Sunspots and 10m - April 10th 2015

Sunspot number has risen to 68 and 10m propagation is expected to be "fair". 

10m USA spots today

In summary, at least until now at 2030z, there have been no spots at all of my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon in the USA.  Yet again EA8BVP has been spotting me all day, in all 88 times today.

It looks like we can definitely not count on those daily 10m openings to the USA.  Yesterday the 10m band opened quite well, but not today.

UPDATE 2120z:  No sign of USA spots today. Now going QRT on 10m until the morning, but will remain on 6m overnight and check everything is synced to internet time.

6m overnight and first thing this morning.

No DX stations, but 3 different G stations spotting me G6AVK, G4FGJ and G8XWR last night and today. I am sticking on 6m now as the Es season approaches. I expect to spot some DX (outside G) soon.

Sunspots and 10m - April 9th 2015

Sunspot number is much the same at 40 (K=3) and 10m propagation remains "poor".  I left 10m on TX overnight and G4CUI (172km), in IO93fi, copied my 500mW beacon several times.  Drift was low, so this was probably pure tropo rather than aircraft reflections, although it could have been both.

UPDATE 1150z:  EA8BVP (2986km) has been consistently spotting me this morning. No Eastern Europeans and no Israel today again. EA1FAQ (1249km) spotted me once at 1118z. As this is quite short I wonder if this was Es?

Grandchildren - NOT amateur radio

You may have noticed that I was late updating the blog today. The reason is we have 2 of our 4 grandchildren staying with us (on their own) and they take priority. This afternoon we had an Easter egg hunt in the garden. Lovely, but tiring!

6m - not a bad day again

I was again active on 6m WSPR running 1W ERP from a V2000 vertical. No European or further DX, but some decent GDX again (126 and 150km). I am definitely have more luck than when I last came on the band.

6m WSPR spots today (to 2036z)

Even lower cost Pixie kits!

Steve, G1KQH has pointed me to a link with 40m Pixie kits at incredible prices. At these prices there is no way the parts could be bought for less than the kit. The version I bought for $10 looks identical. All you need is a morse key, battery 40m antenna and walkman type headphones and you have a credible 40m CW transceiver. It really works.

Yoohoo Roger,

Now I back in front of the Pixie bargain game hunt, after finding the the best price!!!
http://www.banggood.com/DIY-Radio-40M-CW-Shortwave-Transmitter-Kit-Receiver-7_023-7_026MHz-p-973111.html
£2.89!!!!!!!
and if you buy more than 2 it gets cheaper!!

Not forgetting this includes free shipping. Unbelievable.

10m USA spots

On a day with 10m propagation was expected to be "poor" I was surprised to see my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon spotted in the USA as early as 1208z by K8AJX (6996km). In all honestly, I was not expecting 10m to open to the states today at all. As I said before, 10m is a band of surprises.

UPDATE 2004z:  So far today, 9 different USA stations spotting me on 10m WSPR.  Not bad for a day with "poor" 10m propagation forecast.

UPDATE 2034z:  The opening on 10m to the USA is still going on. This is a long opening already, and could continue for a while yet..

UPDATE 2114z:   Nothing since 2034z, so perhaps the USA opening has ended now?  Will leave 10m and 6m running overnight and will check internet time sync shortly.   Biggest danger is the PC (used for 6m only) turns off in the middle of the night to do updates. 10m is not effected as this is "stand-alone".  EA8BVP (2986km) has been spotting me lots of times during the day: 82 times since 0916z.

UPDATE 2126z:    When 10m dies on a given path (like to the USA) it just dies - it is like a plug has been pulled or a switch just turned off. I am sure if I was running 5w or 25W it would make very little difference. 500mW seems to be perfectly fine. I must say I have been very happy with my little WSPR-AXE-CW beacon, from W5OLF, which has served me well.

Sunspots and 10m - April 8th 2015

Sunspot number has fallen back to 39 today and 10m propagation is expected to be "poor". 10m is full of surprises (see next post!).

10m WSPR - USA surprises

In all honesty I was not expecting the 10m band to open to the USA today as the forecast was for "poor" 10m conditions and this morning was very low key.

