Last 10m USA WSPR spot today

QTH next to the windmill (LHS)

KB1VXY (5308km) was the last to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR-AXE-CW beacon today at 1802z. Since then, just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me. Time to go QRT on 10m but I'll remain on 630m WSPR now and through the night. I have just resync'd the PC to internet time.

My 10m antenna is not the world's best.  At some point, when fitter, I hope to re-erect  a single band antenna for 10m use, possibly my Homebase-10 design on my main website.

472kHz - WSPR spots on TX (5mW ERP) in last 2 weeks

Using the short baseline earth-electrode "antenna" on 472kHz WSPR in the last 2 weeks I see my best DX on 5mW ERP was F1JBB (722km) in IN95 square. I still need to count the unique stations, squares and countries with 5mW ERP from this QTH.

472kHz TX results (5mW ERP WSPR) on earth-electrode "antenna" in last 2 weeks

USA WSPR spots

You could almost set your watch by it!  KC1AWS (5308km) was the first USA station to spot my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today. This was at 1210z, just 2 minutes earlier than yesterday, reflecting the change in daylight hours. It will be interesting to see at what time spots from the USA stop tonight.

Errors

I know I have said something similar here before...

Almost every time I do a blog post, write an email, or post on Facebook, I seem to make at least one error that I have to go back later to correct. This may be a simple typo or perhaps my stroke leaves me unable to spot errors quickly?   Either way, I try to correct the mistake as soon as I do spot it. This seems to be nearly every time I post.  Let me know if you see any I've missed please.

The most common errors are "i" and "o" interposed, extraneous full stops, commas instead of full stops, missing full stops and "m" and "n" interposed. These could be my poor keyboard skills and nothing more, but I'm sure I'm more error-prone than I was before my brain bleed.

10m WSPR this morning

No great DX as yet on 10m. My best spot of my 500mW beacon is 4X1RF (3519km) with no DX from further afield spotting me. Even with the falling sunspots (still pretty reasonable) I expect to be spotted in the USA after lunch.

Sunspots and 10m - Jan 17th 2015

Sunspot number today is 75 and 10m propagation is forecast to be "fair". I only turned the 10m 500mW WSPR beacon on quite recently and I am still not quite stably on frequency, but so far only local G4IKZ (18km) is spotting me on 10m.

A video to enjoy (Salcombe, Devon) - not amateur radio

As a child, I was brought up in Salcombe, Devon. This remains a most beautiful area and I am still drawn to it. I know of no better place on the planet and I have been to many countries for work and pleasure. This splendid video was created using drones by Birds Eye View Productions.

First and last 10m spots by USA stations today - Jan 16th 2015

The first USA station to spot my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon was N1NCO (5283km) at 1212z and the last was K9AN (6505km) at 1712z. Considering the falling sunspots and only "fair" 10m conditions predicted, it seems to have been quite good "across the pond" today.

472kHz WSPR overnight

No great DX overnight on MF.  My best DX on RX was PA0O at 440km and on TX (5mW ERP) I was spotted by G8HUH (250km). No totally new stations spotted.

472kHz always has activity whereas the other band I sometimes use, 6m, is bad at this time of the year. So, currently I tend to use 10m (500mW, 100% TX) and 630m (472kHz with 5mW ERP 20% TX and 80%, the latter using earth-electrodes in the ground).

Falling sunspots

The sunspot number has fallen again to 62 and 10m propagation is forecast to be "fair". Nonetheless, 10m opened to the USA yet again with N1NCO (5283km) spotting my 500mW WSPR beacon at 1212z.