Es on 10m JT65 again today

Yet again, there was Es in evidence on 10m JT65. I was spotted twice in Poland with best DX being HF9D (1305km) and I spotted several others around Europe.

Another windmill view - NOT amateur radio

Last week I posted a view of "our" windmill in a posting called "winter sun". On Christmas Day we went for a brief walk around the village and saw the windmill from a different direction over the allotment gardens. We had much better weather than we expected.

No solar forecasts yet

As my feed is still showing yesterday's data I have not yet been able to update the solar data yet. This will be done as soon as it becomes available.

UPDATE 1858z:  My source is still showing the data for yesterday, so I am unlikely to post the solar data for today now.

10m JT65

Although I stayed on 10m JT65 overnight, there have been no new spots since G4CJC in north London yesterday. I am still hopeful of some winter Es and possibly some N-S F2 propagation to southern Africa. We had this in recent days when there were no sunspots and conditions were not too brilliant on 10m JT65.

Really I should QSY to MF at night as this tends to be more successful, despite my poor "antenna" and low ERP (5mW) on 472kHz.

Pink auroras

Thanks (again) to Southgate News comes news of pink auroras. There were 3 days now without sunspots although today the sunspot number is 13.

See http://spaceweather.com/ .

Silly Games Season - NOT amateur radio

Christmas time and silly games times!

Here we are playing "Pie Face" with Lis (my XYL) getting cream all over her nose thanks to our grandchildren! This is in the kitchen, although the rest of our house looks like a disaster area. As my wife says, "clean mess".

UKAC 2016 70cm results

Overall in 2016 I came 121st out of 184 in the AL section of the 70cm part of the Tuesday evening UKAC sessions.

Considering I run 5W to a 2m halo fed with lossy coax and I am on for usually well under 1 hour because of my poor voice, I think this is fine.

Sunspots and 10m - Tuesday December 27th 2016

Solar flux is 73 today and sunspot number 13. A=22 and K=2. We might see some N-S propagation on 10m?

10m JT65

Last night, I remained on 10m JT65 overnight, but just G4CJC (73km) in north London spotted. No Es or F layer DX so far today.

Christmas TV - NOT amateur radio

From the BBC website, Christmas TV viewing figures. I am not a royalist at heart but cannot think of a president who would do as well as our current queen. At 90 years old she does a remarkable job. Her husband Philip is 95! Charles will have a hard act to follow.

1. The Queen at 3pm - BBC One and ITV - 7.7m
2. Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special - BBC One - 7.2m
3. The Great Christmas Bake Off - BBC One - 6.3m
4. Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special - BBC One - 6.1m
5. Call The Midwife - BBC One - 6.1m
6. EastEnders - BBC One - 5.9m
7. Coronation Street - ITV - 5.8m (not including ITV +1)
8. Doctor Who - BBC One - 5.7m
9. Frozen - BBC One - 4.7m
10. Emmerdale - ITV - 4.2m

An end to hatred? - NOT amateur radio

See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brendan-cox-alternative-christmas-message-a7495491.html .

Jo Cox the MP was murdered earlier this year. This is an alternative Christmas message by her husband.

Forward Error Correction for the Mathematically Challenged

This is worth looking at if, like me, you never found maths that easy. It is an article by Paul Nicholson on FEC, written so we can understand!

Paul is famous for his DX reception of amateur VLF and ULF signals. I am not sure if he is involved in VLF professionally. He certainly knows his stuff.

See http://abelian.org/fec/pn161218.pdf .

Visit - NOT amateur radio

XYL

Later today our son who lives in Kent is coming to stay with his wife and 2 young children. They prefer to be at home to unwrap their presents.

Here, on Christmas Day, we had much better weather than the forecast led us to expect. In the afternoon we even managed a short walk in the village. On the walk we had a blue cloudless sky.  Here is my XYL standing by a hedge filled with red berries.

Sunspots and 10m - Monday December 26th 2016 (Boxing Day in the UK)

Solar flux is 72 today and the sunspot number zero again. A=21 and K=3. Luckily 10m Es does not depend on these factors.

10m JT65

For about an hour now I QSYed from MF WSPR to 10m JT65, really hoping to catch some winter Es on the band.

UPDATE 1124z: There is definitely Es about. I have copied stations in Slovakia and Poland and I was spotted by OE3BUB (1228km) in Austria and it is still early.

UPDATE 1154z: Now being spotted in Poland on 10m JT65 and spotting Sweden.

UPDATE 1416z: Widespread Es on 10m JT65.

Courtesy: https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html

UPDATE 2056z:  Es was good on 10m JT65 today as the map below shows. This was a good example of wintertime Es in the northern hemisphere. The map shows who was spotting me and who I was spotting.

