Sunspot number and 10m conditions - Sunday Nov 30th

Sunspot number today is 156 and 10m daytime conditions are expected to be "good" again.  As yet, my 10m 500mW WSPR has not been spotted at very great distance although the 10m band opened to the USA earlier than yesterday.

GQRP Club and SPRAT

I have many times said that if all radio magazines had to go, then GQRP Club's SPRAT would be the very last to go. This quarterly magazine is low in cost, very high in simple projects to build and the back page always has GQRP Club sales items.

Of ALL the magazines I see, SPRAT is without doubt the best. Back numbers of this excellent magazine are available on a DVD.

This is a little (sized) magazine but it is excellent value. The best in fact.

Last stateside 10m WSPR spots today

W3CSW (5886km) was the last USA station to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR this evening at 1802z. The last 10m WSPR USA station I copied was also W3CSW at 1808z. He was using 10dB more than I was! It seems that 500mW is quite enough usually if the band is open.

G0LRD (25km) - his 50mW is being consistently copied here.
G4IKZ (18km) - is copying me consistently all evening.

10m WSPR - stateside today

W3CSW (5886km) was the first stateside 10m WSPR station spotted here today at 1230z. My 500mW was first spotted in the USA also by W3CSW at 1246z. Yet again, the USA and Canada are coming through pretty well on 10m WSPR.

Special prefix for Cornwall?

I need some clarification. OFCOM are suggesting the use of GK and similar prefixes for Cornwall a county in south west England. The K stands for Kernow the ancient name for Cornwall. Is this actually happening?

Sunspots

Sunspot number is 166 and 10m propagation is again forecast to be "good".

UPDATE 1632z:   Although, yet again. the 10m band was open to the USA and Canada, my 500mW has not (yet) been copied in South America or further afield today.

10m overnight

Overnight on 10m WSPR just local spots with DX spots only starting after 0730z with spots of Russian stations over 5100km from NO square. More recently, LZ1OI is now spotting my 500mW.

Last stateside reports on 10m WSPR

My 500mW 10m signal was last spotted by KJ4SPG (6328km) KB9AMG (6300km) and KD6RF (7547km) at 1744z. I was spotting USA stations over one hour after this. G0LRD (25km) running just 50mW has been a weak, but consistent, signal since the band closed for DX. G4IKZ (18km) has been spotting me consistently in recent minutes.

Stroke update

In the last few weeks, I seem to have made little progress. I still find many liquids hard to drink, I still get giddy when walking and most physical activities exhaust me, although on many days my level of stamina may be a little better. I do so want to be back to my old self again.

Soldering and experiments out in the field are still off the agenda for now as I am too clumsy.

Nevada bargain on 10m Multi-mode radios

See http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/transceivers/mobile-transceivers/alinco-dr-135dx-uk .

Nevada is selling Alinco multi-mode 28-29.7MHz radios on special deal at £99.95. For "export only" they can be expanded to also cover CB frequencies. Such expansion is not legal in the UK. At less than £100, this is a very good price for a 10m multi-mode rig.

I admit I "lifted" the original image from the Nevada website. As it was Javascript, I was unable to link, as I had wished, to the original images. If using this image on this blog is a problem, it will be immediately removed, although I hope Nevada see this as free publicity.

CX2ABP on 10m WSPR

Although I have copied CX2ABP (11127km)very many times here today, he has not managed (well yet) to copy my 500mW. In the log are lots of reports from across the USA but no-one further has spotted me today. Time is running out, although I suppose someone in South America might copy me yet? North America is likely to close quite soon now on 10m.

500mW on 10m WSPR

Today I am again on 10m WSPR running 500mW on TX. Currently I am using the FT817 at 20% TX, 80% RX so that I am looking for others far more than TXing. I am assuming the propagation is F layer although some of the spots e.g. Italy, seem too close, so these could be F-layer backscatter or even Es? I am still hoping to be spotted well outside of Europe.

Sunspots - Friday Nov 28th 2014

Sunspot number has dropped back a little to 155, but 10m conditions remain "good". Already this morning, my 500mW WSPR has been copied widely across Europe.

500mW on 10m. Going QRT shortly.

For a lot of today I have been on 10m WSPR with the FT817 on TX at 20% TX time and on RX for the remainder of time. With the WSPR-AXE beacon, I am on TX for 100% of the time, but the frequency randomly moves around over 100Hz of the 200Hz wide WSPR allocation to minimise the chance of being clobbered by other higher powered stations.

