Sunspots- Tuesday September 10th

 Solar flux is 215 and the SSN 213. A=9 and K=3

472kHz transverter

 It will soon be time to go back to 472kHz. For some reason a myth has grown up that you need very big antennas and extensive ground systems. Also that high power helps! Nothing could be further from the truth.

I can only speak from personal experience. My transverter produces about 10W into 50 ohms and gave about 10mW ERP into my earth-electrode antenna in the ground. My earths are about 10m apart. It has been received on WSPR as far away as Finland and I got spotted in Norway most nights. It was in QST about 10 years ago. It is also described on my website.

Valletta- NOT amateur radio

 We visited the capital of Malta called Valletta. We had torrential rain ☔️ earlier but it was hot and sunny ☀️ whilst we were there. Home tomorrow where I gather it’s turned autumnal.

VLF converter

 Many people want to have a dabble at VLF reception and want to know what is down there but most receivers don’t go that low. Many years ago I designed and built this up converter so I could take a listen. Receiving commercial stations such as time signals and MSK signals is easy . Reception of AMATEUR VLF signals is highly unlikely to work as this usually needs very narrow bandwidth and precise frequency setting. Details of this upconverter and how to improve it are on my website.

Malta rain - NOT amateur radio

 

All week we’ve had hot sunshine ☀️ until today when we had heavy rain.

Sunspots - Monday September 9th

Solar  flux is 228 and the SSN 176. A=9 and K=2.

Marsaxlokk, Malta - NOT amateur radio

 Today we visited the fishing “village” of Marsaxlokk in SW Malta famous for its colourful fishing boats. It was not what I would call a village!

Over the horizon optical tests

 It’s many years since I last did these tests and I remember being amazed that on a cloudless night I could clearly receive my 481THz beacon way over the horizon without any signal visible. Had my stroke not got in the way, I am sure much much further would have been possible even with my simple QRP system. The receiver I used is attached. It was also in RadCom. It is also on my main webpages.

Typical on Malta - NOT amateur radio

 It’s probably fair to say the countryside on Malta 🇲🇹 is barren. In the hot summer months it looks dry and arid. This cactus 🌵 is typical of Malta.

Original 10m WISPY TX

One of my Facebook memories today was of the original breadboard version of my WISPY WSPR TX on 10m. The date was 2012. I think the PA originally had a 2N3866 which I later replaced with several 2N3904s in parallel which was far less expensive.