My first QSL card for a JT9 QSO

eQSL card for JT9-1 QSO

Today I see I've received an eQSL card from Manuel EA7GDC  for one of my first JT9-1 contacts on 20m last week. I much prefer eQSL cards as these don't need to be physically stored, but can be printed out if required. In the coming days I need to check my DXCC score with eQSL cards received. Although not a DX chaser really it is fun. Most of my QSOs and eQSL cards have been for 10m QSOs and next 6m QSOs.

Sporadic-E season

We are now approaching the summer sporadic-E season in the northern hemisphere with excellent 10m, 6m and 4m (plus 2m on a few occasions) propagation across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and sometimes far beyond.

On 6m and 10m it is possible to work out to around 2000 miles quite easily with very simple omni-directional antennas and a few watts by single or multi-hop Es.

With some luck much further is possible: a few summers back I recall the thrill of working the USA on 6m with 2.5W out from the FT817 (via a coax cable with around 3dB loss) to a V2000 vertical. ERP was just over 1W. Of course CW was used for this QSO.

Keep an eye out on these bands in the next few months as you may be surprised what can be copied. Better equipped QRO stations will be working South America, deep into Africa and Japan on 6m. Even when the sunspots don't play ball, we'll still have summertime Es. Half the fun is the surprise openings to distant places that appear and sometimes disappear within a few minutes. At other times the lower VHF bands can be wide open with S9 DX signals for hours and hours.

RSGB UK VHF/UHF Activity Contests - Tuesday nights

This year I keep forgetting to have a go in the regular UKAC contests every Tuesday evening. Activity in these is usually very good and they are great fun. Last year I went out in the field to a local high spot on both 70cm and 2m and achieved some good results with just 2.5W - remember I only found out the FT817 "3 blobs" setting was not 5W in December!  Before moving in to my new East Anglian "hilltop" QTH - well it is 20m ASL :-) - I think I'll have to do some of these contests /P from the new back garden to see how the new location will be on VHF and UHF. 

Trying to fix an HP8640B sig gen ....and failing

The disconnected shaft is just to the RHS of the YIG oscillator

In my days as a young engineer (that's a long time ago) one of the "modern" pieces of test gear on the bench was an HP8640B signal generator. I used one, on and off, throughout my RF design days in the 1970s and 1980s.. On retirement I managed to borrow one on indefinite loan from a colleague who managed to buy some of the old stock items when well past their useful lifetimes. This has worked OK for several years but a few months ago the fine tune control shaft fell off inside the box. It is not broken, it just became disconnected.  Today I attempted to fix it and expected it to be easy. I could see that it was basically 2 pieces of metal connected with a small plastic part. But can I get at it?  Can I heck!

You forget how USELESS 1960s and 1970s designs were in terms of ease of manufacture and repair. To get at the part, it looks like you have to take apart about 1 zillion screws and plastic cog wheels, and all because the designer didn't put the control about 5mm  to the left, in which case none of these complicated mechanical arrangements would have been needed!  These days, where competition, manufacturing and repair costs matter, the design would not be so unnecessarily complicated. After trying to join the 2 pieces together for nearly an hour, I gave up.  In the coming days I'll return the 8640B to its owner and I expect he'll have the manual and the patience to fix it. My eyesight is also not as good as it was and that didn't help.

The tiny Elecraft XG3 signal generator (about the size of a pack of cards) would do all I need (and a lot more) and I think will be a good investment. It also weighs about 1/100th the weight of the 8640B. I am not after a signal generator with professional calibration and noise floor performance, just a simple way of checking the performance of simple receivers.

Unless absolutely necessary KISS - keep it simple stupid. This applies as much to professional gear as to amateur gear. Don't make life harder than it need be.

The KD1JV Survivor 75/80m SSB transceiver

http://www.qrpkits.com/images/survivor04a.jpg

A recent visit to Hendricks Kits shows they now sell a new (to me at least) 10W pep 80m SSB transceiver called the KD1JV Survivor inspired by the Epiphyte 80m design of a quarter of a century ago. Parts for the latter became increasingly difficult to find and this new radio uses modern parts and increases the power out. A very small, 10W pep, SSB rig for 80m is an attractive idea and is sure to be popular, especially for holiday and field use. In its basic form it is around $100 and a little more if the digital display option is added.

