Sunspots and 10m - Sunday May 7th 2017

Solar flux is 72 today. The sunspot number is 26. A=4 and K=3.

QRP and QRP Club

Each week Oleg reports:

Dear Club 72 members and friends,

Weekly QRP Rendez-Vous Report (May, 7, 2017)
Visitors  of  the week: R1CAF, UY1IF, UW5EKR, US5ERQ, TF/RA1M, UR0ET,
OH6NPV,  DK2QX,  F3MB,  OK1KW,  DL8NAV,  RU3NJC, G3XJS, RV3GM, ON6WJ,
UA1ADF,  UA0SBQ,  US5ERQ, OM6TC, ON6KZ, RA4ABI, UR5EFD, DG2VM, R2FAE,
LA8BCA
Congrats!
DK2QX entered in the Honor Frequenters list
Personally! Dear Red, members of the Club 72 invite you to the Club, please
Welcome new Visitors:
F3MB, DL8NAV, RA4ABI, DG2VM
See full Frequenters and Visitors lists on the Club 72 web page
Comments...
See full WQR Report including comments and pictures on the blog page -http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/

72! Oleg RV3GM / KH6OB "Mr. 72"


This is a periodic Newsletter of the Club 72. Don't reply to Newsletter address! Send any requests or news to mr72@club72.su please.

6m MSK144 RX

So far, 17 stations in 10 countries spotted this morning on 6m MSK144 RX. This is a very good start. Just before breakfast I was briefly on TX in this mode on 6m and was spotted locally by M1BXF/SDR and G4KPX. Most of the time I have been RX only.

UPDATE 1112z:  29 stations in 11 countries so far today on 6m MSK144 RX. This mode is getting popular!

UPDATE 1706z: Lots and lots spotted today on 6m MSK144 RX.

Early Es on 10m

I turned on the 10m WSPR beacon (500mW) before breakfast and was spotted by LA9NKA (930km) at 0740z. For Es, this is early.

Compact 10m beam

If you are after a small beam for 10m you might try this Moxon 2el.

Moxons have useful forward gain, decent F/B ratio, a fairly broad forward pattern and are easy to make. When up in the air, a 2el Moxon on 10m won't look too big.

See http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=9325 .

Some years ago I tried a Moxon on 70cms where it worked well.

6m MSK144 TX (1W ERP)

Just for a short while, I am transmitting (30 second periods) on 50.280MHz MSK144 in beacon mode sending, "B G3XBM JO02" (1W ERP) to see where in Europe I am being spotted.

At the same time, I am still on 10m WSPR TX running 500mW.

New ICOM D-Star dual-band handheld

ICOM has announced a new digital dual-band 5W handheld that as well as conventional FM supports D-Star both over the air and via a PC, tablet or similar. It has built-in GPS as well as a slot for a micro-SD card. To me, it seems expensive but it is a "state of the art" dual-band handheld with GPS.

See http://www.icomuk.co.uk/ID-51E-Plus2/Handheld_Amateur_Radio_Ham

137 and 472kHz bands in the USA

My conclusion is the FCC is a bunch of morons and pen pushers. I may be wrong and this is my personal view. To others, they may be wonderful.

According to Southgate News, these bands are still not available in the USA years and years after these bands were released in the rest of the world. As my own experiments on both bands with very low ERPs show, great ranges can still be achieved. I just don't understand their reasons for delays. OK, I know some utilities pump RF over cables in this frequency range in the USA, but if there is any harmful interference just instruct the station to go QRT or reduce power. With a low ERP limit initially I very much doubt there would be any problems.

FCC - get your fingers out and release these bands! To the rest of the world you appear a bunch of idiots incapable of making any decisions. Does anyone there understand RF? Wake up!

First swift seen - NOT amateur radio

There are some about according to the reports, but yesterday I saw my first swift this year. This is one day later than last year. I have still to see any house martins and I have not heard a cuckoo.

The impression I'm getting is there are fewer swallows, swifts and house martins this year. I maybe wrong and I hope I am. These returning migrant birds mean a lot to me.

6m MSK144 and 10m WSPR

After a brief transceive period in beacon mode, I have now returned to RX only on 6m MSK144. At the same time I have my 10m WSPR TX beacon running (500mW) and was copied several times by local G4KPX (14km).

It is getting hard now to separate MS and Es. This is the Es season in Europe and sometimes Es can give very strong signals both on 6m and 10m.

Up to now 16 stations in 9 countries spotted on 6m MSK144 this morning.

UPDATE 1038z: Just lots of 10m WSPR spots from G4KPX, but no evidence here of 10m Es, as yet.

UPDATE 1208z: 22 stations in 11 countries so far on 6m MSK144 RX today.

UPDATE 1304z: I think my countries spotted so far on 6m MSK144 has now reached 26. Not bad considering quite a few within range are missing and MSK144 does not depend on conditions. My set-up is simple too.

UPDATE 1720z: No evidence of 10m Es here today. It looks like the 6m MSK144 spots were largely MS.