10m WSPR TX (500mW)

Since before breakfast, I have been on 10m WSPR TX. No spots as yet, although there were late spots last night from Germany and Italy.

UPDATE 0936z: Just one spot so far on 10m WSPR by OF3NE (1737km) in Finland.

UPDATE 0956z: EA8BFK (2880km) is now my best report DXwise on 10m WSPR today. South America later?

UPDATE 1652z: So far today my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon has been received by 7 unique stations. Considering the Es season has (supposedly) ended this is not at all bad.

Sunspots - Thursday September 7th 2017

Solar flux is 127 (high) today and the sunspot number 79. A=11 and K=4.

Pye PF8

Many years ago I was part of the design team working on the PF8 transceiver. In its day (before mobile phones) it was a radical design and probably "ahead of the game" as they say. It used a radical internal antenna (a skeleton slot) which I designed along with the TX audio. In those days we had no real competition and it took a long time to overcome the noise issues with the DC-DC converter. It was the first Pye Telecom unit to use a multi-layer PCB. It became famous as the transceivers used in the TV series "The Professionals". PF8 units are very hard to find these days, but some have been converted to 70cm amateur use.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf8 .

ICOM IC7300

It still surprises me that the price of the IC7300 has not dropped. I guess the dealers are playing "chicken" to see who blinks first. If people are happy to buy at the current figure they have no incentive to drop the price. Meanwhile, they all make lots of profit.

10m WSPR TX

As usual, I am on 10m WSPR TX (500mW), although no-one has yet spotted me.

UPDATE 1400z: Two 10m WSPR spots so far today with DG7RJ (916km) the best DX report so far. I assume this is Es.

UPDATE 2202z: With late DX (Es?) spots from EA, I and DL I decided to leave the 10m WSPR beacon running overnight. I have gone QRT on 6m FT8 RX.

6m FT8

As well as G3PXT, I am spotting Germany and Slovenia on 6m FT8. These could be Es or random MS. For random MS, the 15 second periods must help. There was slow QSB on G3PXT (79km), so I think this was tropo.

UPDATE 0942z: G4VXE (136km) now being spotted, although no further non-G DX spotted.

UPDATE 1358z: S51AT (1250km) is the best DX spotted so far on 6m today, with 5 countries spotted on 6m FT8 so far today.

UPDATE 1545z: 9A4ZM (1292km) in Croatia brings the total to 6 countries spotted so far today on 6m FT8.

Sunspots - Wednesday September 6th 2017

Solar flux is 122 as is the sunspot number. These are massive figures this late in the cycle. A=12 and K=2.

OFCOM

The latest OFCOM report has been published.

See http://ofcom.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/i/FC9A6652345C41492540EF23F30FEDED/59D1BD3EA2F08127C67FD2F38AC4859C

Es on 10m and 6m

Although I was away at my son's for a few days, I went on 10m WSPR TX and 6m FT8 RX on my return. There was Es on both bands.

2m UKAC activity contest (September)

A reminder that tonight is the RSGB's 2m activity contest. It runs from 8pm to 10.30pm UK clock time.

UPDATE 2050z: Although I was only of for about 15-20 minutes, best DX was M1MLM/P (181km) in the Peak District. As usual, I was using 5W QRP to my big-wheel 2m Omni.