The specs are:

• ~10W pep @ 13.8V
• 0.2uV receiver sensitivity
• 5 pole crystal ladder filter for selectivity
• 325 or 175 kHz tuning range, selectable at build
• Coarse and Fine tuning controls
• 8 ohm - 500 mW speaker output
• SSB, CW, and, "TUNE" mode
• 50mA Rx current (with optional Digital Dial)
• Inexpensive electret microphone input
• All through hole construction
• Professional silk screened and solder masked pcb
• Full aluminum chassis w/bail, cutout for optional digital dial
• Small size, 6" x 4" x 1.5"
• Assembled weight, w/dd: 330g./11.6 oz.
• 13.8 @ 2A, min. recommended power supply

Waters and Stanton respond on the FT817ND price increase

Today I received an email from Mark Francis, the sales director at Waters & Stanton PLC regarding the price of the FT817ND. You may recall I was suspicious that the price had risen when the Yen was weakening.

Mark explained that they are working to the tightest of margins these days and the price is basically set by Yaesu. He also pointed out that compared with 25 years ago we are getting a lot more for our money reminding me that back then the same money would have bought just a 2m FT290, whereas now we get a multi-band HF/VHF/UHF, multi-mode transceiver.

So, I stand corrected and accept what Mark has said.

I'm still looking around for the best deal on a new FT817ND to compliment my 12 year old FT817 that has been used just about every day since I bought it, but may well buy from W&S if they can match the best UK price.

Windows PC bargain

After some deliberation because of adverse reviews I ordered an Asus X101ch netbook from Amazon last week. When it arrived I added a 4GB class 10 SD card running Readyboost, deleted the junk software that was not needed, added MS Essentials virus protection and got going.

Well, for under £170 new I am blown away! This little machine is great: I have already used it for WSPR and had my first JT9-1 QSO with it on 20m just a few minutes ago. Spectran seems to work too. For web browsing it is just fine. The screen resolution and clarity are good. I have not had it slow down once and it has, touch wood, not crashed yet.

In fact my view is this is an excellent little 10.1 inch Win7 netbook for the things I need. Although intended as a second PC for /P use (optical beaconing and VLF in the field) it is currently being used as my main PC and working beautifully.

The windows experience index by the way is 3.2, which I think is average.

ATV today

Amateur TV seems to be in decline these days with fewer and fewer interested. A well known ATV local G3KKD reports activity well down in recent times.

In a move aimed at reversing the trend G8YTZ has announced some Amateur Digital TV TX and RX modules. However, when visiting Justin's site I was flabergasted by the prices: over £700 for the transmitter and  over £300 for the receiver! To attract newcomers surely some simple low cost modules retailing below £100 are needed.

Another version of my 472kHz transverter (G8AGN)

Emeritus Prof Barry Chambers G8AGN from Sheffield (more usually a microwaves and nanowaves operator) has just sent me a couple of photos of his version of my 472kHz transverter that he's just finished. Unlike me, Barry sensibly put it in a decent sized aluminium box which will help reduce heat affecting the LO frequency stability. 

G8AGN's version of the 472kHz transverter

I've lost count how many of these transverters, or variants thereof, have now been built but there must be a good few in use around the world now. I have still to box up the 137kHz version which was used a few months ago to span 250km with just the earth-electrode antenna.

Japanese Yen and radio gear prices

Today alone the pound-yen exchange rate has improved by over 4% in favour of the pound: basically Japanese goods are 4% cheaper than yesterday. UK dealers, please note: your customers are expecting product prices for Japanese radios to FALL please in the coming days and not rise!

The yen-pound exchange rate is now around 23% better (for purchasers of Japanese equipment) than a year ago, so some VERY good deals should be expected on Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood products.

