6m 5W FT8 (Sunday)

Late Sunday, I went on 6m FT8 with 5W to the V2000 vertical omni antennas. 5 English stations spotted me. Now QRT.

My favourite band - 10m

Over many years, I have had most fun on 10m. Initially, I was on SSB, AM and FM on that band with a low wire dipole. Of course, on 10m antennas are small and CB antennas usually work.

These days, because of my poor voice following my 2013 stroke, I use digital modes like FT8 and WSPR mostly.

DXCC was worked on 10m QRP SSB with a simple wire dipole over 40 years ago, so DX chasing is no longer important. I am more interested to see where my QRP is reaching. That's one of the joys of our hobby: there are so many different ways to enjoy it.

Before my stroke I enjoyed experimenting. I still do, but restrict myself to what I can do at home that does not require soldering or fine motor skills!

A real experimenter

Thanks to DX Explorer, I was pointed to the website of LA6NCA who is a true experimenter. I had not visited his site before. It also looks like he has a good range of test gear. Certainly a site for inspiration.

See https://www.laud.no/la6nca/

DX Explorer website

Just now I was watching a video on this website. Then I realised it was derived from one of my designs!  I am flattered and hope he really has fun. He is eventually making a tiny PCB for it.

Ely cathedral from the meadow

 

This was last week on a lovely cold and sunny day.

8m FT8 RX (Sunday)

Today, I am on 8m FT8 RX, more in hope than expectation, using my end-fed long wire antenna. I have no idea of the polar plot on 8m, but it has been used to copy CT, EA and G on 8m FT8.

UPDATE 1455z:   No spots.

Time and consciousness

We think of time as absolute, but we experience time differently when we sleep deeply and indeed as we age.  It may be that our understanding of time is totally wrong.

5MHz operation

Some years ago I tried WSPR on this band. 

As I recall I used the coax up to my 2m big-wheel antenna and a mains ground. It worked and I got quite a few reports. The auto-ATU in the rig was used to match the random antenna.

Unfortunately, this part of the spectrum is controlled by the military in the UK. As a result, the UK has a fragmented set of allocations and has never adopted the WARC allocation. Although we are allowed more power and more spectrum, I personally would prefer a contiguous, if narrower, allocation at lower power.

To me, it is all too confusing. I suspect many do not use the band because they are confused by the allocations. There is a band plan on the RSGB site.

See https://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/hf/5mhz/ .

Sunspots - Sunday November 30th

 Solar flux is 160 and the SSN 74. A=20 and K=4.

2m ultra QRP FT8 (Saturday)

 Although at 3.2mW I can see my 2m FT8  signal at the grabber at G0LRD, at 26km I cannot see myself on PSKreporter. I shall increase my power until I am I decoded.

UPDATE 1815z:  Increased to 6.4mW. No decode.

UPDATE 1829z: Increased to 12mW. Decode appeared on PSKreporter (just).

UPDATE 1837z:  Increased to 25mW. Decoding, but not reliably. I think both G0LRD and I have big-wheel omni antennas.

UPDATE 1900z: Increased power to  35mW. No decodes this time.

UPDATE 1917z:  Increased power to  45mW. No decodes.The other variable is S/N at the RX.  What I am looking for is what level I need to get reliable and repeatable decodes.

UPDATE 1928z: Increased power to 55mW. It would appear that I am being defeated by local noise. No decodes.

UPDATE  1940z: Increased power to 60mW. No decodes.

UPDATE 1958z:   Increased power to 65mW. 2 people now spotting me.

UPDATE 2117z:  Increased power to 100mW. A surprise QSO with M0WDN at 100mW with a 15dB attenuator in the input of the RX!! The S/N at G0LRD seems to vary widely suggesting he was pointing a beam in a different direction. I have now gone QRT.