Landing on a comet

One cannot help but be impressed by the space probe Rosetta to a comet and the subsequent landing of the Philae probe on the comet's surface.

This week I learned that one our friends was the Project Manager for this at Astrium back in the late 1990s. He is now retired but he was invited back for the landing. I hope they manage to get the lander moved to a better illuminated spot.

I was very impressed.

Arizona on 10m

Best 10m DX today,well so far, with the little 500mW WSPR-AXE beacon was WA7HL (8508km).  There is still a chance that I might get spotted in South America later, but somehow I doubt it.

Sunspots - Thursday Nov 20th 2014

Sunspot number has dropped back to 72 today. 10m propagation is forecast to be "good".  The 10m band has been open to the USA yet again this afternoon, but no great DX seen on the band for my little 500mW WSPR-AXE beacon today.

10m WSPR analysis by Bert PA1B

Bert PA1B has analysed my 500mW WSPR spots today, ignoring the many spots by local G4IKZ.   It shows the signal strengths (uV/m) implied by the S/N figures.  In many cases, much lower powers would have been enough to get "spotted".  Thank you Bert.  Of course, for some people, the noise floor limits the minimum signal that can be detected.

UPDATE 2200z:  The last USA spot of my 500mW was WG2Z (5600km) at 1724z. Just local G4IKZ (18km) since then.  Now QRT on 10m until after breakfast, but will stay on 472kHz overnight.

G4HUP kits

See http://g4hup.com/Orders.html.

John Mullin, G0TEV has pointed me to these kits, which include an add-on panoramic adaptor kit, suitable to tap into the IF output of many popular rigs like the FT817, IC706 and IC703. I had not seen these kits before John pointed me in their direction.

Sunspots - Nov 19th 2014

Conditions on 10m remain good here.

Sunspot number today had dropped back a bit to 92, but 10m conditions remain "good". Certainly the 10m DX WSPR spots from Australia confirm this. I am already being spotted in the USA very early today.

472kHz WSPR overnight - spotted in Germany

Overnight, I ran the MF WSPR station on 472kHz to the (short baseline) earth-electrode antenna. In all, 7 unique spots were received with my best DX (5mW ERP) being a -29dB S/N report from DL-SWL (701km) in JO52hp square. This is not my best DX ever on the band from this QTH, but I think it is the best DX with the very simple earth-electrode antenna system.

Australia on 10m 500mW

My TINY little "all in one" WSPR-AXE beacon was spotted at 1010z  by VK5MR (16144km) for my best DX report yet. At -23dB S/N this suggests I still had power in hand too.

I knew this would happen, and today it did. I remain very impressed that this TINY little WSPR beacon works so well. It seems incredible that such a TINY little unit works so well. Well done Jay W5OLF.

472kHz WSPR with the earth-electrode antenna

It is now 2050z. 10m has been dead for "real DX" since 1840z. I am still TXing on  10m but only being spotted by G4IKZ (18km).

At the same time I am on 472kHz WSPR both TX (5mW ERP) and RX. So far, 4 different stations have spotted me on 472kHz and I have spotted 7 different stations on RX. Best RX DX is DK7FC (669km). So far this evening the best spot of my 472kHz 5mW ERP is from G3WCB (101km).

Last USA spot on 10m?

WG2Z (5600km) was spotting me at 1736z.   I am wondering if this will be the last 10m North American spot, or if the band will remain open longer.

When I go QRT on 10m later this evening I shall leave MF still running.

UPDATE 1935z:   Well WG2Z was the last spot but at 1840z, almost an hour after the above spot.