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| The chef |
Whilst on 8m, the 10m antenna is free, so I shall again go on with my W5OLF 500mW WSPR beacon. I expect this will be about 1015z.
UPDATE 1645z: QRT. Best DX today was a spot by FR1GZ (9724km).
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| 10m WSPR QRP spots of me today |
Later this morning I will be on 8m WSPR doing a test with G8JNJ. Brief tests last evening were unsuccessful, but I want to monitor the web SDR to see if I can see any sign of the signal.
UPDATE 1539z: No spots of my 8m 2.5W WSPR today on the WessexSDR. Checking on the WessexSDR there was no sign at all of my signal, I was expecting a tiny trace at least. The WessexSDR is picking up EI1KNH and G8JNJ.
See http://wessex.zapto.org:8060/#freq=40681500,mod=usb,secondary_mod=wspr,sql=-150
People come from miles around to look. They raise money for charity each year.
At this time of year, things are meant to be cheerful, but I have already had 2 pieces of sad news today. Everything always seems more poignant at this time of year. This seems to always happen. Usually I am quite pleased when Christmas and New Year are over and things get back to normality.
At the moment, I am on 10m WSPR TX (500mW) with the WSPR beacon. No spots yet.
UPDATE 1204z: Just EA8BFK (2880km) spotting me.
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| Stations spotting me today om 10m QRP WSPR |
Yet again, my 2.5W 8m FT8 to the dipole is on air. As usual, I am on 40.680 MHz.
UPDATE 1333z: No spots today.
UPDATE 1845z: Just G9PUV (158km) on the south coast of the UK spotted on 8m FT8 RX.
UPDATE 2053z: Just tried some 8m WSPR tests. Martin (G8JNJ) was monitoring on his web SDR, but sadly no spots.
In the last 40 years, activity on 2m has changed a great deal. When G8 stations were first permitted on 2m in the UK, the band was quite busy on FM and SSB.
Since then, people rarely come on just for a chat. These days people can chat, with video, to anyone in the world for free without a licence, on the Internet on a PC, tablet or smartphone. Instead, many people appear on the amateur bands just for contests or when conditions are good. There is a lot more use of digital modes like FT8 which needs very little spectrum. FT8 is ideal for squares hunting, but not for chatting.
If we are totally honest, we do not need the spectrum we have on 2m and 70cm most of the time. For FT8, 100 kHz would be more than enough. Even 3 kHz is enough most of the time. When there is a lift on, we may need more, but 2 MHz at 2m seems very generous. At 70cm, this is even more so, and here we have even more spectrum available to the Amateur Radio Service. Of course, this cannot be discussed with OFCOM or the FCC in case they reduce our allocations. I know the priority is to hang on to the allocations we have.
Personally, I would be in favour of more VHF/UHF bands, but slightly narrower, possibly with a lower power limit. This would encourage research and self training. Many bands could be secondary allocations. Would anyone really is miss 5 kHz off every VHF/UHF band? Be honest!
Without doubt I will be pushing up daisies long before then!
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/2m-operation .
Today is the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. After today things slowly get lighter for longer. It gets darker in the morning for a while. It is the end of January before things really become noticable.
As my 10m antenna is available, I am on 10m QRP WSPR with 500mW.
UPDATE 1524z: 8 unique stations have spotted me.
UPDATE 1804z: 9 unique stations have spotted me today.
At 1454z, my 2.5W 8m FT8 was turned on. Yet again, the antenna is just the low wire dipole. It is again on 40.680 MHz USB dial.
UPDATE 1508z: Already spotted by Phil EI9KP (649km).
UPDATE 2150z: In the end just the spot by EI9KP. Now QRT.
