Granddaughter - NOT amateur radio

We know that childhood is transitory. Already our 2 grandson's are changing, whereas one they were very close. Already we can see signs of innocence lost.

Our 2 granddaughters are still little, but we know this cannot last. For now, we are making the most of them being very little. In the photo, one of the 2 grandchildren is reading a comic.

630m WSPR

So far this evening just G0VQH (15km) spotted. I have been spotted, so far, by 6 unique stations (all in England) when using my 10mW ERP. So far, not a good night.

Overnight on 630m WSPR

Quite a poor night really with 9 unique spots of my 10mW ERP. These were all Gs, which is quite  unusual. Best DX spotted on RX was DH5RAE (995km).

10m FT8 RX

Nothing spotted yet, although it was late (for me) getting on the band. I made the switch at about 1030z.

UPDATE 1140z: Still no spots on 10m FT8 RX here today.

UPDATE 1352z: Just G4CJC (73km) spotted.

UPDATE 1852z: No further spots. Time to QSY to 630m WSPR.

Sunspots - Tuesday November 28th 2017

Solar flux is 74 today and the sunspot number 15. A=5 and K=2.

MLS offers

MLS is offering some winter savings. For example, the ICOM IC7300 ships with a free PSU worth £89.95. Price drop soon? It should be much less by now.

See https://www.hamradio.co.uk/amateur-radio-base-station-radio-icom-base-station-radio-pc-309.php

Low cost UHF portables?

Gearbest is advertising 2pcs (which I take to mean 2 transceivers) for about £24 on eBay. The last time (the only time) I bought from them I ordered 2 pcs, but only got sent one transceiver. Despite lots of communications with them including copies of my order, they insisted I only ordered one. When I threatened to tell PayPal, I got a full refund.

Basically I concluded that they do not understand English. If you order 2pcs, you may end up with just one.  Good prices, but their customer service is lacking. Caveat emptor.

See https://www.gearbest.com/walkie-talkies/pp_775271.html

630m WSPR

For the last hour or so I have been on 630m WSPR TX (10mW ERP, 20%) and RX. So far, 9 unique station spots of my QRPP with best DX a spot by G0LUJ (278km) in the north of England. No international reports as yet.

137kHz WSPR RX

At some point I intend to take a look at 137kHz WSPR. At present I can only receive and not transmit. Also, my RX is deaf and my antenna poor. Still, "nothing ventured, nothing gained" as they say. In other words, it is worth a go. If I copy anything on LF, that would be a bonus! I might copy the stronger  stations. Maybe later this week?

I should also try my coax outer, used as my antenna on 630m, on other bands.  I can TX on any HF band.

17kHz VLF tests (amateur)

Stefan DK7FC who is well known for his sub-9kHz tests recently applied for special permission to test around 17kHz with a low ERP.

"Hi VLF,

Since 23 UTC a 700 mA carrier is running on 17.4701 kHz!
It is a little surprise to the VLF community i think ;-)

Legal? Yes: http://www.iup.uni-heidelberg.de/schaefer_vlf/VLF/17,47kHz_Sonderlizenz.jpg
Actually the document has 3 pages but the other ones are no so relevant.
My ERP is limited to 5 mW. I did not request more because more isn't possible anyway with this antenna.

I wound a big single layer coil with 0.5 mm enameled wire on a PVC tube with 315 mm outher diameter.
0.7 A is just a first careful step. The coil is designed to hold 1.5 A 'key down'.
The carrier will run the whole night and even tomorrow at daytime.

Worldwide reports are welcome ;-)
It is not sub-9-kHz but still VLF, the 17 km band!! So give it chance :-)

The tree has still some solar power to stream the signal from the EW loop down to the city, so there is a feedback spectrogram at http://www.iup.uni-heidelberg.de/schaefer_vlf/DK7FC_VLF_Grabber2.html

73, Stefan

PS: I still can hear that tone of the coil. It is terrible! Be happy when you are older than me!"