For the first time in months I was not on 630m QRP WSPR, when I was at home, last night. Gradually, the number of spots I had received had been dropping off. I shall be back on in the autumn and may try occasionally in the coming months, but not every night.
A new night-time challenge calls! I am still undecided what form this should take.
10m Es looks promising and my 500uW 10m WSPR beacon is on.
UPDATE 1457z: Despite Es being excellent today with 24 spots across Europe in 6m 10mW FT8, I have received no spots at all of my 500uW 10m WSPR. This is 13dB less power, but I was surprised that not a single spot was obtained. This must mean (1) 13dB makes a lot of difference, (2) many more are now on FT8, or (3) the 15 second period of FT8 catches more very brief Es openings than the 120 seconds of WSPR-2. It is probably a bit of all three.
UPDATE 1838z: GM4WJA (624km) has spotted my 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR several times.
I shall try again in the autumn.
A new challenge calls!
My 10mW ERP from the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground was turned on at about 1910. So far, spotted by just G6AVK (78km).
Once again, I am on 6m with my 10mW WSPR. Although I have been copied locally, I have yet to get any Es spots.
I am trying to simulate what would happen with ISM powers in the UK on 8m, which is open to all without a licence in the UK. I remain convinced this is enough power on WSPR to allow Es spots from Europe on 8m.
With FT8, conditions would have to be exceptional to be copied I suspect.
UPDATE 1234z: My experiment has worked. Quite a few European spots of my 10mW 6m WSPR. Some reports suggest even FT8 might have worked. Starting next week I shall try 6m QRPP FT8 at 10mW. It is my conclusion that 10mW ERP WSPR on 8m (available to all in the UK without a licence) would work under Es conditions.
My QRPP beacon is on again. It was spotted in Germany yesterday, so I remain hopeful.
My 10mW 6m WSPR is on again. As you will know this is to find out how well 10mW ERP might perform on 8m, which is available to all (certainly in the UK) under ISM rules without a licence. I am guessing there are more monitors on 6m.
UPDATE 1900z: No 6m spots of me today. Unexpectedly, 3 UK stations were spotted on 6m WSPR RX despite the large pad on the rig output!
UPDATE 2135z: G0VQH (15km) has spotted my 10mW 6m WSPR very strongly (+2dB S/N)
My 500uW 10m WSPR is on again, although I doubt this will be copied unless we have really good Es further west in Europe. Maybe later?
UPDATE 1343z: DK6UG (633km) has spotted my 500uW 5 times today.
At about 1910z, I QSYed to 630m WSPR with my 10mW ERP. So far, 2 spots received from G8OCV/SDR (65km).
My 10mW 6m WSPR is on, but no spots of me at 0835z.
UPDATE 1920z: No spots of me all day.
My 500uW 10m WSPR is on. So far (at 0833z) no spots of me.
UPDATE 1807z: No spots.
Once again, I am on 630m QRP WSPR with 10mW ERP from my earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. At the moment I appear to be the only UK station on TX. So far, just spots by G8OCV/SDR (65km).
At the moment I am carrying out two experiments:
My QRPP 6m WSPR was turned on at about 0830z.
UPDATE 1606z: No spots. I am beginning to think that 10mW 6m WSPR is harder than I was expecting. When I went on earlier I noticed that there were quite a few lines of interference. This, if typical, could make reception of weak signals hard.
I forgot to change back to G3XBM from GE3XBM that I was using on 6m during my QRPP tests overnight. Just a single station spotted my 10mW ERP overnight. It was quite the worst night for months. Probably time to think of a new challenge!!
UPDATE 0950z: I shall keep going on 630m WSPR until the weekend before reconsidering things.
This is really to see how 8m WSPR would work under ISM rules (10mW ERP). I am testing on 6m as I hope there will be more monitors.
If it works on 6m, I am pretty sure it would work on 8m. On 6m QRPP WSPR I am using a unique callsign so I can ID spots at 10mW.
UPDATE 2000z: No spots of me all day.
