Sunspots and 10m - Mon Dec 28th 2015

Solar flux has declined to 106 and the sunspot number is 67 (K=1). 10m propagation is expected to be "poor" again.  I am currently active with 50mW on 20m only.

UPDATE 1208z:   Spots received from Germany and Italy this morning when running 50mW on 20m WSPR.

20m WSPR at 50mW to a low end-fed antenna

I went QRT on 10m and 6m WSPR and switched instead to 50mW on 20m WSPR.  At this power I am still getting spotted. I am reducing power with a 10dB attenuator and 500mW from the FT817. This means I have a 10dB pad in circuit on RX. Even with this some stations are 0dB S/N on RX.

UPDATE 2056z:  Even with 50mW some spots were as strong as -2dB S/N. Later in the week I may make a 30dB attenuator so I can go as low as 500uW and try this. With very low output it is possible I'll still get the odd spot, especially by wintertime Es. Best DX spot today on 20m WSPR was 1200km, so far, from IQ5LU late lunchtime. I shall leave the 20m WSPR running overnight.

UPDATE 2121z:   The more recent spots by DL2JA (919km) of my 50mW 20m WSPR had lots of drift. This could be aircraft reflection, Es clouds moving or rig drift.

LA3EQ 472kHz RX experiment

There seems to be some issues with the newly released WSJT-X V1.6 software (combines JT65, JT9 and WSPR2 and WSPR15 into a single package) compared with some earlier releases of dedicated WSPR software, with WSJT-X 1.6 not reporting to WSPRnet all that is received. It looks as if this is not a WSPRnet issue, even though WSPRnet has not been so reliable of late. LA3EQ did a "side by side" comparison and the older versions reported more stations. Maybe there is a bug that V1.7 will correct?

Sunspots and 10m - Sun Dec 27th 2015

Sunspot number has dropped back a little to 63 (K=3). Solar flux is still respectable at 113. 10m propagation is expected to be "poor" today, so USA spots on WSPR are not too likely. I may try 10m with 50mW output later. My best chances are wintertime Es rather than F2 propagation.  I shall probably QSY from 630m to 6m shortly.

UPDATE 1100z:  I am now active on 6m WSPR (20% TX 1W, 80% RX) and 10m WSPR (50mW TX 100% but frequency randomised within the WSPR window). Unfortunately my W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon has the power shown as 500mW "hard wired" so the reported TX power on 10m will still show 500mW even though my power is only 50mW.  Only if I use the FT817 with external attenuators would I be able to change to power indicated. I may try this later in the week.

UPDATE 1248z:  No spots at all with 50mW on 10m WSPR. I may try 20m WSPR later. This will mean going QRT on 6m so I can use the FT817 and PC.

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.