After receiving no spots at all on 10m since yesterday afternoon I just realised one possible reason: although my 10m WSPR beacon was on, the mains switch (on the wall) was OFF!! So since sometime yesterday afternoon I had been syncing to internet time with no power at all on the WSPR beacon! I have now turned the PSU on (at the mains) and resync'ed to internet time. Hopefully I might be spotted now.
Talk about stupid. Sometimes I amaze myself. How could I be quite so daft?
UPDATE 1304z: Now receiving spots from G4IKZ (18km) again. It will take about 15-20 minutes to stabilise as the PA warms. I wonder what I missed this morning? I shall never know. Just been spotted by EA8BVP (2986km). Both EA8BVP and G4IKZ gave me good reports.
UPDATE 1404z: Just EA8BVP and G4IKZ spotting so far. At least I know the beacon is now actually ON and working! Oh I am so stupid at times!
UPDATE 1650z: Still just G4IKZ and EA8BVP spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR so far this afternoon. No "real DX" DX as yet.
20 Apr 2015
UK General Election - NOT amateur radio
A reminder than the UK General Election, which is only a few weeks
away, is "first past the post" so if you are just one vote behind you
lose everything. In the European elections I voted Green, but fear this
will be a wasted vote in a "first past the post" contest. Tactical
voting will be needed.
For example, in my constituency Labour really have no chance of winning as they only got 6.5% of the vote last time. The Lib Dems (currently in coalition with the majority Conservative government) have a real chance of winning - they came a good second last time - especially as we have UKIP nowadays and the Conservatives could lose some votes to them. The most probable outcome is a Conservative win again in this constituency.
Nationally, the outcome is almost certainly another coalition government as the polls show Labour and Conservatives neck and neck nationally. UKIP support nationally is fading, although I always suspected this would be the case.
For example, in my constituency Labour really have no chance of winning as they only got 6.5% of the vote last time. The Lib Dems (currently in coalition with the majority Conservative government) have a real chance of winning - they came a good second last time - especially as we have UKIP nowadays and the Conservatives could lose some votes to them. The most probable outcome is a Conservative win again in this constituency.
Nationally, the outcome is almost certainly another coalition government as the polls show Labour and Conservatives neck and neck nationally. UKIP support nationally is fading, although I always suspected this would be the case.
Sunspots and 10m propagation - Mon April 20th 2015
Sunspot number climbed further to 142 today (K=3) and 10m propagation is again forecast to be "good". Results yesterday on 10m were very disappointing with no DX spots at all. Today, sunspot number is higher still but conditions are a little more disturbed. I am not expecting much, if any, DX on 10m today, but hope to be nicely surprised.
UPDATE 0844z: So far today on 10m WSPR my 500mW beacon has been spotted by no-one at all! Even G4IKZ (18km) who regularly spots me must be beaming away from me and is not spotting me, assuming he is on. It is early yet though and there might be some single hop F2 stations in range active later.
UPDATE 1050z: Still no spots at all on 10m so far today. I am quite disappointed as, with a decent sunspot number and a decent 10m propagation forecast, better things were expected. I guess it is still early though. G4IKZ (18km) is not shown as being active according to WSPRnet, although he could be on but has not spotted anyone in the last 10 minutes. When I last looked there were 41 active 10m WSPR stations worldwide - fewer than a few months ago, but not too bad. Some of these would be single hop F2 away from me. I guess the propagation is just not there.
UPDATE 0844z: So far today on 10m WSPR my 500mW beacon has been spotted by no-one at all! Even G4IKZ (18km) who regularly spots me must be beaming away from me and is not spotting me, assuming he is on. It is early yet though and there might be some single hop F2 stations in range active later.
UPDATE 1050z: Still no spots at all on 10m so far today. I am quite disappointed as, with a decent sunspot number and a decent 10m propagation forecast, better things were expected. I guess it is still early though. G4IKZ (18km) is not shown as being active according to WSPRnet, although he could be on but has not spotted anyone in the last 10 minutes. When I last looked there were 41 active 10m WSPR stations worldwide - fewer than a few months ago, but not too bad. Some of these would be single hop F2 away from me. I guess the propagation is just not there.
19 Apr 2015
Brain dead or just stupid? - NOT amateur radio
See Remove Katie Hopkins as a Sun newspaper columnist.
This woman is writing total rubbish about poor and very desperate people trying to reach Europe in flimsy boats from Libya. Many are fleeing wars or strife. Many have payed thousands for the trip and thousands have drowned. The sooner this woman is stopped the better, press freedom or not. If she reported the facts, all well and good. As it is, she is writing to make money on the back of these poor desperate people. This is so very wrong.
The petition is being signed by very many people - in fact I have never seen one signed so fast!
