Sunspots today

The sunspot number today has risen to 117 and 10m propagation was forecast to be "good". F2 propagation on 10m looks promising.

UPDATE 2120z:   Although the band was open (again) to the USA, my little 500mW beacon was not spotted further away. Maybe tomorrow.

Going backwards?

After many many years of good service our HP "all in one" low cost printer, scanner and copier has finally died: it would probably cost far more to mend than replace.  So, a few days ago I bought the nearest equivalent. It was delivered today. An HP Deskjet 2540, bought as I was so impressed with the original HP machine.

Why is it that things seem to go backwards? OK, the new machine also supports wireless printing, but I found the set-up more difficult and far less intuitive.  The "easy start" guide which was purely diagrammatic was confusing.  Even installing the cartridges seemed more tricky. In one of my 2 laptops the CD failed to read.

They call it progress.

10m USA - again

Yet again, 10m is open to the USA even with my 500mW WSPR-AXE beacon. Not sure when it first opened but several USA stations were spotting me around tea time including KB9AMG, KF4FX and WA0JYF, all over 6300km.

For most of the day UR/SWL56 was spotting my 500mW beacon (76 spots!) at strengths up to an amazing +2dB S/N. For most of the afternoon, the USA stations were not spotting me. I did a re-sync at tea time and since then they have been copying me. This may be purely co-incidental and just "conditions". If I had not been spotted so consistently by UR/SWL56 I would suspect a small buglet in the WSPR-AXE software, but somehow this seems unlikely.

Anyway, now I am getting plenty of USA reports.

UPDATE 1910z:    WG2Z (5600km) was still spotting me at 1850z, but since then just local G4IKZ (18km). We'll soon see if there are later USA spots, but I suspect that is it.

UPDATE 2045z:   The last spots from the USA of my 500mW beacon were KC2GMM, N2NOM and  WG2Z all at 1850z. 10m has opened to the USA every afternoon for weeks and weeks now.

Sunspot number - Nov 14th 2014

The sunspot number is 104 today with 10m propagation forecast to be "good".    Although 10m opened to the USA yet again yesterday, it has been quite quiet here so far today.

Ten Tec Argonauts

http://www.eham.net/data/reviews/images/10849.jpeg

Many QRP enthusiasts have used the various TenTec Argonaut transceivers. I never have, so what follows is not from personal experience. The latest Argonaut VI misses 6m, 12m, and 60m and seems expensive, at least here in the UK.

The image on the LHS (above) resides on the www.eham.net site and will be removed if linking to it is an issue.

To identify the older Argonaut models, Ten Tec have a "knowledge base" page to help.  See http://www.tentec.com/pages/Identifying-the-Argonaut-transceivers.html . Although the latest version is said to be very good, I am afraid I'll not be buying one. Price needs to be £799 or less in the UK and it needs the missing bands before I'd even look.

There are 22 reviews of the Argonaut VI on eHam.net. See http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/10849 . At an average of 4.5 out of 5, the score is not that good. The FT817 scores much better. People seem to love it or hate it. It apparently has a very quiet receiver and a very simple user interface.

I see that Ten Tec have dropped the USA price of the Argonaut VI to $849 for a package that now bundles the mic and 700Hz CW filter too. I suspect this is a desperate measure to shore up sales.  It would not surprise me if they went bust. Personally, I think the latest Argonaut VI was a mistake that Ten Tec now regret. These are personal views. I hope they survive and thrive, but please reduce the Argonaut VI price outside the USA too and, for goodness sake, add those missing bands!

Their Rebel open source CW rig sounds far more likely to succeed in my personal view.

Ten Tec is reputable make, not Japanese or Chinese, and I wish them well for the future. The commercial world is a tough place, so take nothing for granted.

Stateside reports yet again

Yet again, 10m opened to North America this afternoon. The earliest USA spot for me was at 1212z.  In a way, I was expecting to get some real, very long distance 10m DX spots today with my 500mW WSPR-AXE beacon but "only" Europe, Middle East and USA so far. I still remain very pleased with the little beacon.

Unique 10m WSPR spots received so far today (500mW)

UPDATE 1755z:  The last 10m WSPR spot of my 500mW beacon seems to have been at 1722z by WG2Z (5600km). Since then just spots from local G4IKZ (18km).

UPDATE 1840z:  My little W5OLF 10m beacon has just been switched off.

Multi-band WSPRing?

Now I have my fully stand-alone 10m WSPR-AXE unit, I should be able to WSPR on MF (with the earth-electrode antenna) or on 6m at the same time. I have yet to try this out but this means I can WSPR on 2 bands at once should I want. 6m might be fun although I've had no success to date lately on 6m.

10m WSPR-AXE reports

So far this morning (it is now 1045z) I have received 50 separate reports using my 10m WSPR-AXE 500mW beacon (sent to me by W5OLF). The little, fully self-contained, beacon (no PC needed) works very well indeed. After about 20 minutes settling time, the drift is essentially zero. Some of the reports below show the beacon still settling. I thoroughly recommend this unit. It is such FUN to use and see all the reports coming in. Just a single small PCB and it fits in a small enclosure. With my poor voice, it is an excellent way of enjoying the hobby and checking propagation - all at very low cost too. What I like is that it is all on a single PCB. Although the Ultimate 3 kit  from Hans Summers covers more modes and is less expensive, it is on several PCBs and is slightly more complex. The W5OLF WSPR-AXE beacon matches my needs perfectly.

Unique 10m WSPR spots to 1045z today with WSPR-AXE beacon

UPDATE 1148z:   Spots this morning being received from right across Europe from Finland (OH) in the north to Italy (I) in the south and Ukraine (UR) and Bulgaria (LZ) in the east, plus Israel (4X), all with the tiny WSPR-AXE 500mW unit. Further afield later?

UPDATE 2000z:  Apart from the very many spots from the USA, no other DX was spotting me. I was hoping for a spot from Australia, but that will have to be on another day. Judging by my reports so far, I think this is just a matter of time.

Sunspots

Sunspot number is a little up on yesterday at 89. 10m propagation is expected to be "good" so I am very hopeful of some really long distance F2 reports of my little W5OLF WSPR-AXE 10m 500mW beacon. Already it has received 50 spots from Eastern Europe and Israel.

QRP radios

I continue to be surprised by how few affordable QRP radios are on the market. The FT817ND continues to be the favourite, but recent exchange rate changes have not been matched by decent falls in the UK retail prices. I think we are still being ripped off by dealers in the UK. The IC703 is no longer made and the KX3 from Elecraft is very expensive over here. There are a few lower cost Chinese HF radios appearing. Overall, there remains little choice in QRP transceivers at sensible prices. I am sure the KX3 is a very good radio but for the same price I can buy 2 FT817 transceivers, and these are all mode and to 70cms.

A multi-band, all mode, 5-10W radio would be a killer in this age where people take lots of holidays and are on the move frequently. I still fail to understand why the big Japanese manufacturerers have not got a raft of low cost units on the market. It seems a gold mine opportunity is being wasted. Maybe I have misread the market?

I know if there was a new, attractively featured, QRP transceiver on the market now at a sensible price I'd be in the line to buy. I am sure very many others would be too.