Disappointment on 630m WSPR

There is a distinct lack of TXing stations on this band on WSPR in Europe. Last night there were hardly any active TXing Europeans on 630m WSPR. My own 10mW ERP WSPR was copied by just 3 unique stations. I spotted just 4 uniques. I am seriously thinking of abandoning the band. OK my noise floor (S7) does not help, but there are fewer stations.  It is some time since new stations were spotted and the band is losing its appeal to me.

Sunspots - Tuesday January 9th 2018

Solar flux is 69 again today and the sunspot number 13. A=9 and K=4.

Return to 630m WSPR

At about 2008z I returned to 630m WSPR (10mW ERP, 20% TX). So far I have been spotted by 3 G stations, but no others yet spotted here above my S7 noise floor.

Tribal Knowledge - test gear

My thanks to Steve G1KQH for this link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jmiL14CeQBWNY30eDuRdng1WlUpMDwVtPzy_MSFm0CQ/edit

Heathkit Twoer and Sixer transceivers

If, like me, you are rather old you may remember the Heathkit Twoer, Sixer and similar rigs. These were 5W AM transceivers covering either 10m, 6m or 2m. I think there was also one covering 11m for the early USA CB market.

These were single channel transmitters with a super-regen RX. Although I coveted one, the nearest I got was owning a manual!

In its day, it opened up the VHF bands to the masses, long before SSB and FM. I liked the style then and do so even now. To be honest, today they would struggle, as there is not much AM on VHF and the bandwidth of the RX would be too wide for serious use.

In 1966 it sold for £26 in the UK! On the second-hand market good ones command a good price, no doubt bought by nostalgic old timers!

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/lunchbox

Local museum - NOT amateur radio

Our local Burwell museum (one of the best in the UK) can be chosen as the charity, so it gets some money when one purchases Co-op goods with a Co-op card here in the UK. You get money back for yourself as well as benefitting a local charity of your choice. The Co-op has some keen prices too.

See https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/14610?_ga=2.248622607.92229215.1515413139-1524151408.1508532784

Bots again - NOT amateur radio

Well, according to my stats I have already had 21 times the normal daily blog visits! Yesterday it was about 5 times normal. Either this is just an error or I am being targeted by bots with bad intent. If you spot anything odd, please let me know. Should this blog disappear you'll know why.

UPDATE 1145z: Blog seems normal so far. Most visits are from the USA and not Eastern Europe.

UPDATE 1330z: Blog visits WAY, WAY above normal.

Sunspots - Monday January 8th 2018

Solar flux is 69 today and the sunspot number 11. A=3 and K=1.

6m MSK144

Since just before breakfast, I have been monitoring 50.280MHz MSK144. So far today, nothing spotted.

UPDATE 1148z:  Just G0GGG (210km) spotted so far today on 6m.

630m WSPR overnight

Average. 10 uniques spotted my 10mW ERP and I spotted 6. Those that spotted me were all Gs.