The Sun is a popular UK daily newspaper. Some recommend it to wrap fish and chips.
Please sign and share on your social media.
This woman is writing total rubbish about poor and very desperate people trying to reach Europe in flimsy boats from Libya. Many are fleeing wars or strife. Many have payed thousands for the trip and thousands have drowned. The sooner this woman is stopped the better, press freedom or not. If she reported the facts, all well and good. As it is, she is writing to make money on the back of these poor desperate people. This is so very wrong.
The petition is being signed by very many people - in fact I have never seen one signed so fast!
The Sun is a popular UK daily newspaper. Some recommend it to wrap fish and chips.
Please sign and share on your social media.
No 10m USA spots of me today
I was both surprised and disappointed that, as of now at least, I have received no USA 10m WSPR spots today. With high sunspot numbers, not very disturbed conditions and a "good" forecast for 10m, I thought I might have some success today. Although using a better antenna, G4IKZ was spotting Brazilians on 10m WSPR earlier. At present I need a separate RX to listen on 10m as I tend to TX 100% but randomise TX frequency.
UPDATE 1926z: Still no USA stations, so I think I may have lost their reports until the autumn, although some might be able to spot my 500mW WSPR beacon by multi-hop Es over the summer. If the USA stations were going to spot me (as they did daily for months and months) today was probably the best chance in several weeks. It is several hours since G4IKZ has spotted me. I think Nick must be pointing his Moxon beam south?
UPDATE 2018z: Still no spots by USA 10m stations. In fact no DX at all all day long on 10m! Soon be time to go QRT on 10m . I have already gone QRT on 630m (472kHz) as I have connected the earth-electrodes to my VLF beacon in readiness for the test tomorrow.
UPDATE 2155z: I decided to leave my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon running through the night. Judging by results today, I am only likely to get G spots off aircraft or locally.
UPDATE 1926z: Still no USA stations, so I think I may have lost their reports until the autumn, although some might be able to spot my 500mW WSPR beacon by multi-hop Es over the summer. If the USA stations were going to spot me (as they did daily for months and months) today was probably the best chance in several weeks. It is several hours since G4IKZ has spotted me. I think Nick must be pointing his Moxon beam south?
UPDATE 2018z: Still no spots by USA 10m stations. In fact no DX at all all day long on 10m! Soon be time to go QRT on 10m . I have already gone QRT on 630m (472kHz) as I have connected the earth-electrodes to my VLF beacon in readiness for the test tomorrow.
UPDATE 2155z: I decided to leave my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon running through the night. Judging by results today, I am only likely to get G spots off aircraft or locally.
VLF field test tomorrow
Today I adjusted the turns ratio on my 8.976kHz VLF QRSS3 and 10wpm CW 5W beacon to better match my earth electrodes. At this QTH they look much greater than 50 ohms, which I measured at the "old" QTH and optimised for.
On the way I managed to blow up a TDA2003 IC, which I had to replace. The whole exercise was far more exhausting than I was expecting. It seems that after about 10-15 minutes of physical or mental effort I am done in. Before my cerebellum brain bleed everything today would have been trivial. Now trivial tasks feel like climbing mountains! Although I can see progress in my recovery there is still a long way to go. One of my aims (among many) is to be able to resume field tests as before, but time will tell if I am really up to this: it is quite hard when your brain is still foggy a lot of the time. Oddly, when sitting down at home or when driving things are fine. It is when I do something requiring real physical or mental effort that I get tired. I guess the radio work today was hard as I had not done this sort of thing for some time.
Anyway, the good news is that I hope to do a VLF field test tomorrow. Everything is ready and tested. It will not be until late afternoon as both my wife and I are busy before then. The XYL will be there at the test site if I get really tired. Setting up the gear will be especially tiring in my current state. The test site is not too far from home. I have soak tested the TX and it should be fine on QRSS3 using my loop and Spectran at the RX end. I shall report results tomorrow. This will be my first VLF field test in over 18 months. How I have looked forward to this. If the loop is successful I may try the E-field probe.
On the way I managed to blow up a TDA2003 IC, which I had to replace. The whole exercise was far more exhausting than I was expecting. It seems that after about 10-15 minutes of physical or mental effort I am done in. Before my cerebellum brain bleed everything today would have been trivial. Now trivial tasks feel like climbing mountains! Although I can see progress in my recovery there is still a long way to go. One of my aims (among many) is to be able to resume field tests as before, but time will tell if I am really up to this: it is quite hard when your brain is still foggy a lot of the time. Oddly, when sitting down at home or when driving things are fine. It is when I do something requiring real physical or mental effort that I get tired. I guess the radio work today was hard as I had not done this sort of thing for some time.