UPDATE 2155z: I am unsure how to proceed with experiments on 8m. I am prepared to spend £50 for an extension of my T&I permit, but object to having to pay for this. In my view, this should be a tiny amateur band available in the UK by NoV. It would be really helpful to know just why OFCOM and the FCC are quite so anti this. It is not that they are neutral. They seem to be dead against this. Personally, I think it is the military and the Official Secrets Act (or equivalent in the USA) that is preventing us being told the full truth. People are scared of prosecution. If we were just told, "yes the military is blocking all applications" that alone would clear up this apparently stupid situation. This year's tests have already shown that with Es and F2, great distances may be covered with just 2.5W and a low wire dipole. There is no doubt that a higher ERP certainly improves chances.
Last week, it was unusually cold. We had snow on the ground for a week. These days, this is almost unheard of.
Nighttime temperatures were very low indeed and some parts of the UK remained below freezing all day. Last night the thaw came and there is no snow at all left. It just went.
Temperatures today are much milder. Probably it is 10-20 degrees Celsius milder. It is wet and windy. I prefer the sun and snow, but not the temperatures that go with it!
At the moment I am RX only on 10m FT8, 178 stations (at 1205z) so far spotted.
Initially I was getting very few spots until I realised the coax plug was shorted. Now corrected, the SWR is again very low. This could account why yesterday there were so few reports of my 500mW WSPR TX.
Like the heating which failed due to the very cold weather last week (thankfully now fine) you don't realise how important things are until you can not have them.
As my 8m coax has been mended, I am again on 8m QRP FT8 with 2.5W on 40.680 MHz.
UPDATE 2110z: No spots. Now QRT.
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| Sunrise this morning |
Today I have again been on 10m WSPR TX with 500mW from my little W5OLF beacon. Surprisingly just a single spot from YO3BN (2083km). Odd, I usually see many more with the USA coming through by early afternoon,
Much of the morning I was on 2m QRP FT8, 7 stations spotted my 2.5W to the big-wheel omni antenna and I spotted 35 stations on RX (see maps).
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| Stations spotted on 2m FT8 RX this morning |
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| Stations spotting my 2.5W FT8 on 2m this morning |
This was one of the reasons I did not get around to fixing my 8m antenna/coax issue today. Maybe tomorrow?
For some time now, there has been speculation about just why the FCC and OFCOM are so much against even a small amateur allocation at 8m. It is not as if they are neutral. The clear impression is they are dead against this.
One possibility is that the military are doing their best to keep the "riffraff" out.
Even recent experimental licences in the USA have been turned down. It is almost as if the real reason for refusals is being hidden.
One possibility is that officials in OFCOM and the FCC have signed the Official Secrets Act or it equivalent and cannot reveal the full truth without fearing prosecution.
Logically, a tiny 8m band could help research. I am convinced we are not being told the whole truth. I suspect the 40.66-40.70 MHz ISM band is a real embarrassment.
I wonder if OFCOM will renew my 8m permit?
In my emails today was the Elecraft Newsletter.
One of the articles was about "extreme QRP". This looks interesting I thought, only find out it was about 1W. To my mind extreme QRP is microwatts, not watts. I would have been more impressed if this person had got spots with 100uW rather than 1W!!
From my own tests years ago, well below 1W can get spots.
I know of at least one person who has been spotted across the planet with 20mW on 30m.
Most of the day I have been on 2m QRP FT8.
UPDATE 1741z: As PSKreporter seems not to be working at the moment, I am not sure where I have been spotted today.
Solar flux is 163 and the SSN 0 (I suspect this is an error, although it still shows 0 at 1939z). A=6 and K=0.
For some reason, I am now seeing a very high SWR on 8m. I think it is the coax plug to the rig. I have a way of checking this that I shall try tomorrow. If this is successful, and the problem is fixed, I intend to do more QRP FT8 tests at 2.5W and the low dipole.
My 10mW ERP WSPR tests have now (successfully) concluded. 10mW ERP can definitely cover the local area (to at least 17km) on WSPR even with antennas that are not 8m antennas at the RX end. With proper 8m antennas at the RX, who knows what the range would be?
