A morning on 10m

For a change, this morning I went on 10m rather than 6m. I had to disconnect the antennas early on because of a passing thunderstorm, but these are the results up to now with 2W out.  Basically a fair scatter of 10m Es WSPR spots given and received from across Europe. No DX from outside Europe seen (yet).  Hopefully will see some South Americans later.

Sunspot count today is 132 (quite respectable) and 20-30MHz propagation is "normal".

10m unique WSPR spots (2W) this morning

Southern Europeans are exchanging WSPR spots with S.Africa (TEP?) at around 8400-8500km, but N.Europeans are missing out.

Stateside 6m stations - where are they on WSPR?

Forgetting F-layer propagation - now unlikely this autumn on 6m - the best chances of 6m transatlantic propagation are the next 6 weeks by multi-hop Es.

For a decent chance we need lots of stations active on 6m WSPR on both sides of the Atlantic. Generally there are quite a few active stations in Europe (including the UK) but very few in the eastern USA. I find this hard to fathom.

Not much power should be necessary. Even a few watts ERP should be enough. 6m is a fascinating band and WSPR the ideal mode to "sniff out" short-lived openings.

Please, if you are in the Eastern USA or Canada , come on to 6m WSPR for June and July to help us see if the 6m band opens "across the pond". Without stations in the right place we are wasting our time.

Tempted to 10m tomorrow?

Knowing my luck, if I QSY to 10m tomorrow then 6m will be in excellent shape, possibly with some long distance multi-hop Es! Despite this, I may start on 10m on Saturday morning and see what happens.   I could QSY back to 6m later I guess. Today on 6m has been mixed: some reasonable Es and quite a few locals and semi-locals spotted and spotting me.

6m Es and GDX

6m Es, with my 1W ERP WSPR signal, started today at 1216z here with spots of my QRP signal by IK1WVQ (1084km) followed by DL4MFC (916km).  A better start on 6m than yesterday! A little later IK1NET (981km) was spotting me at 1244z..

I spotted both IK1WVQ and DL4MFC around 1238z.  I am now hopeful of more Es during the day.

UPDATE 1315z:    DL4RU (879km) spotted me at 1304z.

UPDATE 1830z:    No more Es her since 1654z with OK2RO (1282km). Since then just locals and GDX -  G4IKZ (18km), G8KNN (12km), G3ZJO (79km), G8EPA (61km), G0LRD (25km). Earlier in the day G4KPX (12km) and G4FFC (45km).

UPDATE 1940z:   Still no more 6m Es (here at least) after OK2RO, just Gs.

UPDATE 2030z:  Just 6m G locals and semi-locals.

6m locals and semi-locals this evening on WSPR

UPDATE 2122z:   G6AVK (78km) is now spotting me too.

Sunspots,10m and 6m

Sunspot count is 102 today (higher than of late) and 20-30MHz propagation is forecast to be "good", so better than of late. 10m could be better for F-layer propagation today.

So far, it has been quiet on 6m again with just locals spotting me on WSPR  - G4IKZ (18km)  and G4KPX (14km). No sign of Es yet at 1040z.

HAARP to be saved?

The (controversial) HAARP project in Alaska is closing and the facility being dismantled, but scientists are trying to save it. See http://www.adn.com/2014/06/03/3500302/scientists-make-last-ditch-effort.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1 .   There have been all sorts of conspiracy theories. One of the objectives was to generate uW or mW level ELF signals (to communicate with submerged nuclear submarines) by heating the ionosphere with AM modulated HF signals.

http://media.adn.com/smedia/2014/05/14/19/42/1qEGYg.AuSt.7.jpeg

"What a shame if they have to tear it down, they just finished the build out to the full array a couple of years ago!

I was fortunate to get a tour of the site about 10 years ago as my friend Steve W4YHD was the Chief Engineer, quite impressive! I have some photos (35mm film, not digital) which I need to scan.  The HAARP transmitters were true AM transmitters as they were used to heat the ionosphere and generate e.l.f. waves by modulating the carrier with low frequency audio tones, very inefficient (but all elf transmission schemes suffer from lack of efficiency),many megawatts of HF energy used to excite milliwatts (or perhaps microwatts?) of elf radiation from the ionosphere.

