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 .

Bells - NOT amateur radio

Our "London" grandchildren just love Burwell church and bells, even though they do not attend church in London. Their parents have Buddhist tendencies. I put the video on YouTube as it is too large to send to them by email. I know others may be interested too. There are quite a few bell videos on my G3XBM channel as well as lots on my amateur radio projects (from the days when I was fit). This video was taken in our back garden. We are about 350m from the church.

Autumn projects

OK, it is only just summer according to the Met Office and already I am thinking about autumn projects. A lot depends on my health - particularly my stamina and giddiness. Some antenna work will need help from local friends unless I make some dramatic improvements. Things on the list include:

• A stacked big wheel antenna for 2m SSB/CW/WSPR, This would be instead of the hand-rotated 3 el yagi. About the same horizontal gain but omni, so better for beacons and contests?
• A decent antenna and ground for LF/MF.
• Some field tests on VLF/136kHz/optical (currently unlikely because of health).
• A better dedicated antenna for 10m WSPR (possibly a magnetic loop).

Overall, I want to make my home set-up as effective as I can before the winter. My health is still my biggest drawback, preventing much practical constructional work.