Sunrise and sunset calculator

 See http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html .

If you are like me, you want to know when the sun rises and sets locally. This calculator may be what you need. Here, near Cambridge, the nights start to get lighter from this coming Thursday (Dec 18th) although it is not until Jan 10th until the mornings start to get lighter.

I much prefer light evenings.
 

6m - I had the setting wrong

One reason for my lack of 6m WSPR spots (other than lack of activity) was that I had the wrong USB dial frequency set (now corrected). I had set 400Hz too low. Hopefully I am now on the correct frequency and might see something!

Sunspots

Sunspot number today is a healthy 169 and 10m is forecast to be "good" daytime.Already, I am getting plenty of EU WSPR spots of my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon, probably via F-layer back-scatter.

Last 10m USA WSPR spot today

KE6BID (5295km) was the last USA station to spot me at 1754z this evening. This is quite early but we are approaching the shortest day.

Another 6m totally blank day

I have been on 6mWSPR (1W ERP)  most of the day, in addition to being on 10m WSPR  (500mW), Still, after days and days of trying on 6m I have spotted no-one and been spotted by no-one at all.

UPDATE 2050z:  I shall stay on 6m overnight, but think I'll be wasting my time!

UPDATE 2244z:  Apparently I am set to the wrong frequency on 6m by some 400Hz (checked by G0LRD) despite using a 0.5ppm TCXO and using the same offset as for 28MHz, which puts me pretty spot on. I'll QSY in the morning. Lack of activity and frequency error are my issues. I am puzzled by the frequency error. In the meantime, you will spot me if set to 50.292600 and not 50.230000MHz

10m transceivers

Looking on the internet, there is a wide selection of 10m (28-29.7MHz) transceivers available. Many can be extended (illegally in the UK) to cover CB frequencies.

As an example, the Alinco DR135 is available for £144.99. I am sure shopping around will show that lower prices are possible. This rig was available (special offer) for less than £100 recently. At one time, single band 10m rigs were illegal in the UK. This is no longer the case and these rigs can be a low cost way of getting on this most interesting band.

First 10m WSPR spot from the USA

No earth-shattering DX spots on 10m WSPR this morning, which was a bit disappointing, as I was expecting great things today.  My first USA spot (of my 500mW beacon) was W3CSW (5886km) at 1238z, quite late in the day really. The 10m band is wide open to the USA currently (1455z).

Sunspots and 10m propagation

Sunspot number today is 152. 10m propagation is forecast to be "good". 10m should be in good shape today.

UPDATE 1455z:  Although the 10m band is wide open to the USA, I was spotted by no great (further) DX stations today, well so far that is.

QRSS and WSPR frequencies

Being a keen WSPR user, I have not used QRSS on HF, although I have done on MF, LF and VLF.  A useful page about QRSS is here.  QRSS requires manual intervention to interpret the signals whereas WSPR using WSPRnet is automatic. This is one of the reasons why WSPR gets used here a lot.

First and last 10m USA WSPR spots today

The earliest USA spot today was at 1240z by W3CSW (5886km).

It is now almost teatime at 1658z and KB9AMG (6300km) is currently still spotting me. Somehow I doubt this will be the last.

UPDATE 2012z:   KE6BID  (5295km) was the last USA spot at 1812z. Since then, just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me. His beam must be better aligned my way tonight as he as been getting around the -19 to -21dB S/N level.