Oscar 100

In my view, Oscar 100 (QO-100) has suffered from the lack of ready built solutions. 

On the face of it, it offers DX over a good proportion of the planet, without fading, linears, beams or towers. Antennas are small, can be low and are fixed. 

DXpatrol (also available via Wimo) is offering a black box solution, which is probably the best we are going to get. My thanks to Steve G1KQH for the link.

I very much doubt the Japanese big manufacturers will do anything as the satellite footprint does not cover Japan or the USA.

11m operation

It is many years since I did any CB operation. I think the last time was testing a couple of single channel hand portables. I guess that was in the 1990s. 

I see on this week's Amateur Radio Weekly that there is a field day for "freeband" enthusiasts at 11m. The legality of this is not known although there is an ISM band around here. 

How much power can legally be used will depend on where you are. In the UK, it looks like the limit is 100mW ERP according to IR2030.

YouTube videos about amateur radio

There are lots of videos on YouTube about amateur radio. You can easily spend (waste?) a few hours watching these.  The one shown is just an example.

500uW 10m WSPR (Saturday)

Although I get a few spots a week with this tiny power, I get very few spots overall. Maybe there are fewer people using 10m WSPR?

My conclusion is this is just too little power. It is surprising to me as I was expecting to be spotted more often on Es, as signals can be very strong. I suspect that much of the time I am below the noise floor with many stations.  For now, I shall stick with this power on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE  1209z:  No spots. Next week, I may try 10mW on 10m WSPR to see if that is better.

UPDATE 1616z: Just a single spot by OZ7IT (853km).

UPDATE 2018z:  Like buses, none then 3 come along!! 3 stations managed to spot my 500uW (0.5mW) today. Propagation must have been good today on QRPP 10m WSPR. GM, PA and OZ spotted me.

6m success

I decided to stay on 6m QRP FT8 overnight. In all, 386 people spotted my 2.5W 6m FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna. The band did not open (for me) to the USA, which I was hoping for. Almost all of these spots were Es.

UPDATE 1021z:  121 stations have already spotted my QRP 6m FT8 signal this morning. There seems to be plenty of Es about.  

UPDATE 1356z: 201 spots of me today.

UPDATE  1626z: In the last day, 398 stations have spotted my 6m QRP FT8.  Most seem to be via Es. See map.

UPDATE 1800z: 440 stations have spotted my 6m QRP FT8 in the last day.

Sunspots - Saturday June 8th

 Solar flux is 184 and the SSN 150. A=28 and K=3.

BOFS?

In the last few minutes I looked on the CDARC website to see when the next Zoom session is. I am unwilling to travel in to Cambridge in the evenings now and prefer to watch presentations on Zoom.

It was hard to avoid the impression that most attendees are boring old farts (BOFS) which are mainly old white males. This does not bode well.

See https://www.cdarc.org.uk/index.php?page=events .

European Es (Friday)

 Although today has been my best day this season on 6m, the Es map (see below link) would suggest otherwise.

See https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/europe-sporadic-e/ .

UPDATE 1106z: It has just suddenly changed!

500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR (Friday)

 My 10m WSPR beacon was re-synced to internet time just after breakfast. No spots.

6m QRP FT8 (Friday)

Just 14 spots of my 2.5W 6m FT8 so far, all in the UK.

UPDATE 1056z:  134 spots of me so far. Strong Es is now evident. 

UPDATE 1220z:  187 stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 1433z: 207 stations have spotted my 2.5W 6m FT8 today with the furthermost EA8/DF4UE (2876km).

UPDATE  1656z:  303 stations have spotted me with the furthermost EA8RCP (3022km). See map for stations that have spotted my 6m 2.5W FT8 today.

UPDATE 1915z:  325 stations have spotted me today.