New record number of visits to blog

Yesterday saw a new high in daily visits to this blog. I have no idea why!

As you know, I try to reflect what interests me, what I am doing in our hobby and a few things which are unrelated to amateur radio. I intend to continue in much the same way, hoping you all find something of interest here. Please let me know if you think the blog is missing anything important.

Clearly there is a QRP bias, but my stroke has made me concentrate on what I can do. This year, I want more 2-way QSOs but as I find speech hard (for too long) I will be looking for JT65 and JT9-1 QSOs in the main.  Of course, these will be with just a few watts.  When not in the shack I shall be on WSPR monitoring elsewhere in the house.

As I am slower at spotting errors than I was, please let me know if you see any. I try to correct any I notice but I must miss some.

Sunspots and 10m - Tues Jan 19th 2016

Solar flux is 99 today and sunspot number 48 (K=3) and the forecast for 10m propagation continues to be "poor".   I am not expecting great things on 10m today, but I am often surprised.

QSYed to 472kHz WSPR

After most of the day on 10m WSPR, I have now QSYed to 472kHz WSPR for the evening and night.  For some time I have had problems accessing WSPRnet. Again I am TXing with 5mW ERP and on RX for 80% of the time using the earth-electrode "antenna" with no preamp on RX.

10m USA yet again

As well as G8VDQ (93km) earlier by tropo and aircraft this morning, WA4ZZW (6873km) was spotted on 10m mid-afternoon. Both stations were using 5W. I have been on 10m TX (randomised TX frequency) continuously until the last few days since when I've been on RX for 80% of the time.

Yaesu

As a proud owner of Yaesu gear going right back to an FT7 in 1979, I wish them well.  In  recent times, life has been very hard for them, and they seemed to lose their way. Today, they still face a threat from China and many of their radios are struggling to compete on price. I was totally amazed at their stupidity at not bringing an FT817 successor to market as we approached the solar peak.

It is rumoured that an FT817 successor will be announced at Dayton in May this year. Like many around the world, I hope they do. There is (was?) a vast market for this product as the original FT817 is now very very old. To do a successor would be so easy.  Yaesu - get real and release this product before you lose the market. To not put too fine a point on this, I think if you do not, then you risk bankruptcy within 5 years.

My recommendations to Yaesu are:

1. Design in Japan but make in China (but with excellent quality control in place from the start).
2. Launch a successor to the FT817 soon.
3. Look at your product range and rationalise it.

You must survive. This is the real world.

QRP Kits

The kits that were Hendricks are now Pacific Antenna. I have no idea how long ago this change happened. They market a fine range of QRP kits.

See http://www.qrpkits.com/ .

QRP and low sunspot activity

There is some debate over QRP and declining solar activity. Certainly more power helps when conditions are marginal although often if a path is open then a few watts are fine for a QSO. At present, I use 5W maximum and most times 2W yet still seem to get spotted around the world on WSPR and JT 2-way modes. As I have mentioned before, even at the rock bottom of earlier solar cycles I have still worked LU (over 11000km) on QRP SSB on 10m with very modest wire antennas. No, more power may help with a pile-up but even QRP is fine if the band is open. Of course, summertime Es generally needs only QRP. I have worked Es DX on 6m with QRP and a helical whip on the FT817. Es can be great fun.

Sunspots and 10m - Mon Jan 18th 2016

Solar flux is 101 today. Sunspot number is 48 (K=0) and the forecast for 10m propagation is "poor" still.  I QSYed to 10m early and am already TXing for 20% of the time at 2W and looking for others on 10m for 80% of the time. Overnight I was on 472kHz (630m) RX with the preamp, but nothing new copied on that band.

UPDATE 0910z:  Not surprisingly, no spots given or received yet on 10m WSPR.  It is still very early.

QRP club

More from Oleg:

Dear Club 72 members and friends,

See QRP Rendez-Vous weekly report on the Club 72 blog -
http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/
Thanks all for activity and for comments.
This week visitors:
UA1CEX,  UR7VT,  DL1EIG,  UR5EFD,  PA0WDW,  UA1CEG/p,  RV3GM, OH6NPV, UA1ADF, OE6GUG, RU3NJC, OK2LA, UA4NU, DL6UNF, SM5MEK, DF9QV, RA1M/mm, DL7MA,  S57TX,  IK5IIS,  ON4MB,  RN4NAA,  ON6KZ, OM6TC, RW3AA, HA2NK, IV3DGY, RX9CBS, G6HUI
See you all on the next week QRP Rendez-Vous, schedule -
www.club72.su

72! Oleg RV3GM / KH6OB "Mr. 72"

472kHz WSPR

At 1750z I QSYed to MF (5mW ERP TX 20%, RX 80% with no preamp).  As yet, no spots but it is early evening and the crystal in the transverter is probably still settling on TX. On RX the transverter simply passes the signal directly to the FT817.

UPDATE 1815z:  I see local Jenny  G0VQH (15km) was the first spotter on 472kHz WSPR this evening.

UPDATE 1835z:  These are the 472kHz WSPR spots so far this evening.

UPDATE  1935z:  Currently I use WSJT V1.6 for WSPR and JT modes. At 1916z I spotted PA3ABK/2 (306km) for the second time this evening but the spot did not appear on WSPRnet. I checked my clock was synced (it was) and I have internet connectivity. Maybe there is a bug with  V1.6 or WSPRnet was down at the time this would have been uploaded?

UPDATE 2016z:   I am now RX only on 472kHz WSPR with the preamp.