I shall be going QRT very shortly on 10m, but will be on 10m WSPR again in the morning. For several hours now I have only been copied by local G4IKZ and have copied no stations at all.

UPDATE 2305z:  Now gone QRT.  There was a weak station that did not decode copyable just before I closed. There was no Doppler, suggesting this might have been a non-G station, but I shall never know.

Solar data and 60m

As we move off the peak of sunspot cycle 24, it is useful to look at how things are progressing. It will be a few years still before conditions really hit rock bottom, but the progression to a solar minimum is usually faster than the climb from the minimum up to the next maximum.

I have not checked the very recent opinions of experts, but they were predicting that solar cycle 25 would be a dismal affair. This is one reason why a world-wide contiguous 60m band would be so useful. It would be a mix of 80m and 40m propagation - VERY useful in the quieter years to come.This will be discussed at WRC2015 late next year but we have no idea what the outcome will be. Even if allocated to the Amateur Service, it could be several years before it is made available to us. So, even if allocated, it could be 2018 or 2019 before we could use this new contiguous allocation. Of course, we may never get it at all!

In the meantime see http://www.solen.info/solar/ for solar data.

Last USA stations on 10m WSPR

The last spot of my 500mW WSPR signal was by N1FF (5327km) at 1754z. I was spotting KZ8C (6290km) at 1902z. No stateside since then.  Presumably the band has closed in that direction now.  Since then, just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me.

Costa Rica on 10m WSPR (500mW)

500mW was enough to exchange WSPR spots with TI3/AB4AW (8752km) in Costa Rica earlier this afternoon on 10m WSPR.  Much further has been achieved, but this is very satisfying as spots were exchanged both ways.

Rapidly rising sunspots

Today's sunspot number is 170, way up on even yesterday.  10m propagation is "good". Long distance F2 propagation is certainly confirming very good 10m conditions.

Enjoy these excellent times on 10m as things will be getting much tougher in the quieter years ahead.

500mW 10m - 16 spots off just a single transmit burst

My 1406z 10m WSPR transmission with 500mW resulted in 16 reports!  These came from the USA, all over Europe and the Canary Is off W.Africa. 500mW seems plenty. Earlier today, VK5MR (16144km) was again copying my 500mW on 10m WSPR.

Hendricks QRP Kits BitX20A

See http://www.qrpkits.com/bitx20a.html .

If I was looking for a simple, reliable QRP SSB rig for HF use in the coming years then the Hendricks QRP Kits version of Ashlan Farhan's BitX transceiver for 20m would be in the frame. They also do a version for 17m, but there is more chance of QSOs on 20m.  The rig has a useful 5W pep output and looks straightforward to build for most people. The Ashlan Farhan design is well proven. Going from 100W down to 5W is only just over a couple of S-points. 5W will get you plenty of QSOs on 20m SSB. 5W is fun.

A 10m version would be fun, but sadly is not available, but likely to be less useful in the years to come, apart from summertime Es. A 10m design would need better MOSFET PA devices anyway I think.

Last North American on 10m WSPR today

K9AN (6505km) was the last USA station to spot my 500mW WSPR beacon at 1724z today. Since then, just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me.

South America

I see CX2ABP (11127km) was spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon this afternoon. I will have to check my records to see if this is the first time he has copied the WSPR-AXE beacon. I know I've already been copied in South America by a station in southern Brazil.

Climbing sunspots

Sunspot number has climbed back to 120 and 10m propagation is again expected to be "good". So far, what looks like single hop F2 stations (or maybe back-scatter?) spotting my 500mW WSPR-AXE beacon (EA8, OH, LZ, CT and UR). No exceptionally long DX reports on 10m as yet here, but these are quite likely.

At the moment I am QRV on 10m WSPR TX (500mW) only and monitoring dT (timing errors) by receiving locally on the FT817 tuned to 10m WSPR.  So far, dT errors are a maximum of 1.2 seconds.

QRT on 630m and 10m WSPR

This evening and overnight I decided not to go on WSPR at all.  Both my 10m WSPR-AXE beacon (500mW) and my 630m (472kHz - 5mW ERP) WSPR stations have been turned off and antennas disconnected. 

I shall probably resume on 10m WSPR in the morning after breakfast.

