Digital experiments

In all my time in amateur radio I have never once experimented with microprocessor programming and I have done very little "digital" design.  This seems to be a gap in my knowledge, although I am still not really interested, preferring RF design, especially QRP.  I must say I remain very impressed with Wolf's (W5OLF) tiny WSPR-AXE-CW beacon: this goes to show just how much can be achieved with so little physically. Maybe this is a whole area I should embrace? The trouble is it is impossible to be an expert at lots of things, unless you are very bright. Certainly I do not consider myself a polymath! 

Pixie kit from China

My low cost 40m Pixie kit - although G1KQH only paid about 60% of what I paid - is on its way from China but has not yet arrived here. I assume, with free shipping, this comes by sea. I am in no great hurry. As I mentioned before, I very much hope to build this unit as I have not built much in ages because of my brain bleed.

UPDATE 1600z:   My kit arrived in the post today.  Still to open the package, but judging by the speed this must have come by air. It looks well packed.

Falling sunspots?

Sunspot number today has fallen to 50, the lowest for quite a while and 10m propagation is forecast to be "fair" again.

Yesterday, 10m did open for me to the USA and plenty of stateside stations copied my 500mW beacon in the end after a late start. I suspect today it may be harder going as we seem, on average, to now be on the downward slope towards the next minimum, although this is years away. If predictions of the next maximum are to be believed, a SN of 50 would be considered a decent figure for the next sunspot peak! Of course, the predictions could be wrong, although the predictions have improved a lot and most got cycle 24 pretty accurately.

I have not yet turned on the 10m beacon this morning as we have visitors. It will probably be turned on just before lunch. I am still on MF but there are few active stations in range.

See http://www.solen.info/solar/ .

Transatlantic spots on 10m WSPR

VE3GEN (5593km) was the first stateside station to spot my 10m 500mW beacon today at 1346z. Since then (quite late) lots of USA stations have spotted me. At 1734z, there were still plenty of USA spots coming in.

UPDATE  2140z:    The last USA station to spot my 500mW 10m beacon was NY2M (5587km) at 1844z

472kHz WSPR

This morning G0LRD (25km) has been copied several times. During the overnight period my PC turned off to install updates so no 472kHz spots between about 0300z and breakfast time. Currently I am active with 5mW ERP (20% TX, 80% RX) ) on 472kHz and 500mW on 28MHz (10m) WSPR (100% TX).

UPDATE 1205z: G0LRD has been copied 16 times here on 472kHz this morning using my earth-electrode "antenna".  Signals have varied by up to 9dB in S/N, which is probably my local noise floor changing rather than propagation?

Sunspots and 10m - Feb 12th 2015

Sunspot number has fallen slightly to 76. 10m propagation is again forecast to be "fair".

The WSPRnet database is working again this morning and I notice that last evening my 500mW 10m beacon was copied by KB9AMG (6300km) as late as 1734z.  This was the last USA spot last night.

Nothing yet this morning from anywhere on 10m WSPR.

472kHz WSPR today and last night

DK7FC, G0LRD and G3WCB are all good signals on 472kHz WSPR this evening. Last night I was spotted by G3XKR (347km) in IO70ux (North Devon). I think G3XKR is a new reporter, although I do need to double check.

East Anglia Churches blog

Sorry, this is not amateur radio.

Today my wife and I visited her old ancestral home at Wymondham in Norfolk. Some of her family lived here in the 1800s.

We visited the fine abbey there which was founded in 1107AD. We record our visits on a blog, which we updated.

The photo is of the market square in the middle of the town.

See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ .

WSPRnet database back again and 10m DX

The WSPRnet database is back again. I had an e (mail when the database was still down from KC1AWS (5308km) saying he first copied me today at -18dB S/N at 1158z. I now see that VK6XT (14719km)  also copied me many times.

UPDATE 2107z:   The last USA spot today seems to have been K5XL (7660km) at 1702z.

Sunspots and 10m - Wednesday Feb 11th

Sunspot number today is 82 and 10m propagation expected to be "fair".

UPDATE 1024z:  The WSPRnet database seems to have a fault currently, so spots are not being uploaded (I think) and not displayed, so I have no idea what is happening to my 500mW WSPR-AXE-CW beacon at present. Let us hope they can fix the issue soon.