See:http://vlf.stanford.edu/research/experiments-haarp-ionospheric-heater

    I recall that they had a Radar on site and were supposed to shut down in case an aircraft flew through the beam. They also had an ICOM R72 receiver so they could listen before transmitting so as not to cause QRM !  The whole lashup was powered by a series of 5 generators driven by diesel locomotive engines.   The transmitter was actually a bunch of final amplifiers, solid state driver and a 3cx5000 PA tube, housed in trailers below the antenna array, each trailer housed a number of 3cx5000 PA's - the PA's were fed by an HP synthesizer (don't recall the model #, might be in one of my photos) and fed with equal lengths of coax so all PA's would be in phase. There was a method to shift the phase across the array so as to change the shape and direction of the beam. The antennas were bow-tie dipoles broadband from 3-10MHz.  The whole thing was controlled by Sun Sparc workstations from a master control room.  Just for fun I tuned up one of the transmitters on 7.290 MHz AM to see if I could strap Ashtabula Bill W8VYZ, of course it was daytime and I don't think anybody was affected!

   Was hoping to make a return trip to see the fully built out site but its looking very questionable at the moment.

73 Warren K2ORS"

6m - results so far this spring

Just seen how many spots I have had of my 1W ERP 6m WSPR signal so far. 28 unique reports in 3 continents with best DX 3519km from 4X1RF.

Not bad with an FT817 set to 2.5W, V2000 vertical and coax with a loss of more than 3dB.

6m unique spots with 1W ERP this Es season so far.

Anytone and Wouxun Chinese radios

Steadily, the Chinese are entering the amateur radio market. In addition to the "back shed" HF radios, there are now several neat looking VHF/UHF dual band radios and a quad band mobile (Anytone AT5888UV) for 10, 6, 2m and 70cm. See http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/11197  for reviews of the quad bander.

See also the Wouxun KG-UV8D 5W dual band handheld with a  large screen available from UK dealers for under £100.  This is even cheaper on eBay.

Anytone also offer a couple of 28MHz radios at bargain basement prices. They are around £199 or less.

The Chinese are coming. Watch out Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu! Your easy ride is nearly over.

I give the Chinese less than a year to come up with a good FT817 replacement at a decent price. Yaesu seem totally uninterested, so I bet the Chinese will be. The market for a good FT817 replacement is certainly measured in hundreds of thousands of transceiver units.  Enough to wake anyone up, apart, it seems, from Yaesu.

IF Yaesu is working on a replacement for the FT817 it had better be quick about it as the "window of opportunity" is rapidly closing. Band conditions are slipping, the KX3 is selling widely (but expensive over here in the UK as is the Argonaut VI) and the Chinese are coming up fast on the outside.

Doppler on locals and a VERY quiet day on 6m

Today, so far, it has been exclusively local G4IKZ (18km) on 6m WSPR  One thing I have noticed both on his spots and those by G4FFC (45km) yesterday is that when there is a lot of Doppler my reports are poorer. I assume the aircraft reflections sometimes result in destructive interference and an effective drop in S/N.

This month, so far, sunspot numbers have been lower (70 today), although 20-30MHz propagation is described as "normal". I think the slide downwards is starting, sadly. But, even next autumn 10m should still be good though - we are a LONG way from the minimum yet. I think long distance 6m F-layer propagation openings will be few unless one is lucky enough to be closer to the equator and may catch TEP openings. CN8LI and stations in Israel were managing to catch 6m TEP openings quite recently, as were some VK and JA stations.

UPDATE 1700z:   Just G4IKZ (18km) spotting me since I switched on 6m WSPR at 0556z - a very very quiet day on 6m so far today: no Es and no GDX seen here, so far. There is at least one "wandering" signal that has been seen several times drifting across the band but with too much drift to decode. Strong, but no Doppler. At one point it was stable enough to decode but the signal faded out after 1 minute. I think this was an Es signal. May never know though. I am tempted to QSY to 472kHz WSPR this evening unless things markedly improve on 6m.

UPDATE 1808z:  another new local(ish) station has just appeared on 6m spotting me:   M0MVB (30km) up in the Fens.  Still no 6m Es here.I presume M0MVB is just in from work and just turned the gear on.

UPDATE 1925z:   Still no 6m Es here today. Tomorrow can only be better.

UPDATE 2050z:  I stuck with 6m, but only locals today. Very disappointing indeed.

Quiet 6m evening

Apart from G4IKZ (18km) and G4FFC (45km) all has been quiet on 6m WSPR since the 14 spots exchanged with CN8LI (2113km) - last spot 1558z.

On 2m late afternoon stations were calling "CQ sporadic" on SSB, although when I listened no DX was heard from Europe.  I think the Es MUF must have exceeded 144MHz briefly.