Sunspot number and 10m propagation - Feb 4th 2015

Sunspot number today is 112 and 10m propagation is expected to be "fair". No great 10m DX this morning (Europeans and near Asia only) but the band did again open to the USA after lunch.

472kHz WSPR

No new stations spotting me or being spotted, today.  My best report was from G3WCB (101km) and my best DX on RX is again DK7FC (669km).  I am still using the earth-electrodes and 5mW ERP.

2m UKAC tonight

If I have my dates right, tonight is the February 2m leg of the RSGB's UK Activity Contest.  My 3 el beam is still not rotatable - it is fixed aiming SW, so I may use this and my halo instead for about 1 hour. The feeder to the halo is only RG58 so the loss is much greater than when on the beam which has fairly low loss coax.

Stations worked with  less than 5W to a halo on 2m

UPDATE 2135z:  I stayed on 2m for 1 hour before I had to stop because of my poor voice. 5 stations were worked with best DX  G3MEH (84km). I used just the halo antenna with the high cable loss. Best DX heard was in IN99 and JO33 squares. As I was running real QRP and a halo for an hour only,  it was not a bad effort. I wonder if I should replace the halo and feeder with a better cable and better omni antenna such as a big wheel? Gain would be a little down on the small beam, but better than the halo. Many stations are worked in contests off the main beam.  Only one station worked this evening was /P. Several more stations would have been workable such as G2XV and G4CLA.

10m USA WSPR spots

WG2Z (5600km) spotted me first today at 1250z. There are lots of USA stations spotting my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon this afternoon.

UPDATE 1812z:   For now, it looks like K9AN (6505km) was the last USA spot of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today. As this was over an hour ago I suspect this was the last, but I'll have to wait another hour or so to be sure.

UPDATE 1900z:  K9AN (6505km) was the last station in the USA to spot me today at 1704z.

Sunspots and 10m

Sunspot number has dropped to 117 and 10m propagation is expected to be "fair".  I restarted WSPR on 630m and 10m a few minutes ago but only local G4IKZ spotting me on 10m so far.

70cm AM test with low cost modules

This evening I listened for G6ALB on 70cm. Andrew is 3km from me. We both have V2000 vertical co-linear antennas. He was using a very low cost SAW locked TX module, which produced as much FM as AM when modulated with an electret mic. The biggest problem was Andrew's low power and low level of modulation.  He needs more mic gain, more TX power (10dB more?) and some pre-emphasis on the audio. TX power today was very low milliwatts. From 433.925MHz up to at least 433.990MHz a lot of squeaks and whistles could be heard, presumably from more local ISM devices. I was receiving G6ALB using an FT817 at about RS41 on FM and weaker on AM. This very initial test produced results that were expected. To use a super-regen module on RX (the intention is a very simple AM voice transceiver) will require G6ALB to be considerably stronger than on these first tests.

10m USA spots

10m has been open across the Atlantic since lunchtime. First USA station to copy my 500mW WSPR today was K4RCG (5995km) at 1316z.

FR4OZ (9733km) on Reunion Is was copying me a couple of times around lunch on 10m WSPR, as was ET/G8DYK (5931km). 10m certainly seems in pretty decent shape. In addition to other N.American stations, lots of Europeans have been spotting me today.   It certainly feels like 500mW on WSPR to a very modest antenna is like 100W plus on SSB!

UPDATE 2000z:  I am sorry for the SPAM comment, which has now been removed.  Similar SPAM posts will be removed, without exception, as soon as spotted.

UPDATE 2140z:  Now QRT on all bands. The last USA station to spot my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today was AB4QS (7087km) at 1736z.

10m to South America

YV5ESN (7294km) has been copying my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon a couple of times since lunch. This is the first time I've been seen in Venezuela I believe on this mode.

Sunspots and 10m - Feb 2nd 2015

Sunspot number today is 132 and 10m propagation expected to be "fair". So far today, conditions on 10m have seemed pretty reasonable.

Going QRT on 6m and 10m WSPR

After a totally useless afternoon and evening on 6m WSPR, I am going QRT. I am going QRT on 10m  as well. Plenty of activity on 10m, but 6m was yet again a total dead loss.