QRP Rendezvous

From Oleg....

Dear Club 72 members and friends,
This  week  "rendezvous"  visitors:  UR7VT,  OH6NPV,  RC4HT,  ON6KZ,
EA8/DK6XM, OM6TC, SM5LNS, F5SJB, IT9TZZ, RU3NJC, HB9DAX, UR8QV, UA4NU, UR0ET,  UA1CEX,  UI8CM,  UA1ADF, SM5MEK, R1OA, DL4HG, EA2EIE, RN4NAA,UA1CEG,  RV1OM,  EA1LY, UA4ATL, SM7SMS, OK2BMA, IT9IFI, RL3OA, HA6OD, G4GIR, EU1TY, IK2RMZ, DL5HCM, RV3GM
See Weekly QRP Rendez-Vous report - http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/
Full list of "rendezvous" Frequenters and Visitors - www.club72.su
Welcome all QRP stations to next week "rendezvous":
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at 9 UTC on 14060 (alt 10116 kc) +/-
Comments are welcome
72! Oleg RV3GM / KH6OB "Mr. 72"
=== In QRP We Trust! ===

More on lighter evenings - NOT amateur radio

At the moment the evenings are lighter for 5 mins more at dusk than a week ago. The light follows a sine wave curve and the rate of change speeds up as we go through the winter into spring. As I said recently, the evenings are lighter by an hour at the end of January. At the website below you can change the location and the date.

See http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/cambridge

More WSPRnet issues

WSPRnet seems to be suffering again. I get in, but it is taking a very long time. Maybe, some have given up and are using other modes instead?

10m WSPR this morning

There was a mix of F2 propagation (RZ6, RA3) and much shorter skip wintertime Es on 10m WSPR. I am pretty sure we will see USA WSPR spots this afternoon. Wintertime Es peaks at this time of year.

UPDATE 1534z:   No 10m USA spots so far this afternoon. They may come later, but I am surprised not to have been spotted already today. It is already quite late in the day.
  
UPDATE 1622z:   Still no USA spots today. I think it is now too late?

UPDATE 1702z:   It is now, I think, too late for USA spots on 10m, probably propagation. I am surprised as I was really expecting better today. 10m is a fickle band, filled with surprises!

UPDATE 2000z:  Did I say, "10m is a fickle band, filled with surprises!"?  So I left my 10m WSPR beacon running and was rewarded with spots from EA1FBU (1297km) by wintertime Es. The opening seems quite localised with 6 spots so far from this station.

UPDATE 2208z:   EA1FBU spotted me 16 times this evening on 10mWSPR before the opening ended at 2032z.

472kHz WSPR activity

Last night there were 70 active 472kHz WSPR stations showing on WSPRnet.  However, there were only 14 stations transmitting and at times I was the only UK station transmitting!! Although it was good to have this many people monitoring, we need more on TX.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Dec 26th 2015

Solar flux is 123 today. Sunspot number has climbed to 71 (K=2). The forecast for 10m propagation is "fair" again today. I am expecting 10m WSPR to be reasonable today. There have been 10m USA openings on most recent days.

472kHz TX in the last 2 weeks

472kHz unique spots in last 2 weeks of my 5mW ERP signal

These are the unique spots I have received for my 5mW ERP 472kHz WSPR signal in the last 2 weeks. At some point I must work out how many unique WSPR spots I have received this season.

Last winter my 5mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" was spotted over 1000km away.

High post reads? - NOT amateur radio

Probably because many readers are on Christmas/New Year holiday, but I have already had as many blog visits as in a normal whole day and it is not yet teatime.

USA again on 10m WSPR

Yet again 10m WSPR was open to the USA.  K9AN (6505km) first spotted my 500mW WSPR beacon at 1458z. Solar conditions seem better, or is it just the holidays meaning more activity?

UPDATE 1654z:   I have just re-synced and reset the 10m beacon, although it is probably too late for further USA 10m spots. I am currently active on 10m and 630m WSPR.

WSJT-X V1.6 decode sensitivity

For many months I had been using V4 of the dedicated WSPR software After about a day of use I do not think WSJT-X V1.6 has demonstrably better sensitivity.  On spots of EA5DOM and PA3ABK/2 the S/N of decodes seems very similar in S/N terms. It is possible this not widely release version decoded at a similar level to WSJT-X V1.6. Certainly the QSB makes making a clear picture far from easy. What I mean is the signals vary far more with fades than the difference in sensitivity between packages. At the moment I am not using the preamp.