First and last 10m spots by USA stations today - Jan 16th 2015

The first USA station to spot my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon was N1NCO (5283km) at 1212z and the last was K9AN (6505km) at 1712z. Considering the falling sunspots and only "fair" 10m conditions predicted, it seems to have been quite good "across the pond" today.

472kHz WSPR overnight

No great DX overnight on MF.  My best DX on RX was PA0O at 440km and on TX (5mW ERP) I was spotted by G8HUH (250km). No totally new stations spotted.

472kHz always has activity whereas the other band I sometimes use, 6m, is bad at this time of the year. So, currently I tend to use 10m (500mW, 100% TX) and 630m (472kHz with 5mW ERP 20% TX and 80%, the latter using earth-electrodes in the ground).

Falling sunspots

The sunspot number has fallen again to 62 and 10m propagation is forecast to be "fair". Nonetheless, 10m opened to the USA yet again with N1NCO (5283km) spotting my 500mW WSPR beacon at 1212z.

USA 10m WSPR spots today

My 500mW 10m WSPR beacon has again been spotted many times in the USA today. My first spot was by  KC1AWS (5308km) at 1158z. The last spot was by K9AN (6505km) at 1734z. This is the first time for a while I have been spotted in the USA on 10m before lunch.

Even lower cost TCXOs

This information comes again from Steve (font of all knowledge) G1KQH:

Getting cheaper!!

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Compensated-crystal-components-YAESU-FT-817-FT-857-FT-897-/291340980542?tfrom=281546626804&tpos=top&ttype=price&talgo=undefined

 

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/

Sunspots and 10m - Jan 17th 2015

Sunspot number today is 89 and 10m propagation forecast to be " good". SN seems to be falling in recent days. Maybe, on average, we are seeing the start of the slide?

Various modes compared

Comparisons were recently posted on the RSGB LF reflector. I am sorry but I cannot recall the author, although I think it was by a Dutch station.  Basically it showed (using 2500Hz bandwidth) that WSPR2 (2 minute WSPR) is some 29dB better than SSB and 12wpm CW some 15dB better than SSB. Of course there are all sorts of provisos and caveats, but it goes to show why WSPR is so very good with very weak signals although only basic data is usually exchanged with WSPR.

472kHz WSPR

Again, I stayed on MF rather than going on 6m today. The PC turned off in the early hours to load Windows updates so I rebooted the PC and reset the PC clock to internet time after breakfast. Only spots by G7NKS (46km) and G8LCO (58km) so far today. PA0O (440km) is my best spot today on MF on receive.

10m WSPR spots by USA stations

The first USA spot of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today was by KC1AWS (5308km) at 1316z. At the moment, the last WSPR spot by a USA station was KU4PY (6991km) at 1748z.

Best DX today was AE7YQ (8533km) late afternoon. No DX further than the USA today.

Sunspots and 10m WSPR

Sunspot number today has fallen to 93 but 10m propagation is again forecast to be "good".

So far, my 500mW 10m WSPR-AXE-CW beacon has been spotted by the usual scatter of Europeans, but no further. The band may open to the Indian Ocean, Africa and South America. I confidently predict it will open to North America this afternoon.