As always, this band sprung a surprise when it actually opened to the USA early at 1330z with W1VR (6965km) spotting my 500mW WSPR beacon. Since then, several others in the USA have been spotting me.  EA8BVP (2986km) has been spotting me all day on 10m WSPR, yet again.

UPDATE 1830z:   6 unique USA WSPR stations spotting me so far today.

UPDATE 2017z:   At the moment WD4ELG (6287km) was the last USA station to spot me at 1726z.

UPDATE 2112z:   No further USA 10m spots so going QRT now.

6m - a quiet start this morning

So far just one spot of my 1W ERP signal today from G4FGJ (44km) at 0936z at -11dB S/N (strong).

UPDATE 1750z:  Spots have been exchanged with G4FGJ (44km) several times during the day, but no further DX.

Sunspots and 10m propagation - Tuesday April 7th 2015

Sunspot number has risen to 73 but 10m propagation is expected to be "poor". So far, it is quiet on 10m with just a spot from 4X4TAU (3464km) at 0700z. Otherwise nothing.

6m - quite a good start

Although I spotted, and was spotted, by no European or greater distance DX, I exchanged WSPR spots on 6m with quite a number of G stations. In all, quite a good start back on the 6m band. I am looking forward to the Es season, but happy with the results today. I am using an FT817 on 2.5W setting into a lossy (RG58) feeder to a V2000 vertical. ERP is about 1W.  I really should replace the feeder with lower loss cable.

I am still unsure about Doppler on 6m. Most stations seem to have more drift than I would expect. This could be (a) the other station settling, (b) my station settling, although I've been on all day, and (c) Doppler as a result of reflection from planes. I suspect all 3 are playing a part.

6m WSPR today - 1W ERP, V2000 vertical antenna

40MHz (8m band) allocation?

A few days ago I mentioned that South Africa has allocated a small amateur allocation for propagation studies around 40MHz. Their band is only 10kHz wide.

When I raised this on the RSGB's Yahoo technical group I was (politely) told to go elsewhere as it was "not technical". 

Although I begged to disagree, OK. Discussion closed.

10m USA spots

As of yet, not a single USA spot of my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon. The time is currently 1628z. It is still possible USA spots will occur later, but so far just EA8BVP (2986km) spotting me multiple times on 10m WSPR.  I was expecting to be spotted in the USA on 10m before now.

UPDATE 1840z:  Still no 10m USA spots today. Is that it?

UPDATE 1950z:   No sign of any stations in the USA spotting me. I think this will be another "no show" day. EA8BVP (2986km) has again been spotting me most of the day as well as a few G stations.

UPDATE 2010z:  Will be going QRT on 10m quite soon now, but will stay on 6m overnight.

UPDATE 2100z:   Now QRT on 10m WSPR.

6m luck?

Since my spot of G8XWR (150km) on 6m early this morning I have spotted absolutely nothing and no-one has spotted my 1W ERP from my V2000 vertical.  I suspect this will be typical of 6m in the months ahead? I think VK3OER's super-DX spots on 6m may have been errors: I think he was reporting the wrong band? Certainly I have seen no evidence of real DX on the band today. I think there genuinely was some TEP between JA and VK earlier.   I shall stick with 6m though as this band often brings real surprises. That is why they call 6m "the magic band".

Last Es season my results on 6m WSPR were disappointing, but I am hopeful a few more users will try WSPR.  CN8 (Morocco) was regular, but I got no super-DX spots and did not spot any super-DX myself. I know there were some days when European JT65 users were working some real DX on 6m well outside of Europe by multi-hop Es. I know of one W who spotted CN8 on 6m WSPR.

We need lots of 6m WSPR from far flung corners this coming Es season! We also need far more W's and VE's to catch those transatlantic openings on 6m.

UPDATE 1325z:  G8XWR (150km) spotted me at a decent -17dB S/N at 1234z. Otherwise nothing.

UPDATE 1636z:  No further 6m spots given or received.

