Does increasing ERP on 10m WSPR make sense?

In the past I said that increasing 10m WSPR ERP was probably not worth it. However, I have changed my mind. G4IKZ (not that far from me) runs 5W and a Moxon beam on 10m WSPR. His ERP in the best direction is probably 10-13dB higher than me, and maybe even more.  On RX he will have the gain of the Moxon in his favour. Looking at reports on WSPRnet today, he has been copied by far more stations than me and he is copying some decent stuff on RX too.

No, I think in more marginal 10m conditions the extra would be worth having. For now, I'll stick with the beacon and 500mW, but I may switch to the FT817 so I can run a bit more power on TX and listen too on 10m WSPR. My antenna is a compromise.

10m F2

Already my 10m 500mW WSPR has been spotted in Brazil by KD0VWO (7412km). So far, this is the only DX seen on 10m WSPR today. I remain hopeful that I may be spotted in the USA later today on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 1415z:  KD0VWO (in Brazil) has copied me several times on 10m WSPR, but 6m WSPR has drawn a total blank so far today with no spots given and none received on that band. I am ever the optimist and will stick on both 10m WSPR and 6m WSPR until this evening. Around 1900z I shall switch to 472kHz WSPR RX.

More Rallies

I have been notified of the following Radio Rallies:

Sunday 27 SEPTEMBER : PENCOED ARC TABLE TOP SALE
Pencoed Rugby Football Club, The Verlands, Felindre Road, Pencoed, Wales, CF35 5PB. Tables £5 each (first come first served). OT 8.30am sellers, 9.30am buyers, £2. C, REF. Madeline Roberts, 01639 885 126. www.mw0prg.co.uk/events.uk.

Sunday 27 SEPTEMBER : BELGIUM AMATEUR RADIO & COMPUTER RALLY
Hall 'LOUVEXPO', rue Michel Debauque, La Louvire (50km S of Brussels). TI 145.600 (rpt), 438.875 (rpt), 439.4375MHz (D-Star). OT 9am. 4000m2 of TS, FM etc. Michel, ON7FI, +32 475 45 45 78, michel.dewyngaert@skynet.be. www.on6ll.be.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

FTSE 100 well up so far today - NOT amateur radio

So far, the UK FTSE 100 share index is up over 2.5% on the day. Yesterday it fell well below 6000, but not quite to the lowest point this year. So far this year it is down over 10%. At its highest it topped 7100.

Sunspots and 10m - Fri Sept 25th 2015

With a sunspot number of 86 and K=2 I think we could see some interesting 10m F2 conditions although the propagation forecast for 10m remains "poor". I am not expecting much on 6m. On both 10m and 6m some late Es remains a (remote) possibility.

UPDATE 1204z:  So far, not a single spot given or received on 6m and just local G4IKZ (18km) on 10m WSPR.

472kHz WSPR overnight

No new stations copied overnight but those copied were at good strength.

UPDATE 0850z:  F5WK (364km) is still coming in on MF. I am still on 630m WSPR but may switch to 6m shortly. Not sure why as 6m has been useless here for days!

10m WSPR comes to life

With 4 spots from 4X1RF (3519km) and one from KD0VWO (7412km) looking in Brazil, 10m WSPR has sprung into life. I think both of these are F2 propagation. I am pretty sure there will be further reports later. WSPR

I am also on 472kHz RX but nothing copied on MF, as yet, this evening.

UPDATE 2000z:  Plenty of stations being copied on MF WSPR. All DX seems to have stopped hours ago on 10m so I shall close down until breakfast on 10m, but I shall be monitoring 630m WSPR overnight again.

ICOM IC7300 transceiver (more)

At the moment, the best value for money for a 100W transceiver looks like the ICOM IC7300. This is an SDR based transceiver that covers HF, 6m and 4m (in Europe). The selling price is expected to be a way below £1000, making it far less than the FT991 from Yaesu. A 10W version of the IC7300 is not available outside of Japan, sadly. The SDR based architecture means BOM (bill of material) costs should be low. Much of the RX processing is done in software. The realtime spectrum scope is a nice feature.

I quite fancy one, but may wait until some of the early problems are ironed out. It would be good to have 50W on 4m too as more and more countries are appearing on the band.

See http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/hf/7300/default.aspx .

The image below is located on the ICOM America website and not on this blog. 

August 70cm UKAC results published

I see from the results of this contest that I managed to come 98th out of 162 in the AL section. I was pleased with this as I was just using a 2m big-wheel horizontal omni antenna and was only "on air" for around 40% of the time because of my poor, stroke affected, voice. I was only using 5W pep from my FT817. Activity levels are high in these contests and even if you don't bother to enter the contest you are almost guaranteed a QSO unless you are located in some extreme location.

472kHz sensitivity with a signal generator

With the preamp in front of the FT817 I can copy down to at least -127dBm, which is the lowest the generator will go without external attenuators. Without the preamp, sensitivity is at least 10dB worse. Of course, in reality, external noise will set the real limit. On my FT817, the IPO in/out made little difference to the sensitivity. I suppose the NF was being set  by the preamp. It is definitely worth having the preamp (with filtering) in circuit.

I am so grateful to the kind anonymous person who sent me this preamp. Thank you again. I have no idea who you are but I am extremely grateful for your great kindness. There really are some very kind people around.