A couple of 20m JT9 QSOs in the log already

QSO with UA4PPQ on 20m JT9-1 today

Well that was pretty easy: I loaded the latest software, listened a bit, then called CQ in JT9-1 and managed a couple of QSOs within 15 minutes (it takes about 6 minutes per QSO). Reports also received from the USA, Canada and Siberia, so everything working well.

The mode certainly seems to be very useful on HF and takes up very little bandwidth - the scale on the screenshot above is in Hz above 14.078MHz, which is the USB dial frequency.

Using 2.5W to the end fed Par 10/20/40 antenna, but reports suggest much lower power would be fine too. Now QSYed to 28.078 MHz USB dial JT9-1 and calling CQ.

JT9 mode on HF

Julian G4ILO has been having some good success on HF with JT9 mode, so I am encouraged to have a go too. This afternoon I'll be firing up on HF, probably 20m.

Results with this mode on MF were very encouraging giving me my first international 2-way QSO (as opposed to WSPR report) some months back. The slower JT9 modes are similar to WSPR in terms of weak signal performance, but allow basic real 2-way QSOs similar to JT65 mode QSOs.

PSK reporter now shows JT9 spots, so it is possible to see where your signal is reaching even if a QSO does not result from a CQ call.  The new JT9 Yahoo group is rapidly gaining members and is worth joining if interested in this new mode.

Recommended JT9 mode frequencies are:

10m  28.078MHz
15m 21.078
17m  18.104
20m 14.078
30m 10.130
40m 7.078
60m 5.2872
80m 3.578
160m 1.838

JT9 software can be downloaded from http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/ As updates are still occurring it is best to check the site for later versions regularly.  The user guide for all WSJT modes is worth reading.

Good communications , or a lack of it in the NHS

My ham radio friend Julian Moss G4ILO has a brain tumour which he has been successfully battling for over a year now. Recently he had a hospital appointment to review treatment but reading his blog I see yet again he has, like many I know, been given the "run around" by the totally inept NHS service here in the UK.

This organisation needs radical surgery to get itself operating efficiently. Time and again it wastes money by messing up appointments, not having people where they should be, not having the data communicated between staff etc. It MADDENS me that sick people should be additionally stressed as a result of idiots who cannot run a business properly. They would save BILLIONS if patient records were shared electronically between health care staff (consultants, doctors, nurses, car service personnel and ambulance crews). It is not rocket science.

I have no fundamental issue with caring people trying to do their best, but they are totally hindered by the lack of decent communications at all levels.

In the 21st century, any organisation as bad as the National Health Service today would be in administration by now and its bosses sacked.  NHS sort yourselves out!

Tripods for optical comms

The one I missed on eBay

This evening I was annoyed with myself for not bidding for a tripod on eBay in time that went for just £6.50 in the end.  It had a nice solid structure and a 360 degree marked calibration on the horizontal pan adjustment and would have been ideal for my non line-of-sight optical comms over the horizon, where the ability to return accurately to a know bearing is important when hunting for weak signals.

So, can readers make any recommendations for something similar?
My requirements are:

1. Solid construction so it won't wobble around in wind with the optics and detector mounted on top.
2. Some way of calibrating the direction to within a degree or so horizontally so that known directions can be confidently returned to. Ideally a large 360 degree marked scale.
3. A way for leveling the head assembly so it can be aimed just above the horizon.
4. Low cost as I am looking for an inexpensive solution (don't want the tripod and mount to cost much more than the rest of the kit, which is about £5-10 total!)

Not being a great photographer, I know little about tripods and heads. Looking on eBay I didn't find anything close to the one I missed. It was SO annoying as I only missed it by 5 minutes having been out treating a fence in the (rare) sunshine today.

Low cost signal generators for QRP

Elecraft's XG3 signal generator

Although I have a couple of (loaned from friends) signal generators, these are rather large in a small shack. There are times when something small but calibrated is useful. Elecraft sell the XG3 signal generator which can be PC programmed to give a number of fixed output levels on a wide range of HF, VHF and UHF frequencies. It is the same (small) size as the T1 auto ATU i.e. about the same size as a packet of cards.

