VY0ERC 10m WSPR beacon

John's blog has a very good piece about this QRP 10m WSPR beacon high up in the Arctic. As John points out, this is a very high latitude and within the auroral zone, which can badly affect FT8 and WSPR signals.

John's blog is always interesting.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/

Crimes against humanity? - NOT amateur radio

We know that what Hamas did on October 7th was horrific and that the people of Israel were severely shocked. 

However, in going after Hamas, Israel is treading a very dangerous path. I am unconvinced that a hospital (or many) and so many houses have to be totally destroyed or so many people left hungry and thirsty. 

The state of Israel is in great danger of losing the sympathy of the world and its leaders becoming afraid to travel abroad for fear of arrest on war crimes.

Meanwhile, 6 months on, Israeli hostages are still being held, or killed by Israeli bombing.

Even if Hamas was to completely disappear, is this a recipe for long-term peace? So much hatred has been created, surely Arab states are even more anti Israel.

Surely, the only way to lasting peace is talking.

Volta's battery

 

This dates from the very early 1800s. It may be the first battery ever made.

Faroe Islands - NOT amateur radio

 

This  photo was recently put on 365project by a friend in the Faroes. It looks very Icelandic.

Sunspots declining?

 Sometimes we see a second peak that can be higher than the first, but at the moment it looks like we are on the downward slopes of solar cycle 25. My favourite site for solar data has just been updated.

Conditions should still be good for several years yet.

Kings Lynn park - NOT amateur radio

 

We saw this on Saturday on our way back to the railway station.

6m QRP FT8 (Monday)

My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna has been spotted by 5 English stations at 0835z, although I have spotted none.

UPDATE 1509z:   5 stations spotted on RX with the best EI3ISB (452km) on the outskirts of Dublin. 11 UK stations have spotted me today. No signs of DX today.

UPDATE 1702z: Guess who spoke too soon!! A station in Norway has spotted my 2.5W QRP 6m FT8.

10m 500uW WSPR (April 1st)

My 500uW 10m WSPR is on, but no spots by 1410z. 

UPDATE 1707z:   Unexpected spots by EA8BFK (2880km). Conditions were good, but not exceptional. I was honestly expecting today to pass with no spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR. I must see if there is a correlation between solar conditions and being spotted by DX stations on 10m WSPR with exceptionally low power.  My guess (unfounded) would be that this is possible only when conditions are exceptionally stable, although today rather puzzles me. Sadly, I am not great at Excel! I can use it basically, but can't do clever things with it.

UPDATE 1852z: EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted me again!

UPDATE  1900z: I have created a spreadsheet to see if I can discern any patterns.

UPDATE 1935z:  This is the last week with 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR.   Although this is just a few days, it suggests my best chances are when A and K are low.

Sunspots - Monday April 1st

Solar flux is 134 and the SSN 50.  A=8 and K=2.

SSN 50? - not too promising?  I can remember day after day with SSN=0 and there was still plenty of N-S DX on 10m. With FT8 now, QSOs should be even easier. I worked LU with QRP SSB at the bottom of a solar cycle with just a low dipole. Never give up on the higher HF bands!

British Summer Time (BST) - NOT amateur radio

Last night the UK clocks went forward an hour. This means BST is an hour ahead of GMT. Quite often at this time I forget!

6m QRP FT8 (Sunday)

My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna was on until I QSYed to 630m WSPR.  Stations that spotted me were from across England. On RX, my best DX was a station in Germany.

Kings Lynn port - NOT amateur radio

As mentioned yesterday, Kings Lynn was one of the most important ports in England centuries ago when it was a Hanseatic League port.  

These days, it would appear to be mainly a few fishing boats.

8m dilemma

My TX permit runs out shortly, and I am undecided about a new one. 

From an experimental view point, I have already proved that 2.5W FT8 and a low dipole is enough to reach many parts of the planet when F2 is good. Just to experiment I have to pay £50 a year, which I find offensive and stupid. I blame OFCOM and the RSGB for this utter stupidity. There are many people who want to do genuine research at 8m!! Pay?? How daft when amateur radio is meant to be about self-training! 

My inclination is to operate on 40.680MHz WSPR under ISM regulations (10mW ERP and IR2030 compliance) which is totally free and open to all in the UK. This would be much harder, but radio science would benefit more. I suspect that much of Europe would be in range on the better days in the Es season. The main issue could be too few monitors. I suspect 10mW ERP 8m FT8 would be too low.

It would be good if others joined me by keeping to ISM rules (or similar) in your area of the world. In some countries I believe one can legally beacon below certain powers.  If enough people tried, the research would be more meaningful. Remember, operation under ISM rules is not amateur radio. Such use is essentially one way beaconing for propagation research.

It would be great to have a lot of QRPP 8m WSPR beacons operational.

Back to normal on 10m WSPR?

These last few days have resulted in some exceptional spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR. Spots from the Canaries have been most days and I have been spotted in the USA by several stations in the last few days. Today, there are no spots at all, which I suspect is the norm. Perhaps I should try 10mW, which I suspect would be enough quite often.

UPDATE 2016z:   3 spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) by EA8BFK (2880km) today. I spoke too soon!

630m QRP WSPR (Sunday)

Rather earlier than usual, I have QSYed to 630m WSPR with my 10mW ERP. So far today (at 1455z) my QRP has been spotted by just one station G4FQI (128km).

