Grass cut - NOT amateur radio

Although still dull, it was dryish, so I cut the lawns.

The garden is starting to look quite autumnal with several trees losing leaves.

The photo shows the back lawn earlier.

Poor night on 472kHz WSPR

Last night was a poor one on 472kHz WSPR. Both on RX and TX (10mW ERP to the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground) there were far fewer spots. I am wondering if after several days of rain, the soil conductivity is higher so the effective loop size in the ground is much smaller? Or were conditions just poorer?

Overnight on 472kHz WSPR here

Martin G8JNJ modelled my ground loop at 475kHz and got the "gain" as -33dBi. This seems about right and it maybe even worse!

UPDATE 1338z: I have been on 472kHz WSPR all day. Spots received up to 203km in daylight and I have spotted some new stations on 472kHz WSPR RX.

Earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground

For some years now I have used this antenna system successfully on the VLF, LF and MF bands. It certainly works and has worked as high as 60m, although this high I am unsure how much is the "loop in the ground" and how much is from the wire just above the ground. If you don't have space for a big antenna and earth on 160m, 630m or 2200m, you might want to give this a try.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/antennas/earth-electrode-antennas

Sunspots - Tuesday October 15th 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=1.

472kHz WSPR

Although I have spotted several stations, including multiple spots of LA8AV (1035km), not a single spot of my 10mW ERP so far. This seems a little odd. By now, I would have expected some spots.

UPDATE 2043z: I restarted WSJT-X and resynced the clock and was spotted by 2E0ILY (209km). Was this just coincidence?

2m FT8

As 6m was not showing much promise, I have moved up to 2m FT8 using the FT817ND and the big-wheel. I am getting suspicious of PSKreporter maps today as no spots (of my 2m FT8 CQ) appeared and neither were several calls by G0GGG on 6m which were copied here locally.

Stations that spotted my 2m FT8 CQ 

(2.5W to big-wheel) this afternoon

UPDATE 1456z: Now getting my usual spots from Cornwall and Northern Ireland on 2m FT8 despite just running 2.5W to the big-wheel. I suspect there was a short problem with PSK reporter. Also seeing 2m FT8 stations in Belgium and The Netherlands.

UPDATE 1639z: So far today, 17 stations in 7 countries spotted on 2m FT8 RX here.

6m FT8

Laziness again!

Using the FT817ND at 2.5W to the V2000 vertical antenna, I am again on 6m FT8. G0GGG in IO81 square (Warminster) was calling an SM in Sweden. My own CQ calls were spotted by no-one.

UPDATE 1410z: No spots.

Pagers: SO dated now! - NOT amateur radio

About 20 years ago I was in charge of the RF development for the Cobalt FLEX pager for the USA, that was manufactured in Mexico.

We had an excellent bunch of developers who could probably have designed anything in RF. Instead, Philips got out of paging and made a hash of mobile phones.

The photo shows the team at a dinner after the development was completed.

472kHz WSPR (10mW ERP)

Overnight I was spotted by 15 different receiving stations, although a few were the same stations running different systems. This was the first time this season when my signal was not decoded in Norway. So far this autumn I have received spots from 28 different receiving stations as the table shows. As usual, I am using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

472kHz WSPR TX (10mW ERP) so far this autumn

On 472kHz WSPR receive I have so far copied 22 stations here. I think this is the first time my TX results have bettered my RX results. My noise floor is low, so I guess there must be fewer active TX stations in range.

World Cup rugby - NOT amateur radio

Although not a great rugby fan, I see that Japan beat Scotland yesterday 28-21. The game was in doubt because of the typhoon. At least the match took place and the host nation goes on.