The Norcal S9 signal generator

Norcal also sell a kit for a small fixed frequency signal generator called the S9 Signal generator that can provide a fairly well controlled range of output levels. Currently it is out of stock, but the circuit is simple and could easily be built from scratch "dead bug" style.

Writing for radio magazines

In recent years I've written articles on a wide range of subjects, from VLF to optical, for several different radio magazines around the world. Now I don't do it for the money as I have a pension that covers my needs adequately, but I am surprised how poorly radio magazines do pay authors. This may be one reason why they find it hard to find new authors.  I won't quote figures here as I don't want to embarrass anyone, but you have to write articles for the pleasure of doing so and not for the financial rewards, especially when tax is deducted.

One of the lowest payers appears to be the ARRL, which I find particularly surprising considering that QST must have one of the largest circulations in the world. Considering how long it takes to put a decent article together  with illustrations and schematics (very many hours), the rewards are probably better if one stacked shelves at a local supermarket or worked on the local dustcart.  It doesn't exactly encourage budding authors.

Times are hard and revenues in amateur radio magazines from adverts is probably falling, but reading QST, Practical Wireless and RadCom I see pages and pages of adverts that must bring in a decent amount. Maybe they'd get, and keep, more readers if they encouraged people to write interesting articles by paying a little more?

Royal Mail - postal/packet costs

I'm frustrated and actually quite annoyed with Royal Mail.  Have you visited the barely understandable Royal Mail website recently?  All I wanted was to find out how much a small parcel (a book - the Scatterpoint compendium sold on eBay) would cost to send to Germany on Tuesday. It appears you now need a PhD to navigate the darn website and understand all the options. It is nearly as hard as trying to find a utilities tariff.

Having done a bit of eBay trading this last few weeks, I'm surprised how expensive it now is to send a small packet by post using Royal Mail or Parcel Force, even more so if sending it abroad. Unless I have misunderstood the incredibly confusing information on how to send a small packet to Germany, one weighing 760g costs an astounding £6.62. Go above 1kg and the rates are extortionate.

Thankfully we still have a helpful local post office staffed with people who try to sort this out for you. Not having receiving my doctorate yet, so unable to navigate the Royal Mail website, I'll have to ask the nice lady at the local PO for the price and a stamp.

Why can't we have a SIMPLE postage tariff based on weight and whether it has to go surface or by air? OK, add a few options if you want a guaranteed delivery.

More Chinese QRP radios/kits

Chinese QRP kits and ready built radios seem to be everywhere. For example, see the KN-Q7A kit from http://www.crkits.com/ . This little 40m 10W or 20m 5W QRP SSB transceiver was designed by BA6BF.   Reviews on eHam.net are good (4.9/5 with 8 reports) so this is no toy radio.

http://www.crkits.com

I have the feeling this is an enterprising Chinese amateur making a bit of money selling a few kits rather than a major Chinese manufacturer, gearing up for the big time. However, this IS coming. Unless the big boys like Yaesu and Icom move to low cost manufacturing locations like China for the bulk of their products then their days are numbered. Honestly. 

Amateur DX Europe to Alaska on VLF?

There has been some excitement over the last few days as Lawrence KL1X has seen a signal on 8.9700kHz when the noise was low that just could be coming from Uwe DJ8WX near Hamburg. He has tried to find out if this is a locally generated artifact, but it seems not.

KL1X grabber monitoring 8.270kHz for intercontinental amateur DX

In the coming weeks DJ8WX is moving his continuous carrier VLF transmitter (a long carrier is needed to be visible in the incredibly narrow bandwidths needed to see anything at all) down to 8.270kHz which is a clear frequency in Alaska. The Alaska VLF grabber is already active and, as soon as Uwe starts up, we hope to see a weak signal appear. If this happens this will be the very first confirmed reception of an amateur VLF signal from Europe in North America. The VLF receiver Lawrence uses is a small E-field probe antenna high up in a tree in a birch forest.