Anyway, the good news is that I hope to do a VLF field test tomorrow. Everything is ready and tested. It will not be until late afternoon as both my wife and I are busy before then. The XYL will be there at the test site if I get really tired. Setting up the gear will be especially tiring in my current state. The test site is not too far from home. I have soak tested the TX and it should be fine on QRSS3 using my loop and Spectran at the RX end. I shall report results tomorrow. This will be my first VLF field test in over 18 months. How I have looked forward to this. If the loop is successful I may try the E-field probe.
Heathkit
My first introduction to radio was an "Electronics Workshop" kit by Heathkit. If memory serves me correctly this was my Christmas present in Dec 1961. It used a few transistors and othttps://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8her parts with spring contacts and wires to configure each circuit. No soldering was needed.
That Christmas I did my first Medium Wave DXing with one of the circuits and I was very exited to receive stations in the Middle East and Russia. Other circuits included a very low power transmitter for MW. This used the crystal earpiece as the microphone. As I recall, it got to the next room in the house. This was the kick-off I needed.
Years later I owned a Heathkit HW8 QRP HF CW rig. It worked very well indeed and I worked some decent DX with it. It is such a pity Heathkit is no more as they made some really good kits.
I guess the nearest these days is Elecraft. Sadly Elecraft products are expensive in the UK: good radios, but far too much. As an example for the price of one KX3 kit (better RX I know, but covering fewer bands) one can buy 2 FT817NDs ready built with a 2 year warranty. And I think we are paying too much for the FT817ND here in the UK! If the KX3 is fully loaded with mic, ATU, 2m etc, then it is very expensive. The prices are as they are because punters are prepared to pay.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit .
See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8 .
That Christmas I did my first Medium Wave DXing with one of the circuits and I was very exited to receive stations in the Middle East and Russia. Other circuits included a very low power transmitter for MW. This used the crystal earpiece as the microphone. As I recall, it got to the next room in the house. This was the kick-off I needed.
I guess the nearest these days is Elecraft. Sadly Elecraft products are expensive in the UK: good radios, but far too much. As an example for the price of one KX3 kit (better RX I know, but covering fewer bands) one can buy 2 FT817NDs ready built with a 2 year warranty. And I think we are paying too much for the FT817ND here in the UK! If the KX3 is fully loaded with mic, ATU, 2m etc, then it is very expensive. The prices are as they are because punters are prepared to pay.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit .
See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8 .
Sunspots and 10m propagation - Sunday April 19th 2015
Sunspot number has climbed to 114 (K=2) and 10m propagation is expected to be "good" which is the first time for weeks.
This morning my 500mW 10m WSPR is being copied by locals G4IKZ (18km) and G4KPX (14km) but no DX stations yet. I am very hopeful that USA stations will spot me later on 10m WSPR and was hopeful of some decent 10m DX reports this morning too.
UPDATE 1227z: I was surprised and disappointed to get no DX spots at all on 10m WSPR this morning. Although I still hope for some USA spot later, I am beginning to doubt this. Is it just getting too late in the spring, or have people gone down a few bands?
UPDATE 1320z: Still only locals spotting me on 10m WSPR - very disappointing
This morning my 500mW 10m WSPR is being copied by locals G4IKZ (18km) and G4KPX (14km) but no DX stations yet. I am very hopeful that USA stations will spot me later on 10m WSPR and was hopeful of some decent 10m DX reports this morning too.
UPDATE 1227z: I was surprised and disappointed to get no DX spots at all on 10m WSPR this morning. Although I still hope for some USA spot later, I am beginning to doubt this. Is it just getting too late in the spring, or have people gone down a few bands?
UPDATE 1320z: Still only locals spotting me on 10m WSPR - very disappointing
18 Apr 2015
Churches blog - NOT amateur radio
A few weeks ago we visited St Botolph's church in Cambridge. I have just updated the East Anglian Church blog.
See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ .
See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ .
USA 10m WSPR spots
As I write this at 1835z, there is still no sign of any USA spots.
EA8BVP (2986km) has spotted me 34 times so far today but, so far at least, very quiet across the Atlantic.
The band may still open briefly allowing my 500mW WSPR to be spotted over there, but the later it gets the less the chances are of my signal being heard.
UPDATE 2024z: Well, yet again, I was wrong! No USA stations spotted me on 10m WSPR today.
EA8BVP (2986km) has spotted me 34 times so far today but, so far at least, very quiet across the Atlantic.
The band may still open briefly allowing my 500mW WSPR to be spotted over there, but the later it gets the less the chances are of my signal being heard.
UPDATE 2024z: Well, yet again, I was wrong! No USA stations spotted me on 10m WSPR today.
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