31 Dec 2015

2015 - NOT amateur radio

As I write this we have just over one hour to go of this year. In some parts of the world it is already the new year. For me, it has been a "challenging" year with slow, slow improvements in my stroke. My voice is still poor, I still have problems with many drinks and I have not made the full recovery by now that I was hoping for so much. I just hope next year is better, or at the very least that I can better adapt to the "me" I am these days.

2016 challenge

With my voice still poor (stroke) and still the same few reappearing night after night on 472kHz, I think my challenge for 2016 will be to work as many countries as possible using JT65 and JT9-1 on HF. I have tried these modes before but as it is now integrated with WSPR in WSJT-X I really should give it a go.

South America on 10m WSPR

So far, 3 spots from FY5KE (7110km) on 10m WSPR, Nobody else spotting me today.

Newmarket - NOT amateur radio

Newmarket Horses
Newmarket, the worldwide home of horse racing, is just 4 miles away. We do most of our food shopping there - mostly in Waitrose and sometimes at Tesco. Today we drove through Newmarket and did a walk at nearby Dalham, which is a real "chocolate box" village filled with thatched cottages. A hundred and fifty years ago these would have been tithed cottages for agricultural workers living in abject and grinding poverty. These days they are worth a small fortune and they are probably homes for the well grounded.  Many may be second homes for people coming to Newmarket for the races.

ICOM 7300

There is still no news (at least not that I have heard) regarding the UK availability of this transceiver or its price here in the UK with import duty and VAT. All the main dealers are keen to take a deposit to "snag" those who must have this radio as soon as possible at almost any price.

The pattern of new releases seems to be "early bugs" in hardware and software, which are found by the early adopters, which are corrected in later releases. As I have said many times, I think it is a great pity they don't get the 10W version CE approved as it would make a great rival for the FT817 and replacement for the now obsolete IC703.

Sunspots and 10m - Thurs Dec 31st 2015

Solar flux has dipped to 98 and sunspot number is 34 today (K=4). 10m conditions are expected to remain "poor" today.

Currently I am active on 10m WSPR (500mW, 100% TX, randomised TX frequency) and 630m 5mW ERP 20% TX, 80% RX).

UPDATE 1048z:  Only 630m (472kHz) spots of G8VDQ (93km) so far this morning in daylight. Nothing yet on 10m WSPR.

Strange glow in the sky - NOT amateur radio

This morning, there was an odd sight in the sky. I think it is called "the Sun", although it seems a long time since we last saw it. The sky was bright blue with this thing glowing brightly.  All very odd. We seem to have had lots of clouds and rain in East Anglia this year, but nothing like the horrendous floods in north west England and in Scotland.

30 Dec 2015

Amateur satellites

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2015/december/another_eo79_transponder_activation.htm .

It is some years ago that I successfully had a QSO through an amateur satellite. Our hobby is filled with variety and it is simply not possible to do everything. This is one of the great things about amateur radio: there are so many ways to enjoy the hobby. EO79 is just one of many transponding satellites.

SPAM comments deleted

Someone has been posting comments on recent posts in the attempt to add links for free advertising. Be aware that these comments have been deleted and I shall delete anything similar I find in future as soon as spotted.  SPAM comments are not wanted, or tolerated, here. Play your silly games elsewhere please "MarkDonald".

Return to 630m WSPR

After an abortive outing on 10m and 6m WSPR, I have returned to 630m (472kHz) WSPR a few minutes ago. G3KEV (232km) has already spotted my 5mW ERP signal at -22dB S/N. He has a very good set-up on MF. I think he is ex-merchant navy?

UPDATE 1808z:  Plenty of stations spotting me and being spotted by me on 472kHz. Sadly these are all stations seen before. I am using WSJT-X tonight without the RX preamp. Now it is dark there are more stations appearing, but again few in Europe on TX.