DJ8WX has been a very good signal on VLF here in the UK on my own receiving system (an 80m sq vertical loop feeding a preamp feeding a PC running Spectrum Lab with a special 424uHz bandwidth .usr file). I have not listened for Uwe recently as my loop is down but G3ZJO has copied him well in the last few weeks on his grabber.

DJ8WX's signal as seen on the G3ZJO VLF grabber

If you are interested in amateur VLF then visit https://sites.google.com/site/sub9khz/ and check out the various preamps, grabbers and DX reports. It is possible to check out activity by looking at the various grabbers (VLF receivers linked to the internet) around the world.

I've left the Yahoo KX3 group

Since its early days, I've been receiving posts from the Yahoo KX3 Group, which is a group for people interested in this Elecraft radio. It was generating a huge number of daily posts: this month people have posted 1590 messages already! As it is now rather unlikely that I will purchase a KX3 - I simply cannot justify £1200+ for a fully loaded, if excellent, QRP transceiver - I decided today to leave this group.  That still leaves plenty of other Yahoo group messages to read.

I'm not sure how others read Yahoo Group messages, but I always choose

"Web Only - Don't get notified of the latest happenings. Read messages only on the web."

I'd be unable to cope with several hundred, possibly thousands, of additional emails from groups each week. This option is always available when you join a Yahoo group, or you can do it later by editing your group settings.

Voice of America cutbacks

In my early days as a shortwave listener, the various VOA transmitters around the world were popular station targets for reports. I even copied "this is the Voice of America, Monrovia" (West Africa) on my little 4 component SW crystal set.  Now I see that the VOA is having to cut back transmissions because of the USA's budget issues. Like many shortwave broadcasters, VOA is feeling the pinch in hard times. The shortwave broadcast bands are no longer the same as they were back in the 1950s and 1960s: there are fewer and fewer English language transmissions to be heard nowadays.

As an aside, and I try to avoid political comments in this blog but feel compelled to share this, I read today that the audited costs of the Iraq war for the USA are an estimated $767bn. With ongoing healthcare and support costs the final figure will be well over $1trillion. All nations make mistakes and enter wars they later deeply regret, including the UK. What saddens me is the total WASTE this represents: Saddam was no saint, neither are the Talibhan in Afghanistan, but there has to be a better way to change nations. The phrase "swords into ploughshares" comes to mind. Jaw jaw is better than war, war. Just think how $1 trillion could have been better used.

Rectennas and solar energy

Recently I read about some interesting work on Rectennas, which are combined antennas and rectifiers used to detect microwaves and optical frequencies. The work suggested that very high efficiencies may be possible at optical frequencies (around 70%, possibly more) using nanotechnology leading to much more efficient power conversion of solar energy. The correct term for these would be Nantennas. At my new house (move coming up in a few months) I will be considering the installation of solar photo-voltaic panels, but wonder if I should wait a few years in case technical breakthroughs with Nantennas could revolutionise these?

Back from Lincoln

For the last few days we have been on holiday in Lincoln, staying at the Old Palace Hotel (I an highly recommend this) just below the marvelous cathedral. Our room was high up and looked due south and had an excellent take-off.  Sadly I brought no radio gear with me though, so was unable to take advantage of the site.

Clear air forward scatter optical kit

The schematics below are of the RX and TX used in the recent "over the horizon" NLOS 481THz optical tests. As you can see, not too much complexity involved considering the useful science that results. All parts are inexpensive and readily available. Nothing critical apart from the PIN photodiode and the 280000mcd red LED which I got from Hong Kong via eBay. 100mm optics used at the TX and RX ends.

The 481THz receiver

The 481THz beacon transmitter

Reverse beacon Network

7MHz QRP RBN spots this evening

The Reverse Beacon Network is an extremely useful resource. This evening, in addition to several QRP QSOs on CW, I got quite a few RBN "spots" proving just where my signal was reaching and at what strength. This is a bit like the WSPR database but for CW. As such signals have to be stronger to be copied than for WSPR but it is helpful.

