No lightning in Northern Europe

Here in the UK, most of us are enjoying a decent spell of settled weather with a big high pressure system overhead.  Looking at the lightning map, it looks storm-free over lots of northern Europe. No doubt things will change towards the end of the week when low pressure systems roll in again. Still, it is nice whilst it lasts. Maybe conditions on 2m and 70cm will be good with some tropo later in the week?

Sunspots and 10m - Sun Sept 27th 2015

Sunspot number is still good at 138 (K=1) and 10m propagation remains "fair".  Although my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon got some F2 reports, I was disappointed not to have been spotted in North America yesterday. Maybe today? Who can tell.

UPDATE 0910z:  Just locals spotting me on 10m WSPR so far. No late Es, or F2, on 10m WSPR seen here as yet. 6m is dead so far today. Overnight 11 different stations spotted here on 630m WSPR with best DX again 995km.

UPDATE 0948z:  Still just local spots on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 1338z:  Still just locals G4IKZ and G4KPX spotting me on 10m WSPR. No sign yet of any F2 or late Es on 10m WSPR.

No North America on 10m WSPR?

Well, unless things change very late, there will be no WSPR spots of my little 10m beacon from the USA or Canada today. This surprised me as I was definitely expecting an opening in that direction. There was some late Es in the form of DK0SC (827km).

Some life on 6m WSPR and return to MF RX

G4TZX (146km) has been spotted on 6m WSPR a few times. He is in JO01 square, so I suspect we are seeing some help from aircraft on the approaches to London, Heathrow. This is classic tropo/aircraft reflection distance.

MF preamp

It would be good to see some real DX on 6m, but feel this is unlikely as activity levels are low, F2 DX is very unlikely and we are no longer in the peak Es months.

UPDATE 1518z:  Now QRT on 6m WSPR and moved to 630m RX for tonight and overnight. Last night best DX copied on MF was 995km.

First report from Brazil today on 10m WSPR

In addition to locals G4IKZ (18km) and G4KPX (14km) I am being spotted by DX stations on 10m WSPR. As well as many (24 so far today!) 10m WSPR spots from 4X1RF (3519km) in Israel, I have just had a spot from Brazil of my 500mW WSPR beacon.  Thank you to the stations spotting me. I am always grateful for your reports.

Today 10m is in good shape. I am almost certain there will be 10m WSPR spots from North America later. Yesterday, I was spotted in Canada for the first time on 10m WSPR this autumn. Conditions today are better than yesterday, with a higher sunspot number and very undisturbed conditions.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Sept 26th 2015

With K=0 and a very high sunspot number of 145 it is not surprising that 10m is in good shape today.  Even the solar forecast has conditions on 10m as "fair" rather than "poor". This is the first time they have not been "poor" in many weeks.

UPDATE 1014z:  Quite a few spots already on 10m WSPR from 4X1RF (3519km). I think this is F2. I confidently think I'll be spotted in both North and South America on 10m WSPR later. Today is going to be a good day on 10m. Enjoy it as these conditions will be distant memories all too soon.

UPDATE 1018z:  So far, a total blank on 6m WSPR where I am on RX for 82% and TXing for 18% with 1W ERP.  No spots of UK stations either on 6m.

FT991 price HAS dropped

MLS are selling the FT991 now at £999.95 with free UK delivery.  I was right about the price dropping, but they dropped it sooner than I expected.

There is going to be a price war between the FT991 and the IC7300. This is just the first salvo. I can now see them both below £899 for Christmas.

At the moment I think the IC7300 will be a better radio, but with a price war likely now there will be strong competition between ICOM and Yaesu.  A price of £799 for both would no longer surprise me. ICOM will have more chance of slashing price and still being profitable with their SDR architecture. Personally, I'd prefer 4m to 70cm and 2m, although having 2m and 70cm makes the FT991 more of "a station in a box". It is quite likely there may be early issues with both radios. It is often better to wait a few months until these are ironed out and prices fall a bit.

First North American 10m WSPR spot this autumn

VE1YY (4597km) was the first in North America to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon this autumn.  He has spotted me a couple of times this afternoon. They are back!  At -19dB S/N this not too bad a report either. It suggests he may well of copied me if I was using 50mW as long as his noise level was low.

No doubt we'll get USA and Canadian spots on 10m now until the spring by F2.

UPDATE 1920z:   Have now gone QRT on 10m WSPR until the morning, and now looking on 630m rather than 6m. Will be on 630m RX overnight.

SX-2000 HF (to 4m) QRP transceiver and SunSDR-MB1

This was news to me. I have never seen this before although the post on the website below was earlier this summer.  It looks like a poor man's IC7300 and covers the same range but at QRP power levels. It is an Italian transceiver. Personally I prefer the ICOM. I have no idea about price. It looks like a "back shed job" to me.

See http://www.cqdx.ru/ham/qro-qrp/qrp-hf-transceiver-with-touch-screen/ .

On the same website are details of the Sun SDR-MB1 assembled prototype, which is another rig I have never heard about! There is a video of this at https://youtu.be/SIfvVUw0774 . This rig looks more professional and the YouTube link quotes a price of $5500. This was 3 months ago.

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.