Sunspots - Wednesday January 24th 2018

Solar flux is 70 today and the sunspot number zero. A=4 and K=1.

Fuel prices - NOT amateur radio

Have you noticed that UK fuel prices are creeping up? The UK £ to US $ is getting better and better, but the wholesale price of crude is rising faster. At the moment diesel is up to £1.29 a litre, but it seems to go up every week.

Results of 630m WSPR RX experiment with earth-electrode "antenna" in ground.

A couple of Gs came on. G3XIZ (46km) was 2-3dB better S/N on the earth-electrodes than on the compromise vertical. He is end-on to the "loop" in the ground. G6AVK was not copied at all. He is orthogonal to the "loop" in the ground. I was quite surprised not to spot him at all though.

Conclusions? The earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground is quite effective at 136kHz, but more directional.

136kHz WSPR RX using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground

At about 1915z I started up on 136kHz WSPR RX using my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. The nearby (in frequency) commercial station is stronger on this than on my compromise vertical. It will be interesting to compare results.

OFCOM rubbish?

OFCOM is consulting on diversity and inclusion. Whilst this important, I think this government QUANGO is struggling to find its way. This is my personal view, which others may not share.

Time and time again I see OFCOM doing the less important things, whilst not doing the important stuff.  Bring back the GPO and people who really understand RF. We seem to have a bunch of clueless people unable to be pragmatic and make any decisions. This is based on direct, personal experience. Unless things have changed dramatically for the better, they have not done much to "win me over".

Impressed? Me? NO.

10m FT8 RX

Since about 1335z I have been on 10m FT8 RX. This much later than usual. As yet, no spots.

UPDATE 1804z: No spots all day here on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 1918z: PY2DMZ (9686km) was spotted. Life on 10m yet!

136kHz WSPR RX

Even with my unbelievably poor system, I managed to spot 4 unique stations on 136kHz WSPR RX in the last day. WSPR is a wonderful mode.

Next season I really must try a miniwhip on 136kHz and 472kHz RX.

Many years ago I received 136kHz QRSS3 (sent from home) on a miniwhip mag-mounted on my car. Despite the very low ERP, it was clearly copied the far side of Cambridge (20km?) and I stopped. Much further would have been possible.  I am pretty sure this was using my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground as the TX antenna. As far as I am aware, I used this E-field probe on RX on the car roof. This fed the deaf (at 137kHz) FT817.

Sunspots - Tuesday January 23rd 2018

Solar flux is 70 today. The sunspot number is zero. A=12 and K=2.

10m FT8

In the later part of the morning I went on 10m FT8 RX. Nothing was spotted, so I QSYed to LF WSPR RX. Guess what? Nothing spotted here either!

136kHz WSPR RX - trying again

I have optimised my settings and may have gained a few dB. My RX is currently monitoring 136kHz WSPR with the shack PC on internal batteries so the noise floor is pretty low. As someone said in a comment to an earlier post, I'd definitely be better with a miniwhip on RX. Maybe for next season?

UPDATE 1337z: No spots.

UPDATE 1432z: G3XIZ spotted! Not strongly, showing how poor my system is on 136kHz.

UPDATE 1445z: Now G4GIR spotted too.

UPDATE 1600z: Soon be time to charge the shack PC. I'll leave things running, but my noise floor is likely to rise. Back on battery power later.

UPDATE 1815z: G8HUH (250km) is now my best DX on 136kHz WSPR. Spotted at 1742z.