More books on eBay

A couple more books have been listed on eBay this afternoon which may be of interest to readers. They are the RSGB's latest VHF/UHF handbook and the Backscatter Technical Compendium with articles from Backscatter (UK Microwave Group) from 2004-2008. The auction ends next weekend.

I have an almost complete set of SPRATs from the early 1980s to today that may be listed soon: as I have the CD, the paper copies are taking up shelf space. Paper copies are easier to thumb through though, so I may decide to keep these. We'll see.

There are a few other books and some baby clothes too if you, or your XYL, are interested. My aim is to declutter the shack as much as I can before the house move. The other books include some on disability related subjects, psychology and the Galapagos Islands (the latter is a very nice BBC book).

Last week's auction was very successful with all the books (and the fireplace surround!) finding new homes.

eBay is quite fun in small doses: I don't like to do this all the time - too much trouble packaging and labelling things and making the trip to the post office to send them off, but from time to time it is fun, especially watching the last minute rushes!

More books, including a few more obscure non radio related ones, will be listed next month.

More K1 fun

http://www.elecraft.com

Since getting my Elecraft K1 out of "hibernation" a few days ago I've had some lovely contacts with it on 40 and 20m as well as plenty of reverse beacon reports on 40, 30, 20 and 15m CW. I'd forgotten quite what a gem the K1 really is. No great DX - all the QSOs have been around Europe - but all at 5W with just the fairly basic Par 10/20/40 end-fed antenna. The receiver is lovely with signals just appearing nice and clearly, even QRP signals, out of the quiet background. This is not a synthesised rig and it sounds more like my old FT7 which had an excellent receiver.  Sensitivity is pretty good, and certainly fine for working other QRP stations around 7.030 and 14.060MHz, the QRP centres of activity.

FT817ND prices at Waters and Stanton

Looking on the Waters and Stanton website I notice they have increased the price of the FT817ND by around £30 to £565.95, despite the Yen exchange rate improving (in W&S's favour) by around 10%. I was rather hoping that the revised price might be nearer £499 i.e. downwards.

Would W&S care to comment on why the price has gone up suddenly by so much?

Perhaps there is a very good reason. To help everyone understand what I mean, see the BBC currency graph for the Yen over the last 12 months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/

Looks to me like the UK pound buys a LOT more yen than in the summer of last year. Come on W&S, tell us what's going on.

UPDATE: I am being told the price in the USA has risen by $50 recently so maybe the rise is being driven by Yaesu? If so then they could be in trouble: falling handheld sales as a result of Chinese competition may be forcing them to squeeze for profits elsewhere? The slippery slope to niche markets and ...?

What happened to Wireless World?

When I was younger, and that was a LONG time ago back in the 1960s, Wireless World was an amazing monthly magazine: it was around 10mm thick and packed with articles and information. My old girlfriend's dad had a WW collection going back to the late 1940s and I used the excuse of looking through these to go to see her during summer holidays. Not that much reading took place on those visits!

My question was what happened to Wireless World? It was still around a few years ago in a rather sad state about one third as thick as the editions I recall in the 1960s and earlier. I presumed it has died a death as I'd not seen copies for some time in the shops.  A little more searching shows that Wireless World is now known as Electronics World and this April marks the 100th anniversary of its foundation as Wireless World back in 1913.  Can't say I've noticed copies in W.H.Smith.

Phasing direct conversion receivers

What I think is quite an old paper turned up in my browsing today: http://www.norcalqrp.org/files/austinnc2030presentation.pdf . In it, Dan Tayloe N7VE describes how a direct conversion design with phasing to cancel out the unwanted sideband can be a truly excellent receiver. I have never tried this approach myself, but think it would be worth it for, for example, a WSPR receiver where the phase accuracy has only to be maintained over a 200Hz audio bandwidth. Over such a small audio bandwidth a very simple phase shift network would work.The same applies on TX where a very simple final frequency phasing TX could produce quite good sideband suppression with very few parts.

