I must get back on TX soon! Thinking about my transverter, I guess the first thing to try is see if I can receive the 3.2 MHz oscillator on another RX. If this is not going, it would give me a very good clue where to start looking. My problem these days is it is like fault finding in a brain fog! Somewhere I have my very old transverter which I used on 500 kHz years ago.
At about 1845z I QSYed to 630m (472kHz) WSPR RX. So far just G1GKN (54km) spotted.
I have found my old transverter, but not the current meter yet. I hope to mend the transverter this week.
UPDATE 1932z: DC0DX (467km) spotted.
UPDATE 1946z: SM6NOC (1056km) spotted.
Even though my chances are small, I have QSYed to 40.680 MHz FT8. At this time of year Es openings are possible, but rare. Aircraft reflection is possible, as I suppose are random MS and tropo. I live in hope! F2 is unlikely at this time of year with my low power.
UPDATE 1829z: No spots. I see there are 3 stations in Belgium on. I hope I can get spotted by one or spot them.
UPDATE 1833z: QRT soon on 8m after a hopeless day!
Today is the CQWW RTTY contest. The SSB contest (the biggest in the world) is at the end of October and the CW contest at the end of November.
As my voice is poor, I do not get the same pleasure I used to get in the SSB contest. Also, I frequently forget!
Even if you are not a great contest fan (I am not!), it is a great opportunity to work some more countries. Exchange is, I think, report and CQ zone if you are outside of the USA. For example, if in the UK, 5914. Of course, there is no need to submit a contest entry. I have never submitted an entry to CQWW.
Recently, I was made aware of this website. As the MUF is creeping up, it is worth a regular look. It may give a clue to possible 8m and 6m F2 openings.
See https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/HF_Systems/6/5 - this gives the MUF for vertical incidence.
See also https://prop.kc2g.com/ .
My 500mW WSPR beacon was turned on about 0800z. So far, spots from the Canary Is.. I presume this is F2.
UPDATE 1048z: Still just the spots from the Canaries.
UPDATE 1835z: The usual USA stations spotted me, but going QRT very soon.
My 2.5W to the V2000 vertical was turned on at about 0800z. No spots yet. If things look promising, I may try 8m QRP FT8.
UPDATE 0849z: So far, spots of my QRP from 4 UK stations. I suspect some are by aircraft reflection with the furthermost GW4VXE (367km),
Once again I stayed on 630m WSPR RX overnight with the earth-electrode antenna in the ground. No further stations were spotted on RX overnight proving it is not worth staying on after midnight.
