10m QRPP WSPR (Saturday)

 Another day has passed and not a single spot obtained at 500uW. Unless things dramatically change  tomorrow, I propose to stop these tests now until the next Es season.

Stuff of dreams - NOT amateur radio

 

Back in 2013 I was in hospital for 3.5 months with a stroke and I was expected to spend the rest of my life being fed via a tube into my stomach. I used to have dreams about tuna fish pie. In the next year I recovered and food could be eaten by mouth. Apart from my voice and giddiness, I largely recovered. Things could have been very different.

Sunspots- Saturday January 27th

 Solar flux is 157 and the SSN 97.  A=6 and K=1.

10m 500uW WSPR this week - no success

All week my 10m WSPR beacon has been on 500uW with the PA off.  Unlike previous weeks, not a single spot!! It looks like conditions have to be really good of this miniscule power to work.

So, unless I get spots before Monday, I propose to go back to 500mW WSPR on Monday (real QRO!!).  It will be worth repeating the experiment in the Es season, when some signals can be very strong.

For now, with F2, I don't think I can learn any more.

11 years ago on 137 kHz

This was in 2013 at the old QTH.  At the time I was seeing how far away I could be spotted on that band. Not much later, I got to the Netherlands.

Sunspots- Friday January 26th

 Solar flux is 161 and the SSN 101. A=6 and K=0.

Rally this Sunday

The following has been notified to me.  As I always advise, contact organisers to avoid disappointment if travelling far.

Sunday January 28th  -  Lincoln Short Wave Club Winter Radio Rally, Market Rasen, LN8 3HT. Contact m5zzz@outlook.com .

500uW 10m WSPR (Thursday)

As I have had no 10m WSPR spots at all this week at 500uW, it would appear conditions have to be very good to get spots at this very low level. 

It will be interesting to repeat this test at 500uW in the Es season, as signals can sometimes be very strong by Es.  It is my expectation that I shall get 10m WSPR spots all over Europe with 500uW 10m WSPR in May and June. Quite a lot more would have been possible at 500mW (30dB stronger), but spots.

It is my view that everyone in the UK may legally use 10mW WSPR between 40.660 and 40.700 MHz in the ISM band without a licence. I am quite surprised more people have not taken advantage of this. This is NOT amateur radio. The ISM bands are internationally allocated and power restrictions are intended to reduce the chances of harmful interference. Callsigns can be made up, and if the format is OK, WSPRnet shows where you are being spotted. Each country has interface specifications (IR2030 in the UK) to agree power levels and other parameters.

WSPR Rocks

This is an excellent site. With it, you can see WSPR spots as maps and look back easily over the last 5 weeks. 

Yesterday, using SQL, the owner (Phil VK7JJ) kindly showed me how to go back to 2008! I had been hoping to use it to do a map of all my 500uW spots, but then I realised the snag! 

My little beacon is pre-programmed to report all spots as 500mW, so spots with the PA off (500uW) cannot be distinguished if over 5 weeks old. In the last 5 weeks I have, as an experiment, just been running 500uW (0.5mW). It has been an eye opener.

See http://wspr.rocks/ .

Not long now - NOT amateur radio

We are in the depths of winter and, in this part of the UK, we have not had any snow yet. Despite this, snowdrops, aconites and hellebores are coming out. I have even seen a few daffodils in flower. 

Spring is just around the corner.