Sunspots and 10m - Thurs July 9th 2015

Sunspot number is still a respectable 131 (K=1) and 10m propagation is expected to remain "fair". Although because of summertime conditions we should not expect too much of F2 on 10m, Es is likely again to liven up both 10m and 6m.

Surpletronics

Steve, G1KQH (Font of all knowledge) passed me information on this company. He was trying to help me with crystals, but they stock a lot of good stuff. I think this is stuff remaindered by others and sold on. They accept payment by PayPal and orders over £30 have free delivery. Looks like a place worth checking out.

See http://www.surplectronics.com .

New country (I think) spotting me on 6m WSPR

IH9YMC (1946km) on Pantelleria Island (JM56xt) was spotting me at 1114z on 6m WSPR.  I think this counts as a separate country. It is not too far from Tunisia.

UPDATE 1330z:  EA6GF (1428km) has spotted me several times on 6m WSPR today.

UPDATE 1822z:  At 1758z and at 1820z I was (yet again) spotted by 4X1RF (3519km) in Israel on 6m WSPR. This is a very long way for Es and seems to happen very often.

Chinese stock market losses - NOT amateur radio

We should be afraid of what is happening in China. There, stock market losses are huge in the last month and these will affect China and the West. The article linked shows parallels with the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Worrying. With Greece and China the world is facing another financial crisis.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33440565 .

15m QRP

Another rig that rarely gets used these days is my 15m 1W CW transceiver, the MFJ Cub. This works very well and has worked South and North Americans. Currently I have no antennas up for 15m so it has not been used at this QTH. This uses a superhet RX. I guess this is another rig I should consider selling or trading in? If it is not getting much use this is especially true. I must have had it about 15 years now. It is a good little single band radio covering about 70kHz (as I recall) of the CW band. There is a small hole in the case so this can be centred where ever one likes in the band. Another example of a simple "station in a box". A CW key, battery, Walkman phones and 15m antenna and you are on the radio and able to work DX.  It never fails to amaze me how effective simple radios can be. You really do not need to spend a lot. A 15m dipole can be made by just about anyone and does not need to be that high to work well.  If I could work >8000km with mine I am sure you can do at least as well.

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

Sunspots and 10m - Wed July 8th 2015

Sunspot number is 131 (K=1) and 10m propagation again expected to remain "fair".  Es will liven up 10m and 6m. Whether or not we get any real 10m F2 DX remains to be seen. It is mid-summer and most F2 DX (if any) will be N-S.

Most early mornings, I seem to be spotted in Italy on WSPR by 10m Es. Years ago I used to work a station in Rome very regularly who was using 100mW AM on 28.500MHz from a small handheld. I was on SSB.  His equivalent SSB power (i.e. the power in the upper sideband) was a few milliwatts. I had no trouble working him.

2m UKAC contest last night

Only 4 contacts on 2m last night before I had to stop because of my poor voice. Some decent DX heard including an F in IN99 and GJ on Jersey. In all, I was on TX for only about 50 minutes. The contest was 2.5 hours but I had given up by 2000z.

6m Es this morning

In the end I remained on 10m and 6m WSPR overnight. Only G0OQK and G3ZJO 6m WSPR spots. Yesterday G3ZJO was spotted several times in Israel on 6m WSPR by 4X1RF.  

OH7AZL (2000km) is now spotting me on 6m WSPR at 0924z.

Pipit 15m transceiver

This rig was designed and built many years ago. It spanned some impressive distances and worked well. The receiver was a direct conversion and the gain adjustment was before the mixer, so RF gain could be reduced easily which helped strong signal handling. No RX-TX offset was needed as this was just about right anyway. For quite a time it was the main rig used and every QSO felt like a million dollars! It was written up in GQRP SPRAT a very long time ago (30 years ago?). It is hard to get much more fun than using something this simple and working a long way regularly with it.

Before I had crystals for the CW part of the band my very first QSO was a USA SSB station that I called that was located near Chicago some 4000 miles away. I nearly fell off the chair when he replied.  After than I knew anything was possible. I really should rebuild it someday.

It crossed the Atlantic many times. I even used a 10/15m trap dipole (very low) occasionally and never used anything bigger than a low wire dipole. Output power was 800mW, quite enough I found for solid CW QSOs.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/15m_pipit .

Old home movies online - NOT amateur radio

See http://player.bfi.org.uk/new/

Since lunchtime, the BFI has made available thousands of old digitised home movies online. This is a treasure trove as some are well over 100 years old.