Grandchildren gone - NOT amateur radio

Today, the last of our grandchildren went home to Kent with their mum and dad. The house now seems very quiet. At least it is tidy, although we prefer it with a slight mess and them here. They are all great kids.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed Dec 30th 2015

Solar flux has dropped to 102. Sunspot number is 54 (K=0) and the 10m propagation is expected be  "poor". I reset/re-synced the 10m WSPR beacon and am currently active on 10m WSPR and 6m WSPR, although no spots as yet on either band.

29 Dec 2015

10m WSPR

Sorry to report that my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon was not spotted at all today. It has been on since mid-morning and I was surprised not to get spotted even once. The WSPR beacon is still on but I doubt it will get spotted now until the morning, if at all, tomorrow. In the morning I shall do a full reset of the 10m WSPR beacon.

FT817 replacement this coming year?

It is rumoured that Yaesu will, at long last, announce a replacement to the FT817 at Dayton this year. Lots of people are awaiting this rig, which is only about 4 years too late!  If I was Yaesu I'd have launched this on the upward slope of the last sunspot peak.  In their infinite wisdom (or plain stupidity?) they have still to announce such a radio. If they are to capitalise on the replacement demand they'd better make sure it has some really nice features and get the price right. I cannot imagine it making it to Europe much before autumn 2016 or even Christmas.

By the time it is available here in Europe we are likely to be suffering with relatively low (and falling) sunspot numbers. If I was Yaesu I'd think about offering 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m and 4m, 2m and 70cms (and possibly 1296MHz) and not offer the lower HF bands at all. In the next 20-30 years the VHF bands will be more important. 15m,12m , 10m, 6m and 4m are all useful for Es especially in the summer months. With just a few watts of SSB one can work much of Europe with just a whip antenna and QRP.

Lawns - NOT amateur radio

At least 3 people were cutting their grass today, even though  it was Dec 29th!  We have had the mildest December I can ever recall.  OK, things could change to heavy snow very quickly, but if things do continue as they are, I shall be cutting our lawns all winter, which would be so different from normal.

Dual banders at stupid prices!

This from Steve G1KQH earlier:-

Sunspots and 10m - Tues Dec 29th 2015

Solar flux is 113 today and sunspot number 64 (K=1).  The forecast for 10m propagation remains "poor" today. I QSYed from 50mW on 20m to 500mW on 10m around 1030z this morning.  So far, no spots received on 10m WSPR using the W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon.

28 Dec 2015

Swallow - NOT amateur radio

A swallow (migrant bird that usually leaves for South Africa mid September) was seen in Bantham, South Devon on Dec 26th. This is incredibly late. If we have a mild winter it is possible this bird will over-winter.  I have not seen any records of these birds surviving through the winter before but this winter has been very mild so far. The best chances are on or near mild coasts where there is a plentiful supply of insects near seaweed.

More test results with WSJT-X V1.6

This came in earlier from Alan G8LCO. It seems that WSJT-X V1.6 is definitely the way to go.

Jan found out that his misleading results were due to having two programs on the same PC, now he sees the improvement on 1.60

David did a 8.5 Hour test and saw 23.7%  more spots on 1.60

I have posted a note of my test results on the LF group so the story is out now! The improvement is staggering!  And I do like the way that the facilities have been put together. The Hopping Scheduler is a very nice way of making clean band changes without the "Wrong Band" risk as well as being a great tool in it's own way. You also don't need to run a spec anl as well to see what is happening.
It seems to be a very nice package all around  with the JT modes as well. But it will take a bit longer to explore all of the possabilities.  Open Source software can really be fantastic when it is done well.

This was the very detailed analysis Alan G8LCO posted on the RSGB LF group:

WSPR is now included in the WSJT package as an alternate mode alongside JT65 and JT9. I loaded the free software just before Christmas running into some issues because I had not changed the audio settings. After changing to the settings in the instructons everything worked.

