6m Es - report from Sweden

6m WSPR came to life at 0940z with a spot of my 1W ERP signal by SM67464 (999km). I am hopeful of more 6m Es spots later.
UPDATE 1110z:  I see I spotted  DK1KW (914km) on 6m WSPR at 1054z. Things seem to be livening up on 6m Es at last. Not before time too.

UPDATE 1230z:  Good to spot an old work colleague on 6m WSPR - G3WKW (134km) at 1152z. We have exchanged spots before on WSPR, even on 2m, usually with the help of aircraft.

UPDATE 1314z:  Yet again 4X1RF (3519km) has spotted my 6m 1W ERP WSPR at a decent -17dB S/N.  This is a LONG way for Es. This is far from unique on 6m as he spotted me a few weeks ago and he spotted me last summer too. Is this really multi-hop Es?

UPDATE 1840z:  Just the single "real DX" 6m WSPR spot today at 1308z by 4X1RF (3519km). I know he has spotted others too, probably with more ERP in his direction than me! Since then, and all day in fact, plenty of GDX spots of others and of me, in my case, out to 103km. Es was there on the band, but it was not plentiful.

UPDATE 2144z:  I have now gone QRT on 6m and 10m WSPR, but will be on again at breakfast time on both bands. I am convinced that the 6m spots by 4X1RF are not multi-hop Es. Looking at his logs, there are no spots of stations at intermediate"hops" at the right times. This may be Es, but I do not agree with the multi-hop hypothesis. Maybe there is some kind of chordal hop Es?

Sunspots and 10m - Tuesday June 9th 2015

Sunspot count is 122 (K=3) and 10m propagation is expected to be "fair" again.  I have no idea what this will mean. So far this morning, apart from spots by local G4IKZ (18km) there have been spots from Italy and Germany by Es.  No F2 DX seen here on 10m yet.

UPDATE 1255z:  Lots of Es on 10m WSPR today, with my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon spotted all across Europe from Norway to Italy.

70cm UKAC is today, not yesterday!

Confession time.

Last night I checked my 5el 70cm beam would turn OK and I plugged in the antenna to the rig and tuned around the SSB part of 70cm. NOTHING heard at all. Very odd, as I was at least expecting to hear some of the locals. Then the penny dropped. It was a Monday evening and the UKAC sessions are on Tuesdays! For some reason I had it in my head that yesterday was Tuesday. Nor only that, but I was 35 minutes late for our regular Monday evening net on 144.575MHz. By the time I appeared all had gone.

All being well I shall be on the 70cm UKAC session tonight, Tuesday. Yes, double check, today is Tuesday, June 9th 2015.

Some times I feel such a fool.....

UPDATE 2200z:  In the end on the right night, I entered the 70cm June leg of the RSGB UKAC contest. In all 5 stations (only) worked.  Although I heard GW, I was unable to raise him.

70cm UKAC June 9th - stations worked tonight with 5W/5el

Ebola - NOT amateur radio

Certainly here in the UK, and I suspect the USA, Ebola went out of the news late last year.  Although the West African outbreak was the worst on record, it is sad that it soon became not newsworthy. It looks like the outbreak is now under control but it is a sad indictment of our society that when things go "off the radar" we hear little about them. It is a warning that what is considered "news" is filtered.

As Steve G1KQH mentions in the comments there are always new deadly viruses to be worried about. Back in the 1950s it was polio, although thankfully that was largely beaten in the 1950s. Sadly it is still endemic in a few nations because of ignorance and politics.

10m Es this morning

There were both German and Italian spots of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon mid-morning. As yet, no 10m Es seen here this lunchtime.

UPDATE 1552z:  No further Es (or F2) seen on 10m (or 6m) WSPR since the spots this morning. All very quiet.

UPDATE 1638z:  I see there is teatime Es on 10m WSPR (I have been spotted in Germany and Holland) but no signs as yet of any Es on 6m WSPR since the OK spotted this morning.

6m Es this morning

OK1DX  (994km) was spotted at 1024z this morning on 6m WSPR very strongly at -2dB S/N.   Hopefully there will be others soon on 6m.  Still waiting "for the big one" on 6m.

JAs on 6m?

It is the time of year when we tend to see the better equipped Western European 6m stations working Japan. This is a long way. The popular theory is this is multi-hop Es. Sorry, I just don't believe this.

Far more likely is reflections off noctilucent clouds that return strong VHF radar echoes. Noctilucent clouds are most common in high latitudes at this time of year and are 50-80km up.  The coincidence is just too great.

Sadly, there were no JAs active on 6m WSPR, so this weak signal mode is not going to help. Not sure if the Doppler on these weak signals would be too great anyway. It is a pity stations are not trying higher (even microwave) frequencies on this path. Fascinating. We still have a great deal to learn, but this is one mode that I am sure is under-used.

I know I mentioned this recently (blog entry June 3rd 2015), but when possibly new propagation modes are seen it is very important they are properly explored.  I have the feeling this is very important stuff. Imagine working Japan from Western Europe on 23cms or even 3cms. Wow!  Of course the same sort of path lengths would be possible in Canada and the USA. Get out there and explore!

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

Sunspots and 10m - June 8th 2015

Sunspot number is 136 today (K=4) and 10m is expected to be "fair".

Already there have been 10 spots on 10m of me by EA8BVP (2986km) before breakfast. This is early and F2 propagation I think.

All quiet here on 6m so far. This is the time of year for 6m JA openings (noctilucent clouds?) but there are no JAs active on 6m WSPR. This is disappointing (see next blog entry).

UPDATE 0935z:  All quiet on 10m.  No further spots from EA8BVP since before breakfast (gone to the beach?) and no early 10m Es.  6m quiet too with just G spots.

So far at least, disappointment on 10m and 6m WSPR

There is still time for both 10m and 6m WSPR to spring into life, but so far today both bands have, again, been disappointing with no Es on 6m and very little on 10m. So far, no evidence at all of F2 propagation here on 10m WSPR. I know my 10m antenna could be better, but Es conditions seem to have been poor this season on both 10m and 6m. Things could yet change, so I remain ever hopeful.

UPDATE 1848z:  DK0SC (827km) spotting me on 10m WSPR by Es. 6m still quiet - no Es seen here.

UPDATE 1915z:    EA8BVP (2986km) yet again has spotted me! This is (I think) F2 at 1912z.

UPDATE 2200z:  EA8BVP has spotted me 41 times this evening.

WISPY 10m WSPR rig

Some years ago (in my fit days) I build a simple DSB WSPR rig for 10m based around a low cost 14.060MHz crystal bought from the GQRP club.  The idea was to pull and double this crystal and use it in a simple DSB TX and direct conversion RX.  Both TX and RX have been built separately, but I was ill before I got around to combining the 2 into a 10m WSPR transceiver. Both parts worked well.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/wispytx .