Sunspots - Wednesday September 27th 2023

 Solar flux is 165 and the SSN 179. A=32 and K=4.

630m (472 kHz) WSPR RX (Tuesday)

At about 2015z, I QSYed to 630m WSPR RX with my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. So far (at 2027z) just G1GKN (54km) and DC0DX (467km) spotted. 

DC0DX is stronger than I have ever spotted him so far this autumn.

10m QRP WSPR TX (Tuesday)

When I am on 8m FT8, I can also go on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW WSPR beacon. I keep forgetting! Some of my reports from the Canary Is are very strong.

UPDATE 2020z: 10 stations have spotted me. Now QSYed to 630m WSPR RX.

8m in a few years?

OFCOM (and the RSGB) and the FCC seem to be dead against allocating even a tiny, low power, amateur allocation at 8m. There must be a very good reason for their position, but they seem unwilling to share their reasons. As an outsider, the position seems stupid and illogical. 

It is my hope that, over time, many administrations will allocate 8m to amateurs. As I understand things, most on 8m now, in any country, are interested in propagation and research, not chatting. By restricting modes to narrow digital only (modes like FT8, WSPR and CW) it is extremely unlikely this band would ever be used in this way i.e. for chatting. I cannot see why every administration cannot make, say, 5 kHz in the ISM section available to radio amateurs that apply, especially if secondary, low power, and assuming interference must be accepted and not caused to other services.

Will many more administrations grant amateurs access to 8m? I hope so.

QSYed to QRP 8m FT8 (Tuesday)

10m FT8 was too easy, so I have QSYed to 8m QRP FT8 hoping to catch some F2 propagation. I QSYed at 1423z to 40.680 MHz first period TX.

UPDATE 1818z:  No spots.  There seem to be a lot of people monitoring 8m today (see map).

UPDATE 2043z:  No spots. QRT.

10m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

This afternoon, I am on 10m QRP FT8. It is now 1250z and I have spotted 37 stations across the planet and my 2.5W has been spotted by 1 station.

UPDATE 1414z: 21 stations have spotted me and I have spotted 166.

How do they do it?

Steve G1KQH has pointed me to this link for a 40m Pixie CW transceiver kit for just £1.36 plus shipping. How do they do it and make a profit?

See https://a.aliexpress.com/_EITEaHH. 

630m WSPR TX

In the end I located my antenna current meter but it was broken and soldering the toroid on again was very hard. Still not on TX. 

I have ordered some more 50 ohm patch leads and more PL259 to BNC adaptors.

Fault finding (despite the difficulty) continues. I hope to be on 630m WSPR TX by the weekend.

Sunspots - Tuesday September 26th 2023

Solar flux is 170 and the SSN 164. A=23 and K=4. Sunspot count still good. 

Fixing my 630m transverter

My very old transverter used a 28.060 MHz local oscillator. I obviously went to 3.2 MHz in my newer design to reduce start-up drift. 

My antenna current meter is still missing. It is somewhere in the shack, probably in a drawer somewhere.

My first step is to see if I can detect my 3.2 MHz oscillator on the newer transverter.

By some means, I want to be on 630m WSPR TX this evening!