More historic East Anglian churches

Isleham church

Today my wife and I  visited Isleham and Fordham churches. We have updated our other blog to include these. I am always amazed that there are so many fine churches in our region.  Many date back over 1000 years, when the population of England was just a few million.

Whether viewing these as historical buildings or places of worship, it is clear they were once of very great importance in their communities as so many people would have been involved in their construction. In East Anglia alone there are well over 1000 medieval churches!

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

What will solar cycle 25 look like?

We now seem to be, on average, on the downward slope to the next solar minimum. Some are predicting that the next peak will be almost a non-event with the sunspot number peak of just 7. Of course no-one really knows, but I think it is true that most experts now think cycle 25 will be very poor. Conditions on LF/MF are likely to improve but decent F2 propagation on 10m is likely to be rare, except perhaps with N-S paths over the equator.  What is certain is no-one is really sure. Summer Es could well be the dominant DX mode on the higher HF bands.

UPDATE 2048z:  I have now gone QRT (for the night) on 10m but I will be on 160m now and overnight. Back on 10m tomorrow morning after breakfast.

USA 10m WSPR spots today

K8WW (6043km) was the last to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon this evening at  1904z. The earliest USA spot today was by K4RCG (5995km) at 1256z.

Although about to go QRT on 10m, I'll remain on 160m overnight again.

160m success with the earth-electrode "antenna"

Since yesterday I have been using my FT817 (2-2.5W) into my 12m spaced earth-electrode "antenna" on 160m. Matching was via my ATU feeding a small 42mm diameter 3C90 step-up transformer. In all, 22 unique people spotted me with best DX being EA1FBU (1297km) on TX.  Best reception was 2533km of a station in Russia. The earth-electrode antenna may not be the best 160m antenna but the results prove it certainly works! To be honest, the results of this test surprised me. The current meter was barely moving and ERP must have been in the milliwatt region.

Sunspots and 10m propagation - Feb 20th 2015

Sunspot number today is a healthy 86 yet 10m propagation is expected to be "poor".

UPDATE 1245z:   Despite the "poor" 10m forecast I see that my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon has been copied by in West Australia by VK6XT (14719km) several times this morning, as well as being copied in Russia and Israel. Odd how when 10m is expected to be in poor shape I often find my tiny little beacon is copied on the far side of the globe!

Multiple RX responses on 160m?

I am not aware of this on other bands but on several stations I am giving WSPR reports to the same station at the same time but at several frequencies separated by 50Hz or 100Hz from the main response. I am not aware of this being an issue on other bands or an issue on TX.

Most recently I saw the issue with ON7KB and with G4BOO earlier. The issue seems to be with my end and not a TX fault.   It is not as if signals are that strong, for example the strongest from ON7KB was -13dB S/N.  As I have not seen this before and as I am a "transient" 160m visitor I am not keen to start pulling things apart.

Anyone else seen this?  I use a SignaLink USB to interface the FT817 to the PC. Maybe I have some RF getting into the heavy duty linear PSU  I am using and this only happens on 160m?

For example, I have never seen the issue on 630m (472kHz) WSPR with the same FT817, same PC interface via the same SignaLink USB.  Tonight I am not on 472kHz as I am using the kit on 160m WSPR.

I intend to stay on 160m overnight using the earth-electrode "antenna".

160m TX results so far with earth-electrode "antenna"

It is only 1805z but the results on TX with the earth-electrode "antenna" are encouraging so far.

Unique 160m WSPR TX results with 2W from 
FT817 into 12m spaced earth-electrodes in garden.

First 160m spots on earth-electrode "antenna"

PA3MET (325km) was the first station received on 160m today.  It is still daylight (will be for hours yet) so I assume this is normal daytime propagation.   S/N varied from -17dB at best to -28dB at worse. PA3MET was running 20W, which is high for WSPR. As it is obviously working, I'll start 160m WSPR TX with 2.5W from the FT817 very shortly. UPDATE 1405z:  GW0OAJ (240km) has just been spotted here on 160m WSPR RX at -28dB S/N. He is using 5W. UPDATE 1430z:  G4FKK (106km) spotted.   He is running 100mW but not sure if this is ERP.  Have now turned on the 160m TX (20%). UPDATE 1500z:   No spots yet of my 2.5W from the FT817 on 160m WSPR so far today. UPDATE 1604z:  Apparently  G8LCO copied me at -28dB S/N but the WSPRnet database was down, so did not receive the report.  My best DX on RX so far is DF2JP (448km). UPDATE 1612z:    Best DX on 160m WSPR RX today is now OZ7IT (853km). It is still daylight for another 2 hours here. UPDATE 1712z:  I see that GW0OAJ (240km) and G8LCO (58km) both spotted me at 1650z, so the earth-electrodes work on 160m WSPR TX. UPDATE 1750z:  I see now that  ON7KO (295km) is spotting me at -23dB S/N.   And it is only now getting dark!  So far, results on 160m with the earth-electrode "antenna" are encouraging. UPDATE 1900z:   Best DX on 160m WSPR RX so far with the earth-electrode "antenna" is RX3DHR (2533km).

Mostly quiet so far on 10m

K3ZV (5600km) was the first USA station to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon this afternoon at 1258z. Since then, a few other stateside spots have been received. This morning it was 10m locals apart from UR/SWL56  and one Italian. 10m seems to be "going off the boil" a bit.

 K9AN (6505km) appears to be the last USA station to spot me on 10m WSPR at 1736z.

160m WSPR with earth-electrode"antenna"

I have managed to match my earth-electrode "antenna" on 160m but the RX noise floor is S8 on the meter, which is much higher than on 630m. For now I am just on 160m RX. Nothing yet received.