The WSPR mode use is a little different, band hopping is available so instead of manually having to change bands waiting for decoding to end etc etc you can now preset the next band(s) making the band change quick and certain. If every user picked up on this feature the "Wrong Band" issue which messes up the logs could be a past issue! that would be a very significant "WIN" for the WSPR database users!

The decoding now uses a two pass process, strong signals are processed then removed allowing weaker signals to be decoded. This makes a very substantial difference!

On Dec 27 I ran a comparison, I used my normal antenna and Rx to produce audio which then went to two seperate Rx's, a laptop running WSPR 2.12 which was a known good performer and another PC running WSJT-X 1.60. I chose to listen to 160m as it was busier than 620m at that time. There is also the prospect of TA spots.  The test was run overnight.

It was quickly evident that the two pass decoder was producing more spots than the stand alone WSPR 2.12
In some time slots 1.60 produced 6 decodes to 2.12's  3 decodes !  The main reason was that when two signals were close the old decoder only  found the stronger signal wheras the two pass decoder seemed to decode all of the signals visible on the spectral display. I had decodes of signals 2 Hz apart with 20dB amplitude differences whereas 2.12 lost weaker signals 5Hz apart. Some -10dB signals decoded  1 in 6 times on 2.12 but every time on 1.60. SNR's were broadly the same however a few signals decoded 1,2 or 3 dB higher on 1.60.

One feature of WSPR 2.12 is that high level signals seem to top out around +13dB so very strong signals peg at +13dB or so. The 1.60 software has produced SNR numbers up to +20dB so we can better see crocs blasting away. Hitherto I have run Spectrum Lab alongside WSPR so I am well aware of the levels of some stations!

For those used to 2.12 WSPR the new version takes a bit of getting used to as there are significant differences  and many new facilities that extend the way we can use the software.

The spectral display has seperate gain and bright controls with the waterfall having it's own controls. There are several pallets and display widths to select and an early decode option that displays the decode earlier than 2.12 does. There is also a 2 min "thermometer" style display at the lower edge indicating the time in the slot cycle  and a box giving the  progression of the four time periods in the Hopping Shedule, night, dawn grey line, day and sunset grey line. That I found very useful.

For me the package seems to work outstandingly well, decoding is better than ever and quicker, the spectral display and waterfall are flexible without over complication and the very clumsy old style band changing is now very quick, risk free and certain. The development people and the testers have done a very good job.

However decoding weak signals is not simple, different people have different equipment, noise levels and operating practices. I would advise against running different decode software at the same time on one machine, there is a possibility of misleading results. I would like to thank Jan, David and Roger for helping clarify matters and their independent testing.

Alan
G8LCO 

Tiredness - NOT amateur radio

It seems that improvements following my stroke over 2 years ago come in their own time.  For the last few days I seem to be less tired than I was after breakfast. Today I managed to do 2 physical jobs right after breakfast with no rest. I still feel giddy on my feet and have poor voice and thin liquid swallow.

Sunspots and 10m - Mon Dec 28th 2015

Solar flux has declined to 106 and the sunspot number is 67 (K=1). 10m propagation is expected to be "poor" again.  I am currently active with 50mW on 20m only.

UPDATE 1208z:   Spots received from Germany and Italy this morning when running 50mW on 20m WSPR.

27 Dec 2015

20m WSPR at 50mW to a low end-fed antenna

I went QRT on 10m and 6m WSPR and switched instead to 50mW on 20m WSPR.  At this power I am still getting spotted. I am reducing power with a 10dB attenuator and 500mW from the FT817. This means I have a 10dB pad in circuit on RX. Even with this some stations are 0dB S/N on RX.

UPDATE 2056z:  Even with 50mW some spots were as strong as -2dB S/N. Later in the week I may make a 30dB attenuator so I can go as low as 500uW and try this. With very low output it is possible I'll still get the odd spot, especially by wintertime Es. Best DX spot today on 20m WSPR was 1200km, so far, from IQ5LU late lunchtime. I shall leave the 20m WSPR running overnight.