Sunspots and 10m - April 6th 2015

Sunspot number is much the same as yesterday at 66. K index is 3. 10m propagation is forecast to be "fair". Conditions on 10m should be similar to yesterday, but this is 10m!

Already I have had a couple of spost of my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon from Israel, which is promising.

UPDATE 1158z:  10m spots of my 500mW WSPR beacon from Israel and Canary Islands this morning. Average conditions.

QSYed from 630m to 6m WSPR

This morning I decided to move to 6m from MF and was very pleased to spot G3XWR (150km) at 0830z. Measured drift was -3Hz which could be me. He was on the screen about 10 minutes earlier but the drift was too extreme to permit a decode. On his signal that did decode there was some evidence of aircraft Doppler too. I think the decode was tropo but there were aircraft too on the path.

We are approaching the Es season. There is also some TEP between VK and JA on 6m.

EA8BVP on 10m

EA8BVP has spotted my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon 114 times in the last 12 hours.  I think he has either now gone QRT or the path has closed.  Excellent all day long.  I assume this is single hop F2.

More news on South African 8m band (40MHz)

Read it first hand in: www.icasa.org.za/Portals/0/Regulations/Working%20Docmuents/Radio%20Frequency%20Spectrum%20Regulations/RFSR2015.pdf

In South Africa the latest radio regulations permit the use by radio amateurs of 26dBW (400W) on a 10kHz wide band 40.675 - 40.685MHz "for propagation studies only".    Now this is exactly what OFCOM should have done in the interest of real radio-science research.  Personally I think a wider band would be better, but how far sighted to allocate this at all.  Well done S.Africa.

OK, I  could pay £50 for a special research permit, but this is exactly what radio amateurs need for real self training and radio-science research.  The take-up might be small, but real research would take place.

OFCOM/RSGB - how about it please? You have just allocated 2MHz (2 chunks of 1MHz) of spectrum that will be used by just a handful mainly for DTV tests.  How about a much smaller slice somewhere really useful in the radio spectrum? 40MHz is mid-way between 10m and 6m, so ideal for Es tests and TEP tests over the equator.

10m USA WSPR spots

On 10m, WD4ELG (6287km) was the first USA station to spot me today, at 1646z.  It feels like there will be others, but conditions don't seem as good as yesterday.

UPDATE 1615z:  Only a couple of spots by WD4ELG so far.  At the moment the USA opening is marginal with weakish reports (-26dB S/N).

UPDATE 1812z:  KT5W (6314km) also spotting my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon strongly at -12dB S/N.   The USA opening is getting better!

UPDATE 2012z:  No USA stations spotting my 10m WSPR now for over 2 hours.  I think this marginal opening is over. Time to go QRT on 10m?

UPDATE 2155z:  Guess who was SO wrong again? K9AN (6505km) was still spotting me pretty well at 2126z. The opening may now be over but I shall remain on 10m just in case. 10m is a very odd band and filled with surprises!

More 472kHz WSPR

Recent 472kHz WSPR spots -5mW ERP

Although I am still both TXing and RXing on 472kHz WSPR, the WSPRnet database does not show me as active as I have not spotted, or been spotted, on that band in the last 10 minutes.

PA0A has been copied a few times today but the last spot of my 5mW ERP was G3THQ (88km) at breakfast time, although I have just been spotted by G0HNW (200km), who I think is a new reporter.

I think these will be my last few days on this MF band before the autumn. Before I return, I need to improve my RX system as I know this is deaf. It would be good to come back with a "proper" antenna for the band with an ERP more in line with that of others e.g. greater than 100mW ERP.

UPDATE 1700z:  G0HNW has now spotted me 7 times.  From his reports, I am right on the edge of copy with reports in the -28 to -31dB S/N region.

UK price drop - FT817ND

I see that Martin Lynch is now selling the FT817ND for £449.95 (including VAT) which I guess is reflecting the exchange rate against the yen? Years ago it sold for less than £350 with VAT. I think the dealers are still making healthy profits? Why is this like fuel? When prices go up we soon hear about it. When price or exchange rates massively improve the suppliers are generally slow to respond.

