6m Es

GM4FVM (428km) spotted me on 6m Es at 1112z this morning. He must be monitoring several bands as this was the same time as the Es spot on 10m.  This is the first Es I have experienced on 6m this season. Apart from the GM, M0MVB (30km) spotted me a few times this morning. Otherwise very quiet on the 6m band, at least as far as WSPR was concerned. Last Es season 4X1RF and a CN8LI appeared in the logs several times. Not yet this season! I am hoping that the Atlantic will be spanned on WSPR this season on 6m. I've done it on CW before with the same ERP, so WSPR should be easier as long as there are active stations on WSPR. Last Es season there were far too few stations active on 6m WSPR.

GM by 10m Es

GM4FVM (428km) was perhaps the most interesting spot of me today at 1112z. This was quite short skip and almost certainly Es. Apart from EA8BVP (29886km) who spots me just about every day on 10m WSPR it has been very quiet with no other F2 in evidence. Certainly no signs, so far, of USA stations spotting me.

Over the months I notice that my nominal 10m  frequency has lowered. I guess this is the reference aging. It means some of the randomised transmissions are just LF of the WSPR window.  At some point I need to reset the 10m slightly higher. Not a major issue.

Sunspots and 10m - May 3rd 2015

Sunspot number is 25 today (K=3) and 10m propagation is forecast to be "fair". Not quite sure what 10m will be like today. So far just locals spotting me today, although Es will no doubt liven things up a bit.

Grandchildren - NOT amateur radio

We have 2 of our 4 little grandchildren staying (on their own) for a couple of nights, so amateur radio takes a back seat until Monday evening. We love them all to bits and want to make their young days with us happy and memorable ones.

No 10m USA WSPR spots today?

It is currently 2046z and, so far at least, no sign of any 10m WSPR spots by stations in the USA. EA8BVP (2986km) has been spotting me yet again this evening. This path seems to be open just about every day.

UPDATE 2050z:  6m has been quiet again apart from 3 spots of M0YOU (116km) via plane reflections.  Signals were quite strong, as if often the case with aircraft reflections.  Nobody spotted me.

Sixbox QRP rig for 6m

Sixbox 6m AM rig - a simple design

Several years ago I designed and built a derivative of my 2m Fredbox but for 6m AM. The same basic design would easily translate to a 10m version.  Both bands could be useful for cross-town natters, especially when both 10m and 6m behave like VHF bands, which is in the quieter sun years and at night on 10m. The Sixbox is simple and certainly capable of further development.

Treat the design as a starting point. A 10m version of the RX has copied transatlantic USA AM stations well, but this is NOT a rig for DX use. It is better suited to cross-town/inter-village natters.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/sixbox .

10m early Es

IZ6QZB (1475km) has spotted my 500mW 10m WSPR a couple of times already this morning. This is quite early as it is only 1005z. Otherwise pretty quiet with lots of spots by local G4IKZ (18km) and 1 spot overnight by G4CUI (172km), the latter presumably off aircraft in the very early hours.

UPDATE 1010z:  Yesterday there were no 10m spots by USA stations. With worse conditions expected today, I doubt I'll be spotted by USA stations on 10m today either.

UPDATE 1234z:  No F2 spots on 10m WSPR this morning and no lunchtime Es spots of me. In fact just the 2 spots by IZ6QZB earlier apart from the G stations. So far a very quiet day on 10m. 6m has been dead with me. nothing

Sunspots and 10m - May 2nd 2015

With a sunspot number of just 13 (K=2) and a "poor" forecast for 10m I'd be very surprised to see much, if any, choice DX today on 10m.

Sepura to buy rival Teltronics - NOT amateur radio

Today it was announced that my old company, Sepura, is to buy its Spanish communications rival Teltronics. I have been retired 7 years now and feel quite out of touch.   I hope the acquisition goes well. Teltronics are strongest in Latin America and Spain. I suspect Sepura are keen to strengthen their position in the Americas.

Sepura designs, makes and sells TETRA radios. In recent years it has entered the DMR market where competition is very fierce.  Sepura has great opportunities in the USA where for many years TETRA was excluded for patent reasons. TETRA is a very good digital radio system for those requiring good frequency use, security and data as well as speech.

For years, Sepura has been a very successful business. Certainly one to watch for the years to come. Today Sepura shares bounced upwards strongly.

HF or VHF?

Depending on the solar cycle, and how good it is, both 10m and 6m can behave quite differently. Sometimes 10m is a true HF band with good worldwide DX possibilities. In better years, even 6m can support F2 worldwide propagation. However, for a lot of the solar cycle both 10m and 6m behave like VHF bands.  This means Es can be an effective mode on both bands especially in the spring and summer months. Other modes like tropo can also be used on 10m and 6m. Both bands can be used for local natters on any mode.

At the moment we are in a transition period. On better days 10m is still good for worldwide DX but as time progresses, it will behave more and more like a VHF band with long periods of quiet. Especially as we move to more VHF conditions modes like WSPR become even more useful: short DX openings can be detected with WSPR.   Leaving a simple WSPR rig running can be so useful and take very little power.

As I have mentioned before, I have worked real 10m N-S DX (11000+ km) on QRP SSB even in the quietest of sunspot years. WSPR is considerably better than SSB, requiring far less power and can be used unattended running in the background. I tend to run 10m and 6m WSPR most days and monitor WSPRnet on a different PC in the lounge.  It takes just seconds to go into the shack and make any adjustments needed.  It means, whilst running WSPR, you can do other things.