The current G3XBM (operating) shack

G3XBM QRP shack in a bedroom corner

Thought readers might like to see what the G3XBM station consists of currently.  In the photo I have annotated most pieces. The little silvery box to the right of the SignaLink interface was a VX2 programmer (software for which crashed my PC a year ago), but this box  is to be used to house my WISPY 10m WSPR beacon transceiver. The K1 was last used yesterday and the FT817 gets almost daily use, with the very nice audio speech processor underneath. Not shown are the lightbeam kit or the LF and MF tranverters for 136 and 472kHz which are housed elsewhere close the the earth-electrode antenna feed. There are also several homebrew rigs in drawers that get brought out from time to time. For the time being, the Elecraft K1 is not being sold.

The maximum power I can run currently is around 7W from the K1 and about 12W out on 472kHz from the transverter (about 5-10mW ERP) and 30W from the 136kHz transverter (about 50uW ERP). I have no great desire to run much more power. The FT817 is only used at 2.5W or less.  

RaspberryPi WSPR TX

This means little to my software incapable brain, but may be of interest to some readers: a Raspberry Pi mini-computer used as a basic 10mW WSPR TX up to 250MHz with a suitable low pass filter on the output. I know my old colleague Bob G3WKW has done something similar. I am impressed.

See https://github.com/threeme3/WsprryPi

KW Vanguard

Alan's KW Vanguard

Memories of when first licenced were stirred this evening with an email from Alan McWhirter near Edinburgh who is restoring an old KW Vanguard (CW and AM transmitter) to working order. My first ever outings on HF were with my old G8 callsign operating under the supervision of Bill G4PJ. On a Sunday morning he would let me loose with the Vanguard and we'd work several locals on 80m and some Europeans on 40 and 20m, all on AM in 1967.

A reminder to Alan and others that most 10m AM activity is between 29 - 29.1MHz. In recent months there has been plenty of activity on AM when the band has been open across the Atlantic. Great fun.

QSOs with the Elecraft K1

As I am considering selling my Elecraft K1 rig to fund some other purchases, I decided to fire it up this afternoon to see that all was well. It turned out to be a very pleasant QRP session with 8 QSOs in 8 countries in the log at 5W on 40m and 20m in a casual hour or so of operating. In addition, there is a page full of reverse beacon spots for the CQ calls that didn't get answered. With the Par 10/20/40 end-fed antenna it doesn't need much to match the antenna: in fact without the auto-ATU it should match well on 40 and 20m, although with the internal auto-ATU I can also match this on 30 and 15m.

I still have mixed feelings about parting with this rig: it doesn't get used much so really would be better with someone who would make full use of it. On the other hand, when I use it I get good results and plenty of QSOs. We'll see if it goes or stays in the coming days. It will be on eBay if being sold, but not until I've carefully thought about it.

Low cost netbooks and ReadyBoost

http://content.hwigroup.net/images/products/xl/132431/asus_eee_pc_x101ch_black.jpg

At the moment www.amazon.uk has a very good deal (£173) on the little 10 inch Asus X101CH netbook.  Reviews are mixed, but overall this may fit the bill for a small second PC that can be used to run simple (Windows software) tasks without much multi-tasking.  It should also be able to run WSPR or Spectran as long as nothing much else is required at the same time. There is a lot of bloatware supplied which probably slows it down for most novice users. With ReadyBoost installed on an SD card I think the 1GB of RAM should be less of an issue.

My question is have readers of this blog any experience of using ReadyBoost to speed up sluggish netbooks? Also, have any readers actually got an Asus X101CH and, if so, any views on its suitability for (single task) use with WSPR, Spectran or similar?

8.5km "over the horizon" on 481THz tonight

This evening I ventured further afield with the optical kit to see if I could copy my QRSS3 beacon signal in the village of Stow-cum-Quy which is 8.5km from home . This is non line-of-sight and nearly twice as far as my previous tests last week.

Path covered this evening NLOS

Success! After quite careful searching both horizontally and vertically, the signal was copied and recorded at around 14dB S/N (at best) pointing just above the horizon. After searching for a stronger signal, the sky became increasingly "murky" and I was unable to find the signal again, so I came back home.

