr.g4swy&hl=en_GB

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/

Kanga UK Site

See http://www.kanga-products.co.uk/ .

This website has some good products on it. They also sell crystals for QRP frequencies at sensibly low prices and stock Si5351A boards to allow low cost generation of frequencies from less than 8kHz to over 150MHz, useful when crystals for specific frequencies can be very expensive. See also http://m0xpd.blogspot.co.uk/ .

They are also the UK dealer for the OpenQRP transceivers.

10m WSPR Stateside

My 1634z 500mW 10m WSPR transmission was spotted by 9 different stations. Most of these were in the USA. When the band is open to North America, as it has been every day for weeks and weeks now in the afternoons, 500mW seems quite enough to be copied very well over there. Increasing power to 5W makes very little difference.

Once the path closes, more power does not help. One may get a better report and the band may remain open for a few more minutes, but that is all.

1634z 500mW 10m WSPR TX transmission

UPDATE 1940z:   K3GEN (5883km) at 1744z seems to be the last USA station spotted here on 10m WSPR this evening. The last spot of my 10m 500mW WSPR was by N2BJW (5262km) a few minutes earlier at 1738z.

UPDATE 2218z:   Spotting G0LRD (25km) running 50mW and G4IKZ (18km) spotting me. Now going QRT.

G8YQN (217km) on 10m WSPR

Just spotted G8YQN (217km).  This is the best GDX I have seen and, judging by the trace on the screen, this was tropo with some aircraft reflections, At -22dB S/N, not a bad signal for 5W.

GM4WJA on 10m WSPR - a real puzzle

GM4WJA (624km) has been spotting my 500mW a few times  on 10m WSPR of late.  This is too far for tropo and aircraft reflections, and far too close for F2 propagation. I assume propagation in either F-layer back-scatter or possibly Es.

10m wakes up

Since 1142z, the 10m WSPR slot seems to haven amnwoken up with a mix of European stations both near and far. Some are GDX, possibly off aircraft, some are probably F2 propagation and some are at a difficult distance that could be E-layer or back-scatter. If the band is opening by winter Es I would expect  more widespread EUs to be copied lunchtime.  If true to recent form, the 10m band should open to the USA after lunch. With slightly lower sunspots, maybe the transatlantic path will be more marginal today?

UPDATE 1245z:   W3CSW (5886km) was spotting my 500mW WSPR a few minutes ago at a respectable -20dB S/N.

UPDATE 1320z:   KU4QI (6406km) is spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR at -18dB S/N.

UPDATE 1358z:  Although several USA stations have now spotted my 500mW on 10m WSPR, I have yet to spot even a single USA station here! Not sure why this should be as most are using 5W (10dB more than me. I am seeing LZ1OI OK though.

UPDATE 1412z:  My FT817 was set to "narrow" and the pass band tuning was set too high, so only allowing the strongest signals to be decoded.   Since switching to normal passband I am copying plenty of transatlantic signals. There had to be answer, and there was.

Sunspot number - "only" 73

I say this with a degree of sarcasm, knowing that we'd be thrilled with a SN of 73 in a year or two's time. 10m conditions are expected to be "fair". So far, my 500mW WSPR beacon is getting no spots since switch-on just after 1100z.

UPDATE 1240z:   The 10m WSPR sub-band seems to have "woken up" around 1142z, with plenty of EU activity since that time.

QSYed to 472kHz

At around 1515z, I QSYed down to MF (472kHz) WSPR and immediately spotted PA3ABK/2 (306km) when using my short baseline earth-electrode "antenna".

Already, G0LRD (25km) and G8HUH (250km) have spotted me on 472kHz WSPR. The earth-electrode antenna does really work pretty well both on RX and TX despite my very low ERP (5mW) on the band.

UPDATE 1624z:  PA0O (440km) also spotted on RX.

UPDATE 1832z:  G7NKS (46km) has now come on and is spotting me.

UPDATE 1800z: G8LCO (58km) now spotting me.

UPDATE 2100z:   Best DX on RX so far this evening is F1AFJ (607km) at -29dB S/N at 1946z.

UPDATE 2318z:   My 472kHz 5mW ERP WSPR will remain on overnight using the earth-electrode "antenna".

6m WSPR - I am giving up soon!

Well, I did think that today I'd have more success on 6m, but I think it was wishful thinking: I've now been on the band for nearly 6 hours and it is DEAD.  I'll give it a little longer then QSY to 10m or 472kHz.

Looks like there was a little Es in Australia otherwise very quiet on 6m. GDX requires stations to be active and I guess outside the Es season, people don't use the band much outside of the occasional contest.