Courtesy: https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html

Overnight on 472kHz WSPR

Overnight, there were 9 unique spots of my 5mW ERP signal on 472kHz WSPR with best DX again DL-SWL(701km). 4 Dutch stations in the list.

Moved to 630m WSPR

Early evening spots on 472kHz WSPR

At about 1916z I went QRT on 10m JT65 (2W) and started up on 472kHz (630m) WSPR (5mW ERP). With the shack PC I get lots of noise on the band when using the external SMPSU so only the strongest signals are copied on RX. I shall have to run on batteries if I want to copy weaker signals, or swap PCs over if the other PC has a less noisy PSU.

Merry Christmas from Oleg - QRP and QRP Club

From Oleg:

Merry Christmas and the best wishes for all QRPers!

WQR Report (December 25, 2016)
Visitors  of  the  week:  UA1ADF,  UR7VT, RA1M, IK2RMZ, F5POJ, RV3GM,
OK2BMA,  RW3AA,  US3EN,  R1OA,  OH6NPV,  DK1HW,  LZ2RS, RX1AG, R1CAF,
UA1CEG,  US7IB, UA0SBQ, UA2FAI, OM6TC, G3XJS, OK1VLP, IT9IFI, IT9QAU,
UA4NU, UR0ET, OK1DNZ, SV2BBK, UW5EKR, DL8DXL
CONGRATS!
LZ2RS and O1DNZ became Honor Frequenters
Comments...
See full version of the report on the blog page -http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/

72! Oleg RV3GM / KH6OB "Mr. 72"


This is a periodic Newsletter of the Club 72. Don't reply to Newsletter address! Send any requests or news to mr72@club72.su please.

Back on 10m JT65 after a night on 630m WSPR

Last night I was on 472kHz (630m) WSPR. DL-SWL (701km) was again the best TX DX (5mW ERP). No new reports or reporters sadly.

For the last 30 minutes or so I  have been on 10m JT65, but no spots as yet.

UPDATE 1252z: F1GTU (754km) spotted earlier on 10m JT65. Es?

UPDATE 1738z: LA7DFA (1312km) spotted me on 10m JT65 about 22 minutes ago. G4CJC (73km) in North London has been spotted here.

Sunspots and 10m - Sunday December 25th 2016 (Christmas Day)

Solar flux is 73 again today. Sunspot number is zero.  A=14 and K=2.

Stroke update - NOT amateur radio

Over 3 years on now, and I am still affected by my stroke.

My main issues remain my poor voice, drinks, and giddiness/tiredness when on my feet. Overall, I am frustrated, although I know the sooner I come to terms with the new "me" the better. I feel unable to do the things that once would have been so easy. Compared with many I came off lightly. Outwardly, I look fully recovered, which is probably why I feel so frustrated. If there are now any improvements, they are painfully slow.

Nobody, and I really mean nobody, really understands: doctors and others think they understand, but they do not. For years now I have been living a sort of half-life.

Happy Christmas

May I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2017?  I try to write about what I have done and what interests me and hope you are able to find something of interest here or on my webpages at www.g3xbm.co.uk .

Most days the blog gets updated, unless I am away or too unwell.

For some, Christmas can be a stressful time. Whilst most are happy and with friends, some are lonely and feel unloved. If you feel this way, please accept my love - that sounds naff, but you know what I mean.

Return to MF

At around 1735z I went QRT on 10m JT65 and moved to 472kHz (630m) WSPR (5mW ERP).  Plenty of spots with best DX on TX being G4FTC (123km) in IO91 square.

From the drift reports, I am still settling. This is the crystal in the transverter warming up.

As last season, I am using my own transverter design to my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. This design was in QST in September 2016. Although the transverter puts out 10-15W, the earth-electrode "antenna" is not too efficient and the measured ERP is only 5mW.

Nebula picture - NOT amateur radio

This image of the Christmas Tree Cluster (2500 light years away) was on the Twitter feed from @marsrader. Although I have a Twitter account I rarely use it, but get sent an email about postings most days.

Eating Dahlias - NOT amateur radio

My wife is reading a Winston Graham book that mentioned eating dahlia roots as an alternative to potatoes. So, as you do, I googled "eating dahlias". It turns out that these were originally from Mexico and were, at one time, a low cost alternative to potatoes.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/0/22185875

Elector free of 3 months

The electronic edition (plus 1 paper copy) will be available free for a few months. The offer runs out shortly.  See https://www.elektormagazine.com/pages/newsletter . I cannot see the catch. Maybe they assume if you like the free ones you will sign up when the free ones end?

