Solar flux is 156 and the SSN 82. A=20 and K=1.
30 Apr 2023
29 Apr 2023
Multiband antennas
Quite a good multi-band antenna is the end-fed via a 9:1 balun. At the end of the wire it presents a high impedance and the 9:1 balun drops the impedance to a low SWR, certainly less than 3:1 that can be tuned via the auto-ATU in many modern rigs. On many radios an ATU will not be needed at all. With QRP, RF on the coax is not usually an issue. With high power, more care or a counterpoise may be needed.
At the moment I am using an end-fed antenna. I have not found a counterpoise necessary.
Commercial versions are available (e.g. from Moonraker), although many make their own.
Amateur Radio Weekly
Thus comes to me as an email on Saturdays. It is a precis of amateur radio news and very good it is. There are links to the originating articles.
See https://hamweekly.com/ .
8m tests to restart
This next week, I hope to restart my QRP tests on 40.680 MHz FT8. I have been off for a few weeks.
The Es season is just getting under way. This season, I may try WSPR sometime probably in the WSPR window at 40.680 MHz (DF 1400-1600 Hz).
It would be good if lots of countries came on 8m FT8 or WSPR this season, ideally TX, but RX if nothing else.
I am convinced that just 10mW ERP WSPR will be copied across Europe on 8m at times. In the UK anybody would be able to TX 10mW ERP WSPR in the 8m ISM band without a licence as long as the technical requirements and IR2030 are met. This is not the Amateur Radio Service. It is an experiment under ISM rules.
Breakfast time? - NOT amateur radio
This thrush was hunting for worms and insects when we were on our walk earlier. Must be breakfast time!
10m QRP FT8 with the QDX
UPDATE 1824z: 65 stations have spotted me so far today (see map).
28 Apr 2023
QDX
Just would like to put on record how amazing the tiny 20-10m QDX digital transceiver is from QRP Labs.
It works extremely well on TX and, as I have found out in the last day, works extremely well on RX down to at least 40m. It will probably go even lower!
If you have no other rig, this tiny transceiver is a real winner. It can be used with WSJT-X on all modes I think. So far, I have used FT8 and WSPR. It is nominally a 5W rig, but my QRP signal is daily copied all over the world.
It is incredible how something this tiny works so very well.
40m FT8 RX (Friday)
It is intriguing to see how low I can RX on my tiny 20-10m QDX transceiver. At the moment I am on 40m FT8 RX with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground, which seems to work better at 40m than my end-fed 10m antenna. It would probably work on TX too but the low pass filter is probably ineffective.
Nothing has appeared on PSKreporter, although I can see many stations locally on my screen. Perhaps there is a delay or a reset is needed?
UPDATE 1310z: WSJT-X reset. Still no PSKreporter spots on 40m FT8 RX. Just looked on the "all bands" view and I can see my 40m RX spots - odd.
UPDATE 1401z: 51 stations spotted on 40m FT8 RX on the 20-10m QDX RX with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.
OFCOM updates
Just a reminder that OFCOM updates the information it holds every week. There is also a list of its publications. See the OFCOM website.
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