15m QRP FT8 (Wednesday)

At about 1545z I QSYed to QRP 15m FT8 with the IC705. So far, 50 spots of me in 4 continents. It's too darn easy!  Someone called me so I had a quick QSO.

UPDATE 1556z: 63 spots of me. See map.

15m QRP FT8 (Thursday)

For a change, I am trying 15m QRP FT8 with my QMX+ transceiver. Within a few minutes I was being spotted by 48 stations and I had spotted 38. 

The map shows the stations spotting my 15m QRP at 2150z. 223 stations have spotted me.

15m QRP FT8 (Monday)

 At about 1840z, I QSYed to 15m. So far (at 1851z) 11 stations have spotted me, all "across the pond".

UPDATE 2102z: 51 stations have spotted my QRP 15m FT8 this evening. See map.

Valve QRP

This was several years ago at the QTH of G6ALB. Andrew did the building of this valve Sputnik TX and I did the operating. After about 10 minutes a CQ call on 15m resulted in a contact with a station in the USA. Present were G4NUA (SK), G6ALB and G3XBM (me). What fun we all had!

15m QRP FT8 (Saturday)

So far today my 15m QRP FT8 has been spotted by 156 stations worldwide (see photo) with the QMX+ transceiver.

UPDATE 1348z: 233 stations across the world have spotted my QRP 15m FT8 today.

QMX+ on 15m (Sunday)

Just for fun, I tried the QMX+  on 15m. It was not for long. Several Es spots of me.  Looking at the bars on the TX monitor I would reckon about 3W power.

15m QRP FT8 with the tiny QDX (Sunday)

At the moment I am trying 15m FT8 with the tiny QDX transceiver. Conditions are better than 10m, but still pathetic compared with yesterday.

UPDATE 1513z:  I have gone RX only after a brief period on TX. 

Stations spotted on 15m
FT8 RX today to 1518z

UPDATE 1618z:  326 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1923z:  720 stations spotted.

UPDATE 2132z:  877 stations spotted. Now QRT. The QDX RX works really well.

15m QRP FT8 with the QDX (Thursday)

Stations spotting my QRP FT8 on 15m today

As 10m FT8 is so poor, I have QSYed to 15m. So far, I have been spotted by 14 stations with the furthermost WA4MIT (7015km) and I have spotted 21 stations.

UPDATE 1643z: 45 stations spotted and I have been spotted by 41 stations.

15m Pipit transceiver

This photo of my homebrew 15m QRP CW transceiver was found when I was looking through some old stuff. This was an 800mW transceiver. It worked very well and was the only rig used for several months.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/15m-qrp-cw-pipit .

QDX on 15m FT8 (Saturday)

A few minutes ago I QSYed to 15m FT8 with the little QDX transceiver. 10 stations have spotted me, but (according to PSKreporter) I have spotted zero stations, whereas locally there are plenty shown! Either this means I am not uploading spots to PSKreporter or there is a delay with RX spots.

UPDATE 1932z:   Plenty of spots now appearing, so looks like there was a delay reporting RX spots.

UPDATE 1941z: Windows was updating, which may have had some effect.

15m

At the moment 15m is a very useful band. It stays open longer than 10m and with the high sunspot count, it is capable of worldwide DX.  Although many people have migrated to FT8 to chase DX, some may still go on CW.

Back in the mid 1970s I designed the QRP Pipit CW transceiver. For many months it was the only rig used. It worked really well with just a low dipole.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/15m-qrp-cw-pipit.

15m FT8 RX (Sunday)

As 10m seems to have stopped, I have QSYed to 15m FT8 RX.  So far, 135 stations have been spotted with most in North and South America. Still using the QDX transceiver. A very brief TX slot was spotted in the Canary Is..

UPDATE 2051z:  Now 15m FT8 seems to have stopped? 138 stations spotted.