50MHz UKAC contest - Nov 25th TONIGHT

Even though my voice is still very bad I may try for a few points in the 50MHz UKAC contest 2000-2230z tonight. The only 50MHz antenna I have is my V2000 vertical, so I am unlikely to work much.  I'll probably not be on for too long.

Just 2 stations worked in 50MHz UKAC this evening with 5W to vertical V2000

UPDATE 2122z:   I was on for about 50 minutes and had to stop as my voice was suffering badly.   Being crossed polarised with most stations did not help. I managed just 2 QSOs with 5W to the V2000 vertical with best DX being G3WIR/A at 116km. With, for example. a 6m halo, horizontally polarised antenna, I'd probably have worked many more stations than I did. Still, it was worth a go.

My brain

I am still puzzled by my brain functioning.

Most mental functions seem fine, but when I do an email or blog post I seem slow to spot errors like spelling mistakes or missing full stops. Usually, I try to correct errors before sending, but looking back I still spot mistakes that I've missed. It is as if my brain needs far more time to actually see the mistake. This must be yet another stroke related thing. Driving seems absolutely fine: I am not giddy and I feel in good control.

If you see blog errors please tell me. I want to correct the errors and know when my brain is not doing its job right.

Last 10m USA spot tonight

K3ZV (5692km) was the last to spot my 500mW 10m WSPR-AXE beacon tonight at a very early 1650z. Since then just local G4IKZ (18km) copying me.

Spark transmitters and modern simple rigs

In the early days of wireless, spark transmitters were all they had. Selectivity and bandwidths were not major concerns.  These days it is all so different with sometimes very crowded bands and the bandwidth of both transmitter and receiver being of major importance.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter for some interesting reading. I recommend you do not try a spark transmitter as you would be very unpopular because of the wide signal and interference caused.   By all means read about them though.

A modern challenge is to see just how simple rigs can be made yet still function credibly on the amateur bands today.  Rigs like the Pixie are fun, but such ultra-simple transceivers are let down by deaf or easily overloaded receivers. To my mind, the receivers have to be selective, sensitive, have netting, and not be easily overloaded. The challenge is to overcome these issues! Often TX power is not the deal breaker.

UPDATE 1740z:  W5OLF has just shown me a photo of his tiny 1 inch ferrite rod antenna on which he has had some success with on 10m WSPR.  I tried some WSPR experiments with ferrite antennas some years ago on 40m, 30m and 20m. As long as the ferrite does not saturate they do work. See www.g3xbm.co.uk .

Sunspots and 10m conditions - Nov 25th 2014

The sunspot number has climbed to 111 today and 10m daytime conditions are again "good". I missed out on 10m this morning until about 1412z, when the band was wide open to the USA, yet again.

472kHz receive here last evening

I receive 472kHz via my transverter but on RX it is totally passive i.e. I receive directly on 472kHz on the FT817 through a series tuned circuit at 472kHz.  Last night, mid evening, 472kHz WSPR was quite busy (see below):

If anything, the FT817 is marginally deaf on 472kHz. This does not seem to be issue though as I seem to hear most of what's going. The "antenna" for the above was the short baseline earth-electrodes: one end is grounded in the flower bed with a 1m long earth rod, about 15m away, whilst in the shack the other connection is to the mains earth. The link back from the far electrode to the shack is 32 x 0.2mm PVC covered wire at a height of about 2m. I am lucky that my RX noise floor is low at this QTH.

On TX last night I was copied by 8 different stations with best DX last night G8HUH (250km). Best DX on the earth-electrode system (on TX with 5mW ERP) is DL-SWL (701km).

10m WSPR-AXE summary

 Just some of the 91 unique spots on 10m WSPR in the last 2 weeks.

My little W5OLF designed "all on one tiny PCB" 500mW 10m WSPR beacon has been spotted by 91 different stations in every continent in the last 2 weeks.

This is the probably the smallest 10m WSPR beacon possible (it fits in a tiny Altoids mint tin), need no PC, and it works remarkably well. It "fits the bill" perfectly on 10m WSPR beaconing for me.

Perhaps I should improve my 10m antenna, but having reached every continent I probably will stick with the 3-band antenna as it gives me so much flexibility. The PAR tri-band antenna covers 10m, 20m and 40m without an ATU.

