Ferrite rod transmitting antennas?

OK, I only tried this with WSPR and with low power, but at my old QTH I had a good deal of success using a small ferrite rod as a TX antenna on some HF bands. As long as the ferrite is not in saturation there is no good reason why it should not work. Most problems will occur if the antenna is driven with too much power.

See the link for more details. I have no idea about this ferrite rod's properties but I think it was a fairly standard piece of ferrite rod and nothing too special at all.

Since being in hospital for 3.5 months and moving QTH I have not been able to find the ferrite rod to repeat the tests. My wife moved most of my stuff and it is probably deep in a box somewhere! At some point I guess it will just turn up.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/ferrite_tx .

6m WSPR - quiet so far

On 6m, no evidence here yet of any Es or F2 DX.  G4BRK (134km), G4NRG (58km) and G8EPQ (77km) in the logs this morning.  Early in the morning still, so plenty of time to catch those fleeting Es openings on 6m WSPR.

UPDATE 1604z:   6m Es seen today with spots from CT and DL, although I would class the Es openings as "modest" affairs.  Certainly, the band has not been wide open here.

UPDATE 1650z:   No further 6m Es seen, so far. Maybe later?

Sunspots and 10m - May 16th 2015

Sunspot number has declined to 113 today and 10m is expected to be "fair". K=2.  Es is likely to liven up the band.

EA8BVP on 10m today - early spots

EA8BVP (2986km) was spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon very early today with the first spots received when still in bed before breakfast.

UPDATE 0948z:  Evidence of 10m Es with reports from France and Italy.

6m - a good day

Today was the best day on the band this year here with some excellent spots of my 1W ERP.   So far, apart from 4X1RF, no spots yet received from outside Europe. Last Es season I was regularly seeing spots from CN8LI and others in North Africa.

For the first time this year I was copied further away on 6m than on 10m.

Unique 6m WSPR spots (arranged by distance) today.

Magnetic Loops on HF

10m band loop

A magnetic loop can be a very effective HF antenna, especially when the very sharp tuning is not an issue. They can be very efficient but there is a trade between bandwidth and efficiency. They are ideal for modes that do not need frequent retuning such as PSK31, JT65 or WSPR. Ideally the inductor should be made of copper pipe or thick coax and the capacitors need to be low loss and high voltage types. Tuning is usually very sharp. Having said all this. quite decent results have been obtained with loops made of quite thin wire.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/magloop .

6m WSPR - real VHF DX

4X1RF (3519km) has spotted my 1W ERP on 6m VHF WSPR already 6 times this morning by 0914z. This is my best DX so far on 6m this season. Probably Es?  There was plenty of European Es about on 6m WSPR very early, but this just possibly could be single hop F2? It is a long way for Es and 4X1RF often spotted me on 6m last summer. Multi-hop Es is the likely propagation although I am surprised no intermediate range stations were spotted.

6m VHF WSPR spots of my 1W ERP by 4X1RF early today

UPDATE 1148z:  As well as G stations this morning I see I have been spotted on 6m WSPR by OH1KK (1848km) and EA4ETR (1325km) both I assume via Es. Funny how both of these would be "real DX" but are nothing compared with the spots from Israel earlier.

10m conditions

Although still very early, I see my little 500mW 10m WSPR beacon is being spotted all over Europe by Es. It is soon easy to forget these summertime conditions. This autumn and winter I expect 10m F2 conditions will still remain quite good but things on 10m will be tougher later in the solar cycle which is when WSPR will be very useful indeed.

Unique 10m WSPR spots in last 12 hours - lots of Es

UPDATE 1635z:  EA8BVP (2986km) is again spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR (F2?) but no DX spots from further afield, so far today. Plenty of 10m Es about.

Sunspots and 10m - May 15th 2015

Sunspot number has dropped back to 126 (K=2) and 10m propagation expected to be "fair". With fairly undisturbed conditions anything is possible on 10m today especially if we get Es linking with F2 further south.

Elecraft K3S

See  www.elecraft.com .

I see Elecraft has launched a de luxe version of its K3 transceiver. The K3 was already a pretty good rig and the S version will be even better, but sadly far too expensive. I guess Elecraft is right that this will be many times less expensive than similarly spec'd transceivers, but to me this is still far too much for an amateur radio rig. Don't forget that lots of the features cost more - like the mic and 2m!

At half the price maybe, but certainly out of the question here in the UK when shipping, import duty and VAT have to be added. I am able to get lots of fun from our hobby spending just a small fraction of the cost. There will always be people who will pay these prices and buy a tower and a big beam.  Sorry, but this is not for me. I wish Elecraft well but feel they will need to slash prices soon to compete with the Chinese. An alternative is for Elecraft kits to be shipped from China. Sorry, but this may be the only way they will be able to compete in the future.