31 Jul 2018

80m FT8 and HAARP experiments

As I was already on 6m FT8, I thought I'd try 80m FT8 for a total change. At first, no-one was spotted, then I copied G8IHT (257km) in IO94 square calling CQ. I soon went back to 6m as stations were working the USA.

I have a theory about the HAARP WSPR experiments on 80m. Perhaps they know lots about HAARP but little about WSPR, particularly how important timing is. To get no reports at all on 80m WSPR last night with over 1GW ERP seems impossible to me. OK, I may be wrong, but with this huge ERP and so many monitors, it suggests something fundamental must have been wrong. OK it could have been poor propagation, but I just wonder.

UPDATE 1805z: Now gone back on 80m FT8 RX. Most 15 second periods I am getting spots.
80m FT8 RX spots so far today

UPDATE 1940z: I am back on 80m FT8 RX. There are lots and lots of stations active. My guess is this is twice as popular (at least) as WSPR.

UPDATE 1956z: A45XR (5794km) is currently the best DX spotted. This station is being widely spotted in Europe and in India, so I think this is genuine.

1 comment:

John, EI7GL said...

With reference to the lack of 80m HAARP WSPR spots, it looks as if they were on the wrong frequency for the first night.

"Chris Fallen ‏@ctfallen
Thanks to @nk7z for pointing out I was using the old 80m WSPR frequency (was landing on an old http://wspr.net page). That could explain null results at that band the last couple days. The 80m WSPR will be at 3.5686 MHz, the WSJT-X default."