Today, I am concluding my experiment with very low power on 10m. Today, I am running 10mW 10m WSPR. Conditions are more disturbed than yesterday.
UPDATE 1654z: 14 spots of me so far today. I think my experiment has demonstrated that very low power digital modes really do work on 10m. WSPR is better than FT8, but even 10mW of FT8 can be enough, although you need a clear frequency! Back to QRO (3W HI) tomorrow!
This is an outlet for Chinese (only?) companies. I find some of their prices remarkable. Often the goods come by air in just a few days. On some items I guess you might have to pay some duty. Even so, their prices are unbelievable.
I suppose the downside is that this kills western manufacturing that cannot compete with labour costs. Making in Europe or the USA we would not be able to compete on price. Making consumer goods more locally would stoke inflation.
On Saturday we enter meteorological spring and rallies occur more often. The following have been notified to me, but I always advise to check before going far.
As mentioned before, tomorrow night (Friday) at 2000z, I am giving a talk on 8m at the Cambridge Radio Club. As my voice is poor, someone else is doing the speaking even though I prepared the slides and notes. We did this last year and it worked. I am sure if you are not a regular CDARC member you would be welcomed as a guest.
UPDATE 1209z: Still no spots on 10mW 10m FT8 TX, so I have QSYed in case I am being clobbered. On the evidence so far, 10mW FT8 is just too little. 100mW was fine. As the sunspots decline I think I will use 2-3W FT8 from the QDX on most occasions. It would seem the 10dB more reduction on FT8 TX power makes it hugely harder. I guess WSPR is better as it takes up less bandwidth (less chance of being clobbered) and works with signals far weaker. Maybe I should try 10m WSPR TX tomorrow at 10mW?
UPDATE 1440z: Spotted by 2 stations when running 10mW 10m FT8. It is much harder at very low power. I suspect it would be far easier on 10m WSPR with its much smaller bandwidth (about 6 Hz rather than about 50 Hz) and far better sensitivity. WSPR can decode signals probably about 10dB weaker than those on FT8.
UPDATE 2144z: QRT. 10mW 10m WSPR tomorrow.
My typical breakfast is Weetabix with fruit.
A local friend of mine reports that he has been spotted in South Australia with just 2mW WSPR on 17m. It goes to prove that not much power is really needed!