10m stateside

The first spot in North America of my little 500mW WSPR beacon was by W3CSW (5886km) at 1206z today. My report was -14dB S/N suggesting 10dB weaker (or even less) would still have been enough. Since then, several USA stations have spotted me. I have lost count now of the weeks and weeks the 10m band has opened to the USA and Canada after lunch.

In years to come, we'll look back on these days with envy! In the quieter years it can be a very long time indeed between good E-W openings. At such times multi-hop summertime Es can be the best/only chance of getting to the USA.

UPDATE 1824z:   The last USA 10m WSPR spot today was at 1716z by K9AN (6505km).

472kHz WSPR this morning

As I can now use the FT817 with PC totally separate from my WSPR-AXE beacon for 10m (this needs no PC or separate rig), this morning I continued use of the FT817 on 472kHz WSPR.

G8VDQ (93km) is still being spotted and locals G0LRD and G4KPX are still spotting me. I need to check clock sync.

10m WSPR this morning so far

Using the 500mW WSPR-AXE beacon on 10m, it has just been Europeans spotting me so far. Spots have been from France, Norway, UK and Ukraine. I expect the 10m band will open to the USA for me shortly. The USA is already open for some Europeans.

UPDATE 1216z:   Still no stateside 10m spots as yet.

Bang good portables

There is some confusion over these radios. Although some are limited in the number of channels and some may come pre-programmed, for example, for the  European licence free 446MHz band, several models (such as the ones shown yesterday) say they can be re-programmed in the 400-470MHz range. If so, they would make very low cost 70cms portables.

 On the Bang good website there are even lower cost units for the USA market.

Sunspots - Nov 24th 2014

The sunspot number has slipped a little lower to 66 but 10m daytime conditions remain "good". Some F2 propagation should be expected.

Unbelievable prices!

See http://www.banggood.com/T-688-0_5W-UHF-Auto-Channels-Mini-Radios-Walkie-Talkie-Pair-Black-p-920432.html .

I cannot believe these prices. £13.91 for a pair covering 400-470MHz, 500mW, with free shipping to the UK. That is under £7 each for a 70cm transceiver from Bang good.  Just how do they make any profit? Buy 3 sets and it is even cheaper.  Quite remarkable!

The link says T688 but the photo T668. Not sure which is the correct number but the link works.

The rigs run from 3 x AAA batteries (each) and the price does not include a charger.

ARRL propagation forecasts

For those of you who subscribe to the ARRL (not everyone does and I have no plans to renew my subs next year),  the weekly propagation forecasts make interesting reading.  Even more interesting are the archived old forecasts, so we can see just how good conditions are compared, for example, with the same time in 2007.  As I mentioned before, if you are not an ARRL member you will not be able to follow the link, I believe.

ARRL members see http://www.arrlrg/w1aw-bulletins-archive/ARLP054/2007 .

Why am I not renewing my digital subscription with ARRL? 
Earlier in the year I could not use my password and it took a week to sort it out. The online help was no help at all. It took several emails before anyone actually helped me. Most of QST seems to be ads similar to those in UK magazines. I cannot see the value in continuing ARRL membership. In summary, the ARRL seemed a pretty useless organisation. I was NOT impressed.

GQRP Club membership is much better value in my view.

472kHz WSPR - 5mW ERP

As well as TX beaconing on 10m, I have again been on MF (472kHz) but so far no great DX either spotting me or being spotted here using the short baseline earth-electrode "antenna".   Best DX, so far, in daylight, is PA3ABK/2 (306km) being copied here. Things may be better later?

Unique WSPR spots with the earth-electrode "antenna" and 5mW ERP on 472kHz 

UPDATE 1642z:   G3WCB (101km) is now spotting me (1618z) at -22dB S/N. Darkness has just fallen here.  It is a miserable day with lots of rain.

UPDATE 1720z:   DK7FC (669km) is now being spotted here.

UPDATE 1758z:   Several 472kHz DX stations now being spotted including LA3EQ (769km) and F1AFJ (607km).

10m spots of the WSPR-AXE 500mW beacon so far today

The tiny little W5OLF designed WSPR-AXE beacon continues to do a great job with lots of spots again today. Although things were a little slow towards the USA and Canada earlier, there are plenty of stations over there spotting me now. This is a list of the unique 10m spotters so far (to 1600z).  In most cases, stations have reported me multiple times.

Unique 10m WSPR spots with WSPR-AXE 500mW beacon so far today.

UPDATE 2022z:  The last USA station to spot me was AB4QS at 1736z.