19 Nov 2017

Return to 630m WSPR (10mW ERP, 20%)

As 10m FT8 seemed quiet, I have QSYed to 630m WSPR for the evening and overnight. As yet, no spots but it usually takes several minutes for the transverter crystal to warm up and stop drifting. This affects TX.

UPDATE 1840z:
  No less than 5 unique stations spotted my very first 630m WSPR transmit period this evening. My drift was high (up to 3Hz), but this soon drops to 0Hz.

UPDATE 1850z:  My noise floor (S7) is surely limiting what I can copy on 630m. As an example, not a single station has been decoded here so far this evening on that band. My slightly deaf FT817 does not seem to be much of a problem.

UPDATE 2104z: Quite a decent haul in the last 2 weeks. These are the unique stations who spotted me in the last 2 weeks and this with a poor antenna and just 10mW ERP. Just think what a decent antenna could do! In the same period, I spotted 27 unique stations despite my S7 noise floor. I am sure this is limiting what I can spot.
UPDATE 2202z: G0LUJ (278km) is currently the best DX spot of my 10mW this evening.

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