If my memory serves me correctly, this started as a Dutch mag that went international in the late 1960s or early 1970s?

MLS discount for Christmas

One of the largest UK amateur radio retailers, MLS, is offering a £15 discount this Christmas for orders over £150. I suspect that orders are "thin" at this time of the year and this is to encourage us to spend. You cannot blame them.

Eire and 5MHz

Thanks to Southgate News I have learnt that radio amateurs in Eire are gaining access to the WRC15 5MHz allocation right away.

See http://ei7gl.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/irish-radio-amateurs-gain-secondary.html

"ComReg has just today published an amended version of the Amateur Station Guidelines in Document ComReg 09/45R2. The main revision is that the WRC-15 band of 5351.5 to 5366.5 kHz has been released with immediate effect on a secondary basis. No application or fee is necessary for this segment. The power is 15 watts PEP (12dBW) measured at the output of the transmitter or amplifier. All modes including digimodes may be used. The WRC-15 decision was for 15 watts EIRP and this will be taken up with ComReg. The Society recommends that USB be used for voice as has been the convention on this band and as used by the primary user and that the provisional IARU band plan be used: 5351.5 - 5354.0 kHz CW, Narrow band Modes
5354.0 - 5366.0 kHz All modes USB for voice
5366.0 - 5366.5 kHz weak signal narrow band modes."

I have said many times that the 5MHz (60m) band will become increasingly important as the solar activity declines.

Well, THAT was a surprise - 10m DX

V53DX (8471km) in Namibia (JG87 square) has been spotted here on 10m JT65. This was a total surprise!

G0CHE (IO90) replied to his CQ, although my spot of him was not uploaded to PSK reporter.

UPDATE 1402z:  No other 10m JT65 spots since.

UPDATE 1534z: Still no further 10m JT65 spots. I guess any South Americans will come through in the next few hours, if at all.

UPDATE 1725z: No further 10m DX. Time to QSY to 630m.

Sunspots and 10m - Saturday December 24th 2016 (Christmas Eve)

Solar flux is 73 today and the sunspot number zero. A=24 and K=3. If we get any 10m DX today I shall be pleasantly surprised.

Keep an eye/ear out for winter Es though. In the UK this could be Europeans on 10m. It happens most years. With JT65 we have no excuse.

Back on 472kHz (630m) WSPR

Since about 1714z I have returned to 472kHz WSPR. Best TX DX (5mW ERP) is G8HUH (250km).

WSJT-X v1.7

One thing to be aware of with WSJT v1.7 is the TX watchdog timer. I was on 10m JT65 and was wondering why the "TX enable" kept going off. Then the penny dropped. There is a TX watchdog  timer which by default is set to a number of minutes. If beaconing, this has to be set to "never" so the TX continues. Since adjusting this, I have had no further problems on JT65.

Bridge at Anglesey Abbey - NOT amateur radio

Everything looks wintery at this time of year. It is little wonder that Christmas, and before that a pagan festival, is held close to the winter solstice.

Another month and new growth starts to appear clearly. By mid January there should be some snowdrops and daffodils. Dark nights, short days - roll on spring!

Sunspots and 10m - Friday December 23rd 2016

Solar flux is 74 today. Sunspot number is 12.  A=24 and K=4.

10m JT65

We should soon see the small winter peak in Es bringing more Europeans in on 10m JT65. I returned to 10m after breakfast using WSJT-X v1.7 after an evening and overnight on MF (630m). On MF the best TX DX was again DL-SWL (701km).

As yet, no 10m spots.

Winter Trees - NOT amateur radio

Anglesey Abbey, near Cambridge yesterday. There were a few daffodils out at the end of November last year but none this year. Just one patch of snowdrops so far. Another month and things will really be happening.

472kHz (630m) WSPR

For the last few hours I have been on 472kHz (630m) WSPR (5mW ERP) using WSJT-X v1.7. I expect to remain on MF overnight. Best DX is again DL-SWL (701km) but this may be bettered during the night. There was a new reporter G4ETG (44km).

Burwell Museum - NOT amateur radio

See https://www.facebook.com/burwellmuseum/

May I suggest ALL locals visit in 2017? It is probably the biggest and best local museum, certainly in the area and probably in the whole of the UK.  A real gem with so much to see and do. When they can't go, our little grandchildren cry!

Return to 10m JT65 (with WSJT-X v1.7)

My shack PC did a Windows update and WSJT v1.7 installed perfectly without me needing to manually install any missing files. I suspect my earlier issue may have been due to the Windows update.

Anyway, I am now back on 10m JT65, but as yet no spots.

Winter Sun - NOT amateur radio

We live next door to a windmill. Here it is bathed in winter sunshine.