630m WSPR RX

At about 1946z, I went QRT on all bands and moved to 630m WSPR RX. Within minutes a couple of stations spotted with DH5RAE (995km) as best DX. This was on the shack PC on its internal batteries. For a while now I have been charging the batteries so I can run the shack PC overnight on its battery, so the noise floor is lower.

UPDATE 2055z: Now back with shack PC on battery power, which should last most of the night.

Blog visits, not hackers - NOT amateur radio

Already, visits to this blog are higher than all day yesterday. As far as I can tell, these are genuine visits and not bots or hackers. If you are a visitor, I hope you find something of interest either here or on one of the sites linked from my main website at www.g3xbm.co.uk .

Government in the USA - NOT amateur radio

OK, I am no political expert, but it is amazing to the world at large that a US government that controls both the US Senate and the White House is unable to get a budget agreed. Each side is blaming the other, but it is a sorry mess. Many Federal Services will be forced to shut down. It is not clear how long this will last.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42759934 .

Fame again? - NOT amateur radio

My photo of the angry sky over our windmill was used on BBC Look East last night. My last one on the BBC was November 2015.

10m WSPR TX and 6m MSK144 RX

For a change, I am on 10m WSPR TX (500mW, 100%, frequency randomised) with my beacon and RX MSK144 on 50.280MHz. As yet, no spots. Mind you, I have only just started!

UPDATE 1044z: SM7FJE (905km) near Malmo spotted on 6m MSK144.

UPDATE 1116z: G4MOI (67km) spotted on 6m MSK144. No spots of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon.

UPDATE 1300z: LA3EQ (767km) copied strongly a few moments ago on 6m MSK144.

UPDATE 1436z:  SM5EPO (JP80, NW of Uppsala) spotted about 30 minutes ago calling a GD0 on 6m MSK144 but this was not uploaded to PSK Reporter Maps for some reason. Maybe I lost internet connectivity?

UPDATE 1605z: No posts at all on 10m WSPR TX and nothing new on 50.280MHz MSK144.

UPDATE 2106z: Tomorrow, I shall probably try 10m FT8 RX.

Sunspots - Saturday January 20th 2018

Solar flux is 71 today and the sunspot number 11.  A=8 and K=3.

630m WSPR overnight and this morning

Overnight, 14 unique stations spotted, but all Europeans.

Windows 10 decided it needed a big update this morning, so I am still on 630m WSPR RX at the moment to check things still work. At the moment the PSU is connected so G0MRF (139km) has a lower S/N than usual.

The PC still synchronises to internet time and WSJT-X v1.8 still seems to work.

QSYed to 630m WSPR

At about 1950z, I QSYed to 630m WSPR RX. A couple of stations immediately copied with several more shortly afterwards.

UPDATE 2044z: Already 6 unique stations spotted with best DX EA5DOM (1525km).

UPDATE 2214z: 10 uniques so far tonight. For a little while I have gone QRT to let my shack PC batteries charge. Later, I'll run the shack PCs from batteries again, so I have a lower noise floor.

"Our" windmill - NOT amateur radio

We live right next door to this 200 year old restored windmill. There was an angry sky earlier this afternoon as the photo shows. We can tell which way the wind is blowing just by looking at the sails each breakfast time! Most days the sails point in a new direction. We rarely hear any noise.

Antarctic WSPR beacon operational

According to Southgate News the German WSPR beacon in Antarctica is now operational, but antenna optimisation is ongoing. Call is DPØGVN. 

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/january/dp0gvn-wspr-beacon-in-antarctia-is-operational.htm#.WmHKrEx2vIU .