Supply and demand?   People are prepared to buy at silly prices and dealers are happy to make good profits whilst they can. At one time a few years ago £1 would get you about 125 Yen. Today £1 gets you more like 175 Yen. Have prices followed? Of course not! Don't be silly - just a bit cheaper!

It would be nice if they were clearing stock ready for a newer model. Sadly, I doubt this is the case.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/ft817 .

FT991 Yaesu flagship "shack in a box"

http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-001812

The price here in the UK started out at £1279.95, (e.g. Martin Lynch and Waters and Stanton) which seemed high to me. The rig looks very attractive at the right price, but I think UK dealers are banking on "early adopters" who want a new radio at silly prices. Greed? Who said that? Surely not! Prices are a little cheaper in the USA  but not sure of VAT and duty or guarantee.  The usual guarantee from the big UK dealers on Yaesu products is 2 years, but it is wise to check.  Also, further discounts may be offered if paying cash.  I can wait and wait!   £999 seems the right price, or even less.

The latest edition of Practical Wireless shows Haydon Communication now selling it at £1099.99. I assume this price includes VAT.  I can see others matching or bettering this price when the "early adopters" have had their day.

The rig covers all modes 160m-70cms and includes a limited range internal ATU and a colour touch screen. It also supports Yaesu's C4FM digital mode. Nice radio, at the right price. I expect the UK price will soon be £999. Wait.

Sunspots and 10m

Sunspot number has risen to 68 today, which is quite a jump. 10m propagation is expected to be "fair" yet again. Yesterday a total of 16 different North Americans spotted my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon.

UPDATE 1106z:   Plenty of 10m spots  from  EA8BVP (2886km), one from 4X4TAU (3864km) and a scatter overnight and this morning from G4CUI (172km) the latter probably by aircraft reflection and tropo.

UPDATE 1404z:   Still no USA spots as yet.

UPDATE 1452z:   EA8BVP has spotted me 80 times in the last 12 hours. This is perfect N-S single hop F2 propagation. Still no North Americans spotting me on 10m WSPR.

Cambridge Voices - NOT amateur radio

Late this afternoon, my XYL and I went to a Cambridge Voices concert in Cambridge. We have many good choirs in and around Cambridge but these are up there with the very best, certainly in the UK and probably in the world. To sing in this group you have to be a very good singer indeed.

As you can imagine, the concert was brilliant.

USA spots on 10m today

WD4ELG (6287km) was the first in the USA to spot my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon today at 1452z. I was half expecting there to be no opening to the USA at all today. As I write this at 1905z the opening is still in full swing.

UPDATE 2048z:   The USA 10m opening  is continuing. K9AN (6505km) is the latest.

UPDATE 2155z:  The last USA 10m WSPR spot today was WD4ELG (6287km) at 2110z. Looks like the opening is over?

472kHz update

Results on 472kHz WSPR (5mW ERP from earth-electrodes) is disappointing with no new reporters recently. Still getting some useful distances (607km) but it would be nice to be spotted by a few new reporters, rather than the same old folks! Soon be time to QSY to a new band. 6m was disappointing in the last Es season, but is perhaps the easiest to try and I could use my V2000 vertical.

472kHz WSPR - unique spots in last 24  hours (5mW ERP)

Low sunspot number

Sunspot number today is 29 (K=2) and 10m propagation is expected to be "fair". Plenty of 10m WSPR spots from EA8BVP (2986km), a scatter from G4CUI (172km) and local G4KPX (14km), but no real 10m DX as yet.

UPDATE 1304z:   Still no real DX on 10m today .

10m USA WSPR spots - plenty today

10m WSPR was in good shape today despite the relatively low sunspot number.  First to spot my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon in the USA was WN2FMM (7008km) at 1406z.  Since then, plenty of other USA stations have been spotting me.

Despite the low sunspot number, it has been a good day on the band, despite the "fair" 10m forecast. This has been the case many times: often I get reports from the other side of the planet when I was expecting very little. My 10m antenna is far from optimised too.

UPDATE 1705z:   The 10m USA opening is still in full swing.

