Lighter evenings - NOT amateur radio

At long last, it is getting just a little lighter here in the evenings. For a week or so the mornings still get darker, but already the evenings are several minutes better. By the end of January the difference in the evening is almost an hour. Of course this means the year has turned again.

Christmas? Bah humbug

I think it is partly a result of my stroke, but I find Christmas very stressful these days. Every Christmas, things are expected to be calm and happy, yet I am sure that I am not alone in experiencing the opposite. Even eating the Christmas meal is a stress these days. Years ago at work I knew a couple who went camping in Scotland at Christmas. Just maybe they had the right idea?

Bah humbug!

For the little ones it is still a magical time.

Sunspots and 10m - Fri Dec 25th 2015

Solar flux is 131 and sunspot number 51 (K=3) today. 10m propagation is again expected to be "fair". There have been some medium range European 10m spots which are probably by wintertime Es.

WSJT-X - V1.6 works

I am currently using WSJT-X V1.6 on 472kHz WSPR.  It seems to work "right out of the tin" for me and I have both uploaded WSPR spots and been spotted on WSPRnet using the new software. As yet, because of family and Christmas, I have not yet tried it on JT65 or JT9-1 2-way modes. It is too early to tell how much better it is than the older WSPR packages, but others have reported better MF sensitivity with it.

Merry Christmas to all readers

May I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2016?  I try to write about what I have done and what interests me and hope you are able to find something of interest here or on my webpages at www.g3xbm.co.uk .

Most days the blog gets updated, unless I am away or too unwell.

Returned to 472kHz WSPR

There seemed little doing on 6m WSPR so I have returned to 630m (472kHz) WSPR now but using WJST-X 1.6 software to see how this does. No spots yet either given or received.

10m WSPR to the USA again

10m seems to be in good shape with K9AN (6505km) spotting my tiny WSPR beacon at 1430z. 10m WSPR has opened to the USA for several days in a row now.

New WSPR software

Interesting news from G8LCO:-

"Have been trying out WSJT-X 1.60 over the last two days. The 1.60 version -not long out!- includes WSPR alongside JT65 etc. It is a nice package, had one setup issue with the sound card rate but now it works very well.

You have GAINED around 3 dB of signal level on 472KHz- the decoder is more sensitive.I am hearing better than ever on MF and Top Band.

One very nice feature is the ability to scan bands, there is a menu to list the bands you want to include, this is split by time of day into four zones night, dawn greyline, day and dusk greyline. The software switchs the bands automatically without screwing up the band data!

Having the other modes too and a spectrum view that can be taylored to your needs is very useful.

All in all it's a nice Xmas freeware present to the Ham community. They have 1.70 in development- not far from release- that has even more good features. It looks like the merge of packages is a good way forward from the old arrangement."

UPDATE 1342z:  I have just loaded WSPR-X 1.6  onto the current shack PC. It is currently running WSPR on 6m (RX and TX).

Sunspots and 10m - Dec 24th 2015

Solar flux is 132 and sunspot number is 63 (K=3) today. The propagation forecast today is "fair". There were early winter Es spots from Italy and France on 10m, but this would not be related to solar conditions. As far as I know Es is not related to sunspots. The RA and LZ spots received on 10m are more likely to be single hop F2.

10m USA WSPR spots today

Several USA spots today on 10m WSPR. Not a bad day at all. The first at 1454z was K4BYN (6231km) with several since.

I am also active on 630m WSPR and DK7FC (669km) was the first to be spotted. I went QRT on 6m when I turned on 630m (472kHz) WSPR.