UPDATE 2121z:   The more recent spots by DL2JA (919km) of my 50mW 20m WSPR had lots of drift. This could be aircraft reflection, Es clouds moving or rig drift.

LA3EQ 472kHz RX experiment

There seems to be some issues with the newly released WSJT-X V1.6 software (combines JT65, JT9 and WSPR2 and WSPR15 into a single package) compared with some earlier releases of dedicated WSPR software, with WSJT-X 1.6 not reporting to WSPRnet all that is received. It looks as if this is not a WSPRnet issue, even though WSPRnet has not been so reliable of late. LA3EQ did a "side by side" comparison and the older versions reported more stations. Maybe there is a bug that V1.7 will correct?

Sunspots and 10m - Sun Dec 27th 2015

Sunspot number has dropped back a little to 63 (K=3). Solar flux is still respectable at 113. 10m propagation is expected to be "poor" today, so USA spots on WSPR are not too likely. I may try 10m with 50mW output later. My best chances are wintertime Es rather than F2 propagation.  I shall probably QSY from 630m to 6m shortly.

UPDATE 1100z:  I am now active on 6m WSPR (20% TX 1W, 80% RX) and 10m WSPR (50mW TX 100% but frequency randomised within the WSPR window). Unfortunately my W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon has the power shown as 500mW "hard wired" so the reported TX power on 10m will still show 500mW even though my power is only 50mW.  Only if I use the FT817 with external attenuators would I be able to change to power indicated. I may try this later in the week.

UPDATE 1248z:  No spots at all with 50mW on 10m WSPR. I may try 20m WSPR later. This will mean going QRT on 6m so I can use the FT817 and PC.

26 Dec 2015

QRP Rendezvous

From Oleg....

Dear Club 72 members and friends,
This  week  "rendezvous"  visitors:  UR7VT,  OH6NPV,  RC4HT,  ON6KZ,
EA8/DK6XM, OM6TC, SM5LNS, F5SJB, IT9TZZ, RU3NJC, HB9DAX, UR8QV, UA4NU, UR0ET,  UA1CEX,  UI8CM,  UA1ADF, SM5MEK, R1OA, DL4HG, EA2EIE, RN4NAA,UA1CEG,  RV1OM,  EA1LY, UA4ATL, SM7SMS, OK2BMA, IT9IFI, RL3OA, HA6OD, G4GIR, EU1TY, IK2RMZ, DL5HCM, RV3GM
See Weekly QRP Rendez-Vous report - http://qrp-club72.blogspot.ru/
Full list of "rendezvous" Frequenters and Visitors - www.club72.su
Welcome all QRP stations to next week "rendezvous":
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at 9 UTC on 14060 (alt 10116 kc) +/-
Comments are welcome

72! Oleg RV3GM / KH6OB "Mr. 72"
=== In QRP We Trust! ===

More on lighter evenings - NOT amateur radio

At the moment the evenings are lighter for 5 mins more at dusk than a week ago. The light follows a sine wave curve and the rate of change speeds up as we go through the winter into spring. As I said recently, the evenings are lighter by an hour at the end of January. At the website below you can change the location and the date.

See http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/cambridge

More WSPRnet issues

WSPRnet seems to be suffering again. I get in, but it is taking a very long time. Maybe, some have given up and are using other modes instead?

10m WSPR this morning

There was a mix of F2 propagation (RZ6, RA3) and much shorter skip wintertime Es on 10m WSPR. I am pretty sure we will see USA WSPR spots this afternoon. Wintertime Es peaks at this time of year.

UPDATE 1534z:   No 10m USA spots so far this afternoon. They may come later, but I am surprised not to have been spotted already today. It is already quite late in the day.
  
UPDATE 1622z:   Still no USA spots today. I think it is now too late?

