Sunspots and 10m today

Sunspot number is 168 (good) and 10m daytime propagation is expected to be "good". It should be a good day on 10m for F2 propagation  today. I have still to turn on my little 10m beacon - we are a bit late today!

10m - 500mW WSPR beacon spotted by ZS6A and 4L1QX

Best DX this afternoon with the 500mW WSPR beacon is ZS6A (9195km) at 1540z. My report was -22dB S/N, suggesting 100mW may have been enough. There are lot of USA stations spotting me but none from South America so far.

UPDATE 1735z:  Was spotted early this afternoon in Batumi, Georgia (on the Black Sea coast) by 4L1QX (3299km). No great distance, but my first spot from Georgia I think.

UPDATE 1742z:  The last transatlantic (USA/Canada) WSPR spot of my 500mW beacon was nearly an hour ago by KD6RF (7547km). This looks like being the last stateside spot today at 1656z. As he was an hour after the other last spot, this may not be the very latest. I shall have to wait and see.

UPDATE 1820z:  Still lots of USA spots coming through. The evening is young yet.

UPDATE 2220z:   As the band has now closed for DX, I have gone QRT on 10m WSPR. My PC (used for 472kHz WSPR with the FT817) decided to close WSPR4 around 1610z and I have just restarted it. I am now getting and giving WSPR spots on MF again.

472kHz WSPR - daytime

Currently I am spotting PA0O (440km), PA3ABK/2 (306km) and G8VDQ (93km) and I am being spotted by G0LRD (25km) all on 472kHz WSPR in daylight using my earth-electrode antenna and 5mW ERP on TX.

472kHz daytime WSPR

Sunspots and 10m

Today's sunspot number is a respectable 154 and 10m propagation is expected to be "good". Already, my 500mW 10m WSPR-AXE-CW beacon (from Jay,W5OLF) is being spotted around Europe, but no further as yet. Best DX report this morning is UR/SWL56 at 2283km. I expect 10m to open to the USA and Canada very shortly.

From today here, the evenings start to get a little lighter again - the change is about a minute a day at first - although mornings get darker until early January. It remains to be seen if 10m stays open slightly longer in the early evenings.

I much prefer lighter evenings!

UPDATE 1232z:  The first USA spot of the day was at 1220z from WG2Z (5600km).

6m overnight - nothing at all!

Despite being spot on frequency and time last night, I spotted no-one and no-one spotted me on 6m WSPR, which was disappointing.

I have now QSYed to 472kHz where despite just 5mW ERP and using earth-electrodes as my "antenna" I am spotting others and being spotted myself.

I really should give up on 6m WSPR at this time of the year, as it is a dead loss.

Last 10m WSPR USA spot today

KE6BID (5295km) was the last USA station to spot my 500mW 10m beacon today at 1716z. It seems the band, which has been open every afternoon for months now to the USA, is closing earlier as the days get shorter. In the spring it will be a battle between falling sunspots and lengthening days. I suspect we'll still have decent 10m propagation for a year or so yet. By 2016 though, the best chances of USA stations will be by multi-hop Es in May, June and July. I could be very wrong.

Antarctica - on 10m WSPR again

RI1ANR (13676km) in Antarctica (JB59mm) spotted my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon this afternoon. This is my best DX today so far.

I guess it is nearly mid-summer now down there - endless daylight down on the snow and ice. No doubt it is still very cold though.

6m WSPR - all I need now are some spots!

Having corrected my frequency setting error - I blame my stroke and muddled brain (!) - and reset my PC to internet time (after the Virgin Media broadband worked again), I am now on frequency and accurate time on 6m.  Just looking for some spots now! No luck as yet.

UPDATE 1640z:  Completely separate from my 6m WSPR kit (PC and FT817), I am on 10m WSPR TX running 500mW from my WSPR-AXE-CW beacon designed by W5OLF.  Plenty of spots from the USA already on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 1704z:  Still no luck, so far, on 6m, but I shall be on all night, ever hopeful.  At least there is some activity from the UK from IO92 square which should be in range via aircraft reflection.   Maybe I'll get lucky.  At least I should now be on frequency and time.

Intermittent internet and no phones this morning

For the 3rd (or 4th?) time this year we have had problems in our area (not the house) with our Virgin Media cable services. Normally it is fast and reliable.  Today our phones did not work and our broadband was intermittent. All seems to be fixed now, thank goodness.

When these basic services fail you realise just how dependent on them you have become. Amongst other things, I could not sync to internet time. Minor really, but it prevented my 6m WSPRing. Now sync'd the PC to internet time, but still having no luck on 6m WSPR.

Sunrise and sunset calculator

 See http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html .

If you are like me, you want to know when the sun rises and sets locally. This calculator may be what you need. Here, near Cambridge, the nights start to get lighter from this coming Thursday (Dec 18th) although it is not until Jan 10th until the mornings start to get lighter.

I much prefer light evenings.