Flattered? 472kHz TX transverter kit

An anonymous comment in my last post brought to my attention that there is now a kit based on my 472kHz transverter. I see the kit uses toroids whereas I used homemade coils wound on PVC pipe pieces. Flattered!

See http://njdtechnologies.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/MF-Solution-Flyer-2015.jpg .

6m Es

Apart from a brief opening at 1350z to CN8LI (2113km) I have seen no evidence of Es on 6m WSPR. Weather (and storms) allowing, I shall stick with 10m and 6m WSPR through the night again.

UPDATE 1052z:  It looks if the bad storms are over eastern Germany, so I shall remain on 10m and 6m WSPR overnight.

Yaesu copy?

Latest from G1KQH (font, or is it fount?, of all knowledge):

Just brought to my attention by G0FTD

Chinese Michael takers 

http://www.409shop.com/409shop_product.php?id=123665

You can bet its Baofeng based?

73 Steve
http://g1kqh.blogspot.co.uk/

It amazes me that no copyright is safe in China. They will, it appears, rip off any radio. Even the name is a give away. But note the ridiculously low retail price.

Yaesu watch your backs. The Chinese are on the march and you are in the firing line!

Big wheel antennas

Next winter I want to replace my hand rotated beams for 70cm and 2m with a big wheel stack for either 2m or 70cm. I was going to erect a 2m big wheel stack (of 2) but looking at the logs it may better to erect one for 70cm which is the more interesting band.

2 big wheels, suitably stacked, should give about 5dBd gain horizontal and need no turning. This is not far off the gain from my 5el yagi in the best direction.  Quite often I work stations off the direction of maximum gain. For my kind of operation (mainly UKAC contests and beacon monitoring) I think a big wheel is well suited.

70cm big wheel stacks are a lot smaller than the 2m versions. The stacking distance is smaller too. Commercial big wheels are available from Wimo in Germany.

See http://www.wimo.de/big-wheel-antennas_e.html .

Four metres

Four metres (70MHz) is now quite widely allocated in Europe and a few other countries.  At one time this was only allocated in the UK and some UK territories. A few years ago I wanted a way of getting on 4m as this was one of the few bands not covered by my rigs. A simple transverter was called for. The following design fitted the bill. There are very few commercial rigs for the 4m band, among them being the IC7100 from Icom.

It is possible this design has appeared here before.

At the current QTH I have no antennas (even dipoles) for 4m, but I worked some decent distances on an fixed indoor dipole at the old QTH. It should certainly be possible to work Es DX with this transverter although I have not tried. I need to erect a 4m antenna!

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/4m_tvtr .

Sunspots and 10m - Sun July 5th 2015

Sunspot number is 111 today and K=3 . 10m is again expected to remain "poor".  Although F2 conditions are not expected to be up to much, Es may well liven things up on 10m and 6m WSPR.

I usually give a sunspot post each day, but I missed yesterday.

Canary Is again - EA8BVP

EA8BVP (2986km) has been spotting me yet again on 10m WSPR. I think this is single hop F2, but it could be Es.  There has been a very little 6m WSPR evident today.

Back on 10m and 6m WSPR after the storms

Antennas,rigs and mains power reconnected at 0811z .  Now back operational on 10m and 6m WSPR.

Overnight storms

All rigs and antennas were disconnected last night. This was just as well as there was a nasty storm at about 0115z with thunder, lightning and lots of needed rain.

No storms here - yet

Well the weather is very hot for the UK and temperatures here are around 30 deg C again today. No sign of the promised thunderstorms, which are still a long way away.  According to the map, the nearest are in SE France and S Germany.

See http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en.

It certainly feels like we are due a storm. The weather has all the signs, although there are no thunder clouds building yet. Give it a few hours maybe? If feels close and muggy as if the air needs to be cleared. For now, I shall leave rigs and antennas connected to the 10m and 6m WSPR kit, but I shall be watching those maps carefully.

UPDATE 1548z:  At the moment all the storms are missing us.