10m F2 this afternoon/evening

Not unexpectedly, FR1GZ (9724km) was spotted here by 10m WSPR at 1520z. I was expecting to spot him earlier. OK2SAM (1283km) has been spotted by Es many times this afternoon. LU7YW is on and may spot me later with luck. He seems to be RX only.

UPDATE 1925z:   PT2WWV (8873km) was spotted by F2 3 times after teatime. He has spotted my 2W once.

UPDATE 1940z: As 10m is still open to South America, I have decided to stick with the 10m band and NOT move to 472kHz until later tonight, if at all.

UPDATE 2105z:  PT2WWV (8873km) is still coming through at 2056z. He has spotted me 5 times and I have spotted him 14 times this evening so far. I suspect the band will be open a while longer. There is still a lot of Es around too. Today 10m has been very good.

LNR Precision 5 band HF transceiver - the LD-5

Steve G1KQH has found a link to this new transceiver https://www.facebook.com/pages/LnR-Precision-Inc/229134337165152?hc_location=timeline. It looks a bit like the Elecraft KX3 but I hope it is much less expensive as it only covers 5 bands on TX.

LNR are the people that make the Par line of antennas now. They hope to start taking orders in September. Apparently they had quality issues in China with the 4-band version.

10m, 6m, 630m (472kHz ) WSPR

Overnight, I was on 472kHz but spots (given and received) were from people I'd seen before. No new reports/reporters. After a very brief pause on 6m (just G4IKZ spotting me at 18km) I have now settled on 10m for the day. EA5CYA (1376km) was spotted at 0940z and 0954z by Es. Otherwise quiet so far.

Sunspot count today is 128 (decent) and 20-30MHz propagation is "good".  I think today it is likely we'll see F2 propagation on 10m WSPR today as long as there are WSPR stations active in the right places.

UPDATE 1035z: EA5CYA still there on 10m Es.

UPDATE 1206z : The 10m Es opening is now quite widespread with several different central and eastern European countries in evidence.

UPDATE 1256z:  The 10m Es opening seems to be towards Scandinavia now with spots from SM67464 and LB9YE.

UPDATE 1315z:   OZ7IT and I are exchanging 10m WSPR spots.

Back on 472kHz again

Since about 1930z I have been on 472kHz WSPR using the strapped feeders to my V2000 VHF/UHF vertical and 2m halo. So far just the usual suspects spotted and spotting me i.e. no-one new.

It is likely that in the next week my amateur radio operation will be compromised as we'll have grandchidren here and their parents. For some of the time my shack will be a bedroom. I shall try to run 472kHz WSPR until Tuesday if I can. 10m by day and MF evenings and overnight.

472kHz unique WSPR spots in the last hour.

10m - closed now?

It is now 1857z and there has been no Es here now for over an hour. In the periods I was monitoring 10m, no F2 propagation was spotted. No GDX seen either in the last few hours.

I will QSY to 472kHz shortly I think.

I was thinking of buying a dedicated 10m rig, but unless my voice rapidly soon improves  (SSB, FM and AM are hard work for me because of my stroke) this is probably a waste of money at the moment. For now I shall stick with 2-5W on digital modes, which I can manage with the FT817 rig. JT65 and JT9-1 are my best bets. PSK31 is quite hard as it requires (near) real-time keyboard skills. I rather dislike PSK31 with macros -  you can usually tell when someone is using macros - I much prefer real QSOs. At least JT65 and JT9-1 use very formulaic formats for minimal data QSOs. QSOs are very very basic, but for me this helps at the moment. One reason I enjoy WSPR is it tells you about conditions on a given band and once set up, it just runs with minimal intervention. Some will (rightly) say it is computers talking to computers. At the moment, this is close to what I need. JT65 and JT9-1 are proper 2-way modes.

New band tried with "compromise" antenna.

This afternoon I tried 80m WSPR with the "compromise" antenna (V2000  + 2m halo with strapped feeders) with some success. On 80m I copied M0BLP and PA0WMR although there were very few stations active. I was not copied by anyone. I was going to try 160m but decided there was too little activity.

Later I used 40m and 20m with the Par end-fed.  On 40m, just one transmission resulted in 10 spots in 7 countries. The next transmission resulted in not a single report, probably because I was sitting on the frequency of a very strong station who was TXing at the time?

I later returned to 10m, and spotted EA5CYA (1376km) and LZ1OI (2145km) by Es around teatime. The Spanish station was pretty strong but the LZ was much weaker.

Sunspots and 10m

Current sunspot count is 89 with 20-30MHz propagation "normal". There may be some 10m F2 around on 10m today.  Just QSYing to 10m WSPR now.

Although there will still be 10m Es propagation, I doubt it will be as good as in May, June and July.

UPDATE 1130z:  Already 10m has been open by Es WSPR to CT1JTQ (1843km) and SI9AM (1503km) as well as GDX to G4HZW (209km). Not a bad start and it is not even lunchtime yet.

472kHz WSPR - overnight again

At the moment I am still on 472kHz WSPR having kept the WSPR running through the night. Same stations in the logs - no new reporters sadly - and again GM4SLV (896km) is still giving me daylight spots. Currently I am using the V2000 VHF/UHF vertical and 2m halo both with strapped feeders as my "compromise" 472kHz antenna. Ground is mains earth plus one shortish radial with single ground stake. I may give this antenna a try on 160m and 80m, just for fun.

These are the results in the last hour on 472kHz:

Recent 472kHz WSPR spots

Later I shall QSY to 10m as daytime 472kHz activity is very low.

Spoiling the natural environment, or not?

The beautiful Kingsbridge Estuary

The petition to NOT allow water skiing in the Kingsbridge Estuary is gathering momentum. The last time I looked there were 851 supporters of the "no" vote. If you want to support the campaign, then go to the link and vote. The more people who support the "no" campaign, the better chances we have of preventing this precious habitat and SSSI being ruined forever.

UPDATE 2015z:  856 votes now.  Keep voting!

Back on 472kHz WSPR

After a brief foray on 6m WSPR, I have returned to 472kHz WSPR now. Antenna current is higher than last night (on the V2000 and halo with strapped feeders) and the only difference is the weather. I assumes the ground is wetter. So far, the usual stations although PA3TKF (286km) was a new station to spot earlier, bringing me up to 20 unique spots this summer. Again, I am sure that I should be able to copy lots more stations and they spot me too.