UPDATE 1702z:   It is now, I think, too late for USA spots on 10m, probably propagation. I am surprised as I was really expecting better today. 10m is a fickle band, filled with surprises!

UPDATE 2000z:  Did I say, "10m is a fickle band, filled with surprises!"?  So I left my 10m WSPR beacon running and was rewarded with spots from EA1FBU (1297km) by wintertime Es. The opening seems quite localised with 6 spots so far from this station.

UPDATE 2208z:   EA1FBU spotted me 16 times this evening on 10mWSPR before the opening ended at 2032z.

472kHz WSPR activity

Last night there were 70 active 472kHz WSPR stations showing on WSPRnet.  However, there were only 14 stations transmitting and at times I was the only UK station transmitting!! Although it was good to have this many people monitoring, we need more on TX.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Dec 26th 2015

Solar flux is 123 today. Sunspot number has climbed to 71 (K=2). The forecast for 10m propagation is "fair" again today. I am expecting 10m WSPR to be reasonable today. There have been 10m USA openings on most recent days.

25 Dec 2015

472kHz TX in the last 2 weeks

472kHz unique spots in last 2 weeks of my 5mW ERP signal
These are the unique spots I have received for my 5mW ERP 472kHz WSPR signal in the last 2 weeks. At some point I must work out how many unique WSPR spots I have received this season.

Last winter my 5mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" was spotted over 1000km away.

High post reads? - NOT amateur radio

Probably because many readers are on Christmas/New Year holiday, but I have already had as many blog visits as in a normal whole day and it is not yet teatime.

USA again on 10m WSPR

Yet again 10m WSPR was open to the USA.  K9AN (6505km) first spotted my 500mW WSPR beacon at 1458z. Solar conditions seem better, or is it just the holidays meaning more activity?

UPDATE 1654z:   I have just re-synced and reset the 10m beacon, although it is probably too late for further USA 10m spots. I am currently active on 10m and 630m WSPR.

WSJT-X V1.6 decode sensitivity

For many months I had been using V4 of the dedicated WSPR software After about a day of use I do not think WSJT-X V1.6 has demonstrably better sensitivity.  On spots of EA5DOM and PA3ABK/2 the S/N of decodes seems very similar in S/N terms. It is possible this not widely release version decoded at a similar level to WSJT-X V1.6. Certainly the QSB makes making a clear picture far from easy. What I mean is the signals vary far more with fades than the difference in sensitivity between packages. At the moment I am not using the preamp.

Lighter evenings - NOT amateur radio

At long last, it is getting just a little lighter here in the evenings. For a week or so the mornings still get darker, but already the evenings are several minutes better. By the end of January the difference in the evening is almost an hour. Of course this means the year has turned again.

Christmas? Bah humbug

I think it is partly a result of my stroke, but I find Christmas very stressful these days. Every Christmas, things are expected to be calm and happy, yet I am sure that I am not alone in experiencing the opposite. Even eating the Christmas meal is a stress these days. Years ago at work I knew a couple who went camping in Scotland at Christmas. Just maybe they had the right idea?

Bah humbug!

For the little ones it is still a magical time.

Sunspots and 10m - Fri Dec 25th 2015

Solar flux is 131 and sunspot number 51 (K=3) today. 10m propagation is again expected to be "fair". There have been some medium range European 10m spots which are probably by wintertime Es.

24 Dec 2015

WSJT-X - V1.6 works

I am currently using WSJT-X V1.6 on 472kHz WSPR.  It seems to work "right out of the tin" for me and I have both uploaded WSPR spots and been spotted on WSPRnet using the new software. As yet, because of family and Christmas, I have not yet tried it on JT65 or JT9-1 2-way modes. It is too early to tell how much better it is than the older WSPR packages, but others have reported better MF sensitivity with it.

Merry Christmas to all readers

May I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2016?  I try to write about what I have done and what interests me and hope you are able to find something of interest here or on my webpages at www.g3xbm.co.uk .

