Sunspots - Wednesday December 12th 2023

 Solar flux is 126 and the SSN 87. A=3 and K=1.

630m QRP WSPR (Monday)

My 10mW ERP 630m WSPR was turned on at teatime.

UPDATE 2139z:  9 spots of me so far.

10m 500uW WSPR TX (Monday)

My 500uW 10m WSPR TX is on and EA8/DF4UE (2876km) has again spotted me. At 0.5mW, I think this is the third time. It proves that if conditions are good and the noise floor is low, very little power is needed.

8m QRP FT8 (Monday)

 My 2.5W FT8 was turned on at 1347z.

UPDATE 1701z:  No spots all day. Now QRT.

630m QRP WSPR (Monday)

Overnight I was spotted by 15 stations with my 10mW ERP WSPR from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground with furthermost OH1LSQ (1733km). 

M0NYW transverters

Interestingly Jason M0NYW using a nearly identical transverter was spotted by 59 stations. I suspect Jason's better antenna and ground wins him a few dBs over me. This could make a lot of difference when his signal is "on the edge". Well done Jason. Incidentally, he is making and selling 630m transverters, so contact him if interested in 630m TX. Jason has been spotted over 3000km with his transverter.

Sunrise - NOT amateur radio

This stunning photo was taken (not by me!) last week. It is about 5km from my home.

ISM band operation - licence exempt

A reminder that re-reading the OFCOM pages I am convinced that operation in the ISM bands without a licence is legal in the UK (and probably elsewhere) as long as the interface requirements are met.  This relates to power levels, and in some cases, duty cycles.

Not being a legal expert you have to read the rules in your administration.

I am pretty sure this means 8m WSPR at 10mW ERP without a licence is legal in the UK for anyone. In Australia 5mW has covered 5000km on 8m WSPR, so all of Europe would be in range especially in the Es season. The callsign can be made up, but best to use one that WSPRnet can use. In the past I used 8M3ISM. You could choose 8M3 plus your initials for example.

Using WSPRnet you can see who is spotting you.  This is NOT amateur radio.

See you in the spring?

VLF earth-mode experiments 2010

Way back in 2010 (when I was fitter!) I used to enjoy going out to see how far away I could detect my VLF earth-mode beacon running 5W. The furthermost I got was 6km, but much further would have been possible with more power and a larger baseline. Indeed, if the power is increased and the baseline larger I know of one station that has been received 100s of kilometers away. The RX station was able to detect the radiated component that was probably just microwatts. Earth-electrode "antennas" have been used successfully on  radiated tests at even lower frequencies with remarkable ranges being covered.

Sunspots - Monday December 11th 2023

 Solar flux is 127 and the SSN 120. A=4 and K=1.

F2 going "off the boil"?

This last week, I have not been spotted in the Caribbean on 8m with my 2.5W and dipole on FT8. I wonder if the autumn F2 has peaked with more to come in February/March? I am no propagation expert, but a few weeks ago I was spotted almost daily in the Caribbean on 8m FT8.