1W LED TX in 100mm optics, SFH213 detector in 100mm optics

This range is about the practical limit: aiming is very difficult and I find it is hard to get back to the same direction/elevation if I move anything. I need a tripod that is far more stable with some sort of degrees marking (both horizontally and vertically) so that I can go back to the best settings with confidence. At the moment it is a bit "suck it and see" to find the best aim and nearly impossible to get back to those settings easily if the tripod gets knocked.

This was clear air scattering as there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I have still to try cloud-bounce with real low level clouds.

To see the signal play this recording through Spectran with it set to 572Hz in 0.34Hz bandwidth. QRSS3 signal will be clearly visible.

There is a chance that I may try a much longer 27km NLOS path before too long. Looking at the map, this should be a possibility but I may need another 6-10dB from a Phlatlight LED and a MUCH more stable tripod!

My books on eBay

This week I have 8 items for sale on eBay including a few radio books. I am trying to de-clutter ahead of our house move in a few months time. It is proving harder than I thought to get rid of things and in fact I am still collecting more things than I am disposing of!

The radio books are QRP Basics by George Dobbs. This is an essential guide to low powered radio operating. As I have the newer edition, this first edition version is for sale. Highly recommended book.

The next is LF Today by Mike Dennison G3XDV which is the first version of the guide to LF operating especially on 136kHz, although invaluable for 472kHz too. I used this version extensively when first setting up to TX on 136kHz.

The next is The Comprehensive Radio Valve Guide which is a Babani series book listing every radio valve since 1956. As a semiconductor man I hardly ever looked at it.

Another book is the 6 Metre Handbook, a guide to the magic band by Don Field G3XTT. This book is really aimed at 6m DXers and I was a bit disappointed that it didn't say more about using the band for simple local communications.

There are also a few other good books listed and a mock marble fire surround which my local builder tells me should sell for over £100.

You can find all 8 items for sale via http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/rlapthorn .

Get bidding if you are interested as they are sure to sell.

100 subscribers - thank you

Just noticed that the number of people who subscribe to this blog has now reached 100 for the first time.  Many people just drop in from other links, but it is good to see that so many people actually subscribe.  I try to post things that interest me, and I hope interest you too, here.  Please let me know if the blog can be improved in any way.

Things (such as designs) that are of longer term use are added to my main website www.g3xbm.co.uk so check there too if you've not visited it.

Android and iPod WSPR

WSPR on the iPod Touch 4g

To the best of my knowledge no-one has (yet) produced apps for these devices that allow them to be used as WSPR mode terminals.  Not being a software expert (at all) I am rather surprised at this: these are now very common platforms that a wide variety of people have. The number is growing daily. How much more convenient it would be to use my little iPod Touch 4g, for example, with a simple QRP WSPR transceiver, than with a PC or laptop. Are there any technical reasons why such apps haven't appeared?

If anyone knows if this has/is being done please let me know. I am aware of WSPR watch but this is NOT a WSPR terminal, just a neat reporting app.  The picture shows what WSPR might look like on such a device - I wish!

I wrote to Joe Taylor to find out if the creator of WSPR knew of any attempts. This was his reply:

"Hi Roger,

No such effort has been attempted, to my knowledge.

   -- Joe, K1JT"

A solar peak in late 2013 and another in 2015?

Some experts at NASA are predicting some strange behaviour in the next few years with the possibility of a twin peak for cycle 24 but with one peak being this year and the other on 2015. A similar twin peak occurred in cycle 14 in the early 1900s.  See http://www.arrl.org/news/solar-cycle-24-may-have-double-peaks-says-nasa-solar-physicist.  If this happens we may have (half) decent conditions for several years yet in this current solar cycle.

Conditions in this peak really are very different from the massive peaks in the middle and late 20th century when worldwide DX was workable with ease on the higher HF bands and even 6m. OK, it is still possible to work all over the world but, believe me, it WAS a lot easier back then.