10m FT8 next year

Currently, I  expect to be on 10m QRP (5W) quite a bit next year. Possibly I may also try 15m FT8.   I find voice QSOs hard these days. Many people are moving to FT8 now.  Around sunspot maximum, working the world should certainly be possible with QRP 10m FT8.

HF conditions

We can all agree that HF conditions are good on the whole. The higher HF bands are suitable for worldwide contacts and conditions are likely to get better still as we run up to the next solar maximum. At the moment this is forecast to be over a year away still. Bands like 15m, 12m and 10m are good again.

You may get some ideas from my Pipit 15m rig that dates from about 30 years ago.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/15m-qrp-cw-pipit .

Complete change today?

As an experiment, I may try FT8 RX on a different band with my 10m end fed antenna. I think it has a low SWR on some other bands, but I cannot remember which. 

UPDATE 0836z:  The antenna would appear to be a good match on 17m, 15m. 12m and 10m. Today, I am trying 15m FT8. My very first signal resulted in a QSO with an LZ station. 8 stations have spotted me on QRP TX!  I am RX only now. So far, on 15m FT8 RX, 16 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1113z: 172 stations spotted so far today on 15m FT8 RX.

15m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop (Monday)

At  0855z, I turned on my 15m FT8 RX. No spots yet. I think conditions are disturbed.

UPDATE 1000z:   No spots on 15m FT8 RX on PSKreporter. As I lost the internet connection for a while I may have not uploaded some of the recent spots (there are a few).

UPDATE 1224z:   I have restarted WSJT-X as I am seeing plenty of spots locally, but none were appearing on PSKreporter. Since restarting, plenty of spots appearing!

UPDATE 1402z:   81 stations spotted so far on 15m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1710z:   169 stations spotted.

15m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop

Again I am on 15m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop antenna. This just sits on the shack windowsill and is about 50cm diameter. For the size, it is remarkable. 

UPDATE 1635z: 409 stations spotted on RX today. Unlike yesterday, there were plenty of stations from the USA.  Perhaps conditions were disturbed yesterday?

UPDATE 1840z:  473 stations spotted today. With very few additional ones, I may soon go QRT and QSY to a lower band.

UPDATE 1850z:  Although I am unsure when this happened, my tiny loop had fallen over. There was still plenty of DX coming through just now when I QSYed to 160m FT8 RX.

15m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop

From about 1000z, I have been on 15m FT8 RX with the tiny loop on the shack windowsill. So far today, 35 stations already spotted.

UPDATE 1135z: 120 stations spotted so far today on 15m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop antenna. Furthermost is BD6RN (8841km) in Hubei, China.

UPDATE 1245z:  174 stations spotted so far.

UPDATE 1554z:  295 stations spotted so far, with nothing at all from South America. I guess that could be conditions, time of day, or antenna directionality. I find it surprising that not a single South American has been spotted so far. Come to think of it, just 1 Florida station in the USA spotted.

UPDATE 1725z:  331 stations spotted, but very very few from the Americas.

UPDATE 1855z:  341 stations spotted today.

UPDATE 2210z: 343 stations spotted today (see map). Now QRT. Not sure when the loop fell over, but I think it must have been quite late!

15m FT8 RX with the indoor loop

At just after 0900z, I turned on 15m FT8 RX using just the tiny indoor loop antenna used yesterday on 17m. So far, 20 stations spotted in just a few minutes.

UPDATE 0933z: 51 stations spotted with several in Japan.

UPDATE 1637z:  446 stations spotted on 15m FT8 RX today. 

UPDATE 1706z: 491 stations spotted on the tiny loop antenna on 15m FT8 RX today.

UPDATE 1835z:  526 stations spotted. QRT soon.

15m FT8 RX

At about 1300z, I turned on 15m FT8 RX. So far, at 1320z, 70 stations spotted.

UPDATE 1402z:   141 stations spotted today on 15m FT8 RX.

UPDATE 1627z:  Have been QRT for a while now on 15m FT8 RX.