Churches blog updated - NOT amateur radio

Last week we visited Blythburgh and Ufford Churches. Both are near Aldeburgh on the east coast where this famous shell statue is located.  I have updated the East Anglian Churches blog to include these churches. I may add further photos and text later.

See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ .

David G0LRD - thank you

Thanks to the kindness of G0LRD, David, who selflessly drove out to my home on a Sunday afternoon, I now have my 2m big-wheel installed in its proper permanent home. David was a complete stranger until today (although we'd briefly contacted on 2m) and I cannot thank him enough for his selfless kindness. The antenna works well on 2m (and even 70cm) and the whole installation looks great.

Years ago erecting this antenna would have been easy but at the moment I am just too wobbly. There are some very kind people in our hobby.

David - thank you.

Tenbox 10m AM transceiver (again)

10m (28MHz) will probably be in decent shape for another 12 months, possibly more. After that, apart from summertime Es and the occasional N-S F2, the band will behave more like a VHF band again.  Even now, it makes a decent band for local natters, when the band is "closed" for DX, especially in the dark evenings. If you are interested in local QSOs on 10m, you might care to start with my Tenbox transceiver (29-29.1MHz is where most 10m AM is concentrated), which is a 250mW AM design. I started this before my stroke. It is really unfinished and it could do with a TX linear amp and a LS amp for the RX. It is a very simple design, based on low cost parts, which can be used as inspiration for your own project. This uses a very simple RX and it is not designed for AM DXing, although it has copied Ws on 10m AM. The RX, although simple, is very sensitive on AM. There is a video on the link below.
 
See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/tenbox .

Sunspots and 10m - Sun Sept 13th 2015

Sunspot number is 87 today, which is quite respectable, and K=2 which suggests relatively undisturbed conditions. 10m propagation remains "poor" though. I think we can expect some F2 on 10m on a regular basis from now on. On 6m, we might see some Es if we are lucky but 6m F2 is unlikely, although more southerly stations might just catch some TEP.

No 10m Es yet today so far

Unlike yesterday, I have seen no Es on 10m WSPR as yet. Things could change, but it is quieter than Saturday.

10m F2?

EA8BVP (2986km) spotted my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon this evening several times. I think this may be the first F2 propagation seen here on 10m this season. There was no Es around at the time and the distance is right for F2.  Last winter and spring this station copied my beacon just about every day for months on 10m.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Sept 12th 2015

Sunspot number has risen to 79 (K=3) but 10m conditions are expected to be "poor" again today.

Still Es on 10m WSPR

It pays to have a WSPR beacon running on 10m. Even this late in the season, there is still some Es about and at unusual times. The following stations managed to copy my 500mW WSPR beacon in the last 12 hours:

Unique stations spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon in last 12 hrs

In may cases they copied me several times. These are just the unique stations, not all the reports. In the meantime, 6m WSPR has been very quiet.

For those prepared to look, there is Es at most times of the year. OK, not as common as in the main Es the season, but it is there at times. This is where WSPR beaconing really shows its worth. I hope to continue 10m WSPR beaconing whenever the antenna is available. The overnight results last night convince me more than ever the worth in doing this.

Still quiet on 10m and 6m WSPR

I have been on 10m and 6m WSPR all day but only local G4IKZ (18km) has been spotting me on 10m. No signs of Es on either bands, so far.

Simple 28MHz WSPR (or PSK31) RX

Facebook is throwing up memories from 3 years ago and one of these was a schematic for my WSPR RX for 10m, using low cost 14.060MHz crystals with a Polyakov mixer (injection at half signal frequency) The circuit worked well and could also be used for PSK31. Essentially this is a direct conversion receiver, but it mattered not. Even if you bought all parts new it is very inexpensive.  3 years later I would replace the 2 diodes by Schottky ones as these are now low cost and need less injection than the silicon ones shown.