Most days the blog gets updated, unless I am away or too unwell.

Returned to 472kHz WSPR

There seemed little doing on 6m WSPR so I have returned to 630m (472kHz) WSPR now but using WJST-X 1.6 software to see how this does. No spots yet either given or received.

10m WSPR to the USA again

10m seems to be in good shape with K9AN (6505km) spotting my tiny WSPR beacon at 1430z. 10m WSPR has opened to the USA for several days in a row now.

New WSPR software

Interesting news from G8LCO:-

"Have been trying out WSJT-X 1.60 over the last two days. The 1.60 version -not long out!- includes WSPR alongside JT65 etc. It is a nice package, had one setup issue with the sound card rate but now it works very well.

You have GAINED around 3 dB of signal level on 472KHz- the decoder is more sensitive.I am hearing better than ever on MF and Top Band.

One very nice feature is the ability to scan bands, there is a menu to list the bands you want to include, this is split by time of day into four zones night, dawn greyline, day and dusk greyline. The software switchs the bands automatically without screwing up the band data!

Having the other modes too and a spectrum view that can be taylored to your needs is very useful.

All in all it's a nice Xmas freeware present to the Ham community. They have 1.70 in development- not far from release- that has even more good features. It looks like the merge of packages is a good way forward from the old arrangement."

UPDATE 1342z:  I have just loaded WSPR-X 1.6  onto the current shack PC. It is currently running WSPR on 6m (RX and TX).

Sunspots and 10m - Dec 24th 2015

Solar flux is 132 and sunspot number is 63 (K=3) today. The propagation forecast today is "fair". There were early winter Es spots from Italy and France on 10m, but this would not be related to solar conditions. As far as I know Es is not related to sunspots. The RA and LZ spots received on 10m are more likely to be single hop F2.

23 Dec 2015

10m USA WSPR spots today

Several USA spots today on 10m WSPR. Not a bad day at all. The first at 1454z was K4BYN (6231km) with several since.

I am also active on 630m WSPR and DK7FC (669km) was the first to be spotted. I went QRT on 6m when I turned on 630m (472kHz) WSPR.

6m and 10m WSPR

G8VDQ (93km) has been spotted on 6m several times already, but no 10m WSPR spots of my signal apart from the stations spotting me earlier.

IC7300 and FT991 prices

Well, the IC7300 has not yet been sold in the UK (as far as I know) although the FT991 has. The price has still to drop in my view, but it looks like the dealers are trying to maximise their profits from early adopters. I have no idea when this price will finalise.  Easter or summer 2016?

630m (472kHz) WSPR

Overnight the same stations were spotted on RX and M0LMH (223km) and G0HWW (29km) spotted my 5mW ERP on TX.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed Dec 23rd 2015

Solar flux is respectable at 128 and the sunspot number is rising. Today SN is 68 (K=2) so 10m WSPR might be quite good. The 10m propagation forecast is "fair".

UPDATE 1104z:  I have just switched on 6m WSPR and reset the 10m WSPR beacon. I am now QRT on 630m (472kHz) WSPR.

UPDATE 1114z:  10m WSPR spots from FR1GZ (9724km) and RA3UDF (2693km) quite early today, which is encouraging.

22 Dec 2015

Early USA WSPR spots on 10m

N2NOM (5581km) was spotting me on 10m WSPR very early today at 1354z. It was good to be spotted at all in the USA on 10m WSPR, but this early is encouraging for more spots later.

UPDATE 2130z:  K9AN (6505km) was also spotting my 10m WSPR beacon this afternoon. In the end the day saw spots from 4 unique stations in the USA.

10m and 6m WSPR this morning

G8VDQ (93km) has been spotted a couple of times on 6m WSPR and EA8/DL9XJ  (2981km) has been spotting my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon. It will be interesting to see if there are any WSPR spots on 6m and 10m by/from nearer Europeans by wintertime Es later.