27 Mar 2024

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).

10m QRPP again (Wednesday)

My 500uW WSPR has already been spotted in the Canary Is. by EA8BFK (2880km). I shall stick with 500uW (0.5mW) today, but yesterday was exceptional.

UPDATE 1116z:  EA8BFK (2880km) has spotted my 500uW (0.5mW) WSPR twice today already!

UPDATE 1707z: This afternoon, a station in the USA spotted me again when I was using just 500uW (0.5mW).

630m QRP WSPR overnight


A better overnight session with 18 stations spotting my 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.

Sunspots - Wednesday March 27th

 Solar flux is 178 and the SSN 149. A=11 and K=1.

26 Mar 2024

630m QRP WSPR (Tuesday)

My 10mW ERP 630m WSPR is on. So far, 8 stations have spotted me. Yet again, the "antenna" is the earth-electrodes in the ground. At the moment the best DX is only EI.

Swallows - NOT amateur radio

The first swallows have arrived back in Devon from South Africa. The earliest I have seen them up here in East Anglia is on April 7th, but it is usually later in April.

I was hoping that I might hear a chiffchaff on our walk this morning but I was unlucky.

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/swallow .

Spring - NOT amateur radio

This morning we went for a nice walk around the village. I was expecting this morning to be bright but chilly so I put a warm coat on. 

It was actually quite mild and no coat was needed. Today really felt like spring, after what has seemed a long, wet, dark winter

6m QRP FT8 (Tuesday)

 My 2.5W FT8  to the V2000 vertical omni antenna was turned on early this morning.

UPDATE 1555z: 16 stations have spotted me including IZ0GVZ (1357km).

10m 500uW WSPR beaconing

 As I was expecting today to be poor, I started beaconing at 500mW. Then I noticed that EA8FBK (2880km) was spotting me as strong as -2dB S/N, so I turned the beacon PA off at about 0945z and continued at just 500uW (0.5mW). At this tiny power he has spotted me twice by 1425z.

UPDATE 1920z:  EA8BFK has spotted me 21 times today when I was running just 500uW (0.5mW). It would seem EA8BFK is a single F2 hop, so he has the best chance. Please note that even though my WSPR beacon is pre-programmed to report 500mW as the power, it is actually 30dB lower (500uW) during these tests.


630m QRP WSPR getting worse

 Overnight I was spotted by just 8 stations which is the poorest this season. Not sure if this is conditions or whether increasing noise levels are making the detection of my 10mW ERP harder.