Once again, I am on WSPR QRP TX (500mW) with my W5OLF beacon. The usual spots from the Canary Is, that I assume are by F2. Yesterday, my QRP WSPR on 10m was spotted by 8 unique stations including the USA and Canada. Transatlantic spots are almost daily.
UPDATE 1609z: So far today, 11 spots of my 10m QRP WSPR.
OFCOM has still to come back to me about legal operation in the 8m ISM band and self certification if there is no intention to market a product and the intention is simply research. I expect their lawyers need to be consulted first!!
UPDATE 1616z: Bingo!!! A definitive statement from OFCOM if you comply with IR2030 you do not need to apply for a licence in the ISM bands. These are OFCOM's exact words
"If it is radio equipment intended for telecommunications research purposes it may be possible to obtain an innovation and trials licence from Ofcom.
You can find more details on this here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/
If it conforms to the usage conditions laid down in IR 2030 you don’t need to apply for a licence. Regarding conformity of the equipment to other requirements, e.g. required for the marketing of products, or any potential liability to comply with those requirements, e.g. whether it is deemed as placed on the market / put into service, etc, isn’t something Ofcom can advise on.
Guidance on this aspect is published by the UK Government here: https://www.gov.uk/uk-market-
OFCOM is consulting on some changes it is proposing on its licence exempt SRD regulations. As far as I can see these affect some microwave allocations. This affects the Spectrum Licensing Regulations. See the OFCOM website for details.
As pointed out in his earlier comment, John Regnualt, G4SWX, who is the RSGB's VHF manager, has directed us to a truly excellent website all about EME (earth-moon-earth) communication.
John is an expert on EME communication and got his 2m DXCC some years ago. As far as I am concerned this is really good experimental work, no doubt having spent some time optimising his EME station.
To have success in EME requires hard work and dedication. By comparison, I am a "fireside fusilier" in that I am gunner do this and gunner do that. It looks like John is not!!
Although WSPR comes in several guises and speeds, I have no idea how QRSS (slow CW) compares with WSPR. Maybe Googling will tell me the answer.
For very low power (QRPP), one of these modes is probably better. WSPR has the advantage of being widely reported via WSPRnet. Certainly very slow WSPR is probably better than QRSS at reasonable speeds.
The answer is probably the same as, "how long is a piece of string?", but any pointers would be appreciated.
Although I am pretty sure that in the UK people can use the ISM bands for research without a licence, as long as they personally ensure conformity to any technical requirements and IR2030, I have asked OFCOM to confirm this. I am awaiting a response. My thoughts are it is easier for OFCOM just to confirm this than ask, "is this legal?".
At 8m this means a beacon can not be more than 10mW ERP. We already know this can cover a local area well on WSPR and could probably be copied in Europe by Es.
What happens in your country is not known.
My FT8 on 40.680 MHz was turned on at 1003z. No spots. Running 2.5W to the low wire dipole.
This was my LF beacon, before I managed to blow it up last year! It could do QRSS and normal speed CW. I may have a go at trying to replace ...