UPDATE 2025z:  4 stations have spotted me.

English Lake District - NOT amateur radio

This part of England is probably one of the most beautiful. It has rolling hills and mountains and beautiful lakes. This photo was taken recently by a friend.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

With just 8 stations spotting me, 630m appears to be going "off the boil". Best was Norway, so it does not look like poor conditions.

Sunspots - Sunday March 31st

Solar flux is 140 and the SSN 60. A=5 and K=2.

Kings Lynn - NOT amateur radio

We recently visited here. It was once a Hanseatic League port and one of the most important ports in England . Although much of the town is nondescript, there are some fine buildings near the river.

630m QRP WSPR (Saturday)

 For about the last 30 minutes, I have been on 630m WSPR with my 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. So far,  3 stations have spotted me.

6m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

Most of the day, my 2.5W 6m FT8 to the V2000 omni vertical antenna. 24 stations spotted including one in Denmark.

10m QRPP WSPR

All week I have been trying out (again) on 500uW 10m WSPR. Yet again, my 500uW 10m WSPR has been spotted in the USA again and I have lost count of the  number of spots by EA8BFK (2880km) in the Canary Is..

Sunspots - Saturday March 30th

 Solar flux is 167 and the sunspot number is 79. A=6 and K=1.

8m QRP FT8 (Friday)

My 2.5W and dipole have been on most of the day.  No spots of me although I did copy ZR1ADI (9777km) in Western Cape, South Africa.

500uW 10m WSPR (Friday)

Amazingly, EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted my extreme QRPP 6 times already!! I had to double check it really was 500uW (0.5mW). It definitely was!!

UPDATE 0917z:  11 spots already of my 500uW (0.5mW) by EA8BFK.  Amazing.

UPDATE 1630z:   27 spots of me today including 3 from the USA. Quite incredible for 500uW. Conditions must have been very good these last few days. The map (from WSPR Rocks by Phil VK7JJ) shows the 10m WSPR spots these last few days with 500uW (0.5mW).

UPDATE 2122z:   31 spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) today. I suspect conditions must have been exceptional.

Village cottage - NOT amateur radio

 

There is a mix of both old and new houses in our village.

Dramatic clouds- NOT amateur radio

As the rain came in earlier in the week, we were treated to some spectacular clouds in our close as the photo shows.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

Overnight my 10mW ERP 630m WSPR was spotted by 14 stations. Best DX spots were from Norway.

Sunspots- Friday March 29th

 Solar flux is 173 and the SSN 101. A=7 and K=1.

SPRAT article

It was very pleasing to see my short article about the use of the ISM bands for QRPP beaconing in the latest SPRAT. 

In the UK this means 10mW ERP on the HiFer and 8m ISM bands under IR2030 interface regulations.  No callsign is mandated and this is licence free. It is a good idea to use a callsign that WSPRnet can cope with if using WSPR. Likewise if using FT8, choose a callsign that PSKreporter can handle.

Certainly on the 8m ISM band 10mW ERP WSPR is enough to reach into much of Europe on Es. The same is probably true of the HiFer band too.

630m QRP WSPR

My 630m 10mW ERP WSPR was turned on at about 1911z this evening. So far, 4 stations have spotted me.

UPDATE 2035z:  12 stations have spotted me so far.

Old photos - NOT amateur radio

Recently, my nephew visited us. Here he is looking at some old photos of h is granddad in the RAF.

Walk - NOT amateur radio

 Yesterday we did a nice walk around the village and saw these flowers.

6m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna has been on most of the day. I shall QSY to 630m QRP WSPR later. So far, my signal has been spotted by 16 stations (all in England).

10m QRPP WSPR (Thursday)

Once again I am on 10m WSPR with just 500uW (0.5mW) and I have already had 6 spots from EA8BFK (2880km) and one from Greece (a new country with ultra QRPP).

These last few days have been good. I must try to correlate this with solar conditions. I would expect to see some sort of relationship. I would not have thought these last few days were exceptional. Good, yes, but not exceptional.

A reminder that my beacon is pre-programmed to report the power is 500mW even though it is just 500uW (0.5mW) during these tests. 

I continue to be amazed.

It will be interesting trying ultra QRPP during the Es season.

UPDATE 1245z:  Already 18 spots today. EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted me as strongly as -16dB S/N  when I was running just 500uW suggesting 16dB weaker still might have been copied. 

UPDATE 1730z:  22 spots of me today at 500uW including a new reporter in the USA, who received me strongly. Amazing!!  

Sunspots - Thursday March 28th

 Solar flux is 175 and the SSN 114. A=7 and K=2.

630m QRP WSPR overnight

 

My 10mW ERP WSPR has been on since about 2030z. 12 stations spotted me. No great DX.

Nesting time - NOT amateur radio

 

Swans have nested in this spot for many years. I hope they succeed in raising a brood.

8m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

My 2.5W 8m FT8 to the dipole was turned on at about 1110z.  As usual, I am on 40.680MHz (DF about 1950Hz).  No spots yet.

QRP 6m FT8 (Wednesday)

My own 6m 2.5W FT8 to the vertical omni has been spotted by 10 stations. On RX (TEP?) my best DX is ZS6NJ (9115km).