UPDATE 1732z:  I see that PY3OL (10412km) is spotting my 500mW again on 10m WSPR. 6 continents today on 10m is not at all bad.

UPDATE 2012z:   USA 10m opening still going on. W3GXT (5840km) is the last USA station to spot me, but there still could be others.

OFCOM again

Please don't misunderstand my views on OFCOM here in the UK. Generally, they have been supportive of the amateur community and I am grateful for this.

However, I am very critical that they seem loath to make real decisions about anything hard. Perhaps this is because they need real teeth and less government fiddling in the wings? I believe they need to be fully independent of government interference and be able to make common sense decisions without excuses. All the time they seem to hide behind the law as a safe-guard from doing anything very hard.

I have been critical of the FCC many times but in several ways they take a more pragmatic approach to spectrum management. All the time OFCOM employees seem to fear taking any hard decisions in case they break the law. Perhaps we need to employ people who actually understand radio and spectrum issues. Oh sorry, I forgot, these are a dying breed. We only have "yes boys" left.

King's Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ .

A punt outside King's

King's College Chapel is probably the most famous building in Cambridge and it is known the world over. Yesterday my wife and I went there for a lunchtime concert (which was great) and I have updated the churches blog.  The BBC had their Outside Broadcast van parked outside, probably for another concert over Easter.

King's College Chapel from the River Cam

Sunspots and 10m - Friday April 3rd 2015

Sunspot number today has fallen to 31 and 10m propagation is expected to remain "fair".

So far this morning it has been good on 10m with my little 500mW WSPR beacon being spotted all over the place with best DX being VK6POP (14465km). Based on results this morning I'd expect the 10m band to open to the USA, but being 10m who knows?

40MHz amateur band?

Well, I had a letter today from an amateur in South Africa who I hear have been allocated a small band at 40MHz. There are already a couple of EU beacons around 40MHz (OZ and G).

It would be so good if OFCOM here in the UK saw the real value in even a very small, shared band around 40MHz. Instead, we get given chunks (1MHz at 2m and 1MHz at 4m) which will hardly get touched by most. Surely a small 100kHz shared band at 40MHz that would really be of value to radio science has merit?

Of course, allocating ad interim chunks of unused spectrum to the amateur service is a "no-brainer" for dear old OFCOM. Fine doing this, but there would have been far better options, but these would have needed brain engagement, so out of the question? I hope that the RSGB and OFCOM talk some more and add new bits of spectrum soon.

Sunspots and 10m - Thursday April 2nd 2015

Sunspot number is 69 today (K=3 so a bit more disturbed than yesterday) and 10m propagation yet again "fair".

So far today just local G4IKZ (18km) and EA8BVP (2986km) spotting me and not a single spot of my 500mW WSPR beacon on 10m from the USA. If there is to be a marginal opening later, I would expect this around teatime here i.e. soon.
 
I have been getting reports from G4IKZ that my WSPR  dT (timing) is way out (3 seconds). I seem to have no issue getting lots of spots usually, but I wonder what errors in dT others might be seeing? My usual set-up is a stand-alone 10m 500mW WSPR-AXE-CW beacon which I manually reset to internet time after breakfast every day. I do this spot on an even minute but I could adjust this (earlier or later) if this resulted in a better dT error. Please let me know if you also see large errors as reported by G4KIZ.  On 472kHz I use a PC/FT817/transverter. The PC is reset to internet time every 5 minutes using atomic.exe software.

UPDATE 1940z: Well, at the moment it looks like there will be no 10m WSPR spots of me from the USA today.  It is still possible that the could be a very short opening, but this is now improbable.

UPDATE 2055z:   No USA stations spotting me at all. A dire day on 10m WSPR. These were the unique stations in the last 24 hours.  The USA stations shown here were yesterday.

Four Metre Band and OFCOM rubbish decisions?

There was an announcement on the RSGB and OFCOM sites advising some UK full licence holders that 70.5 to 71.5MHz is being made available for one year by special permission for further digital experiments, a bit like 146-147MHz here in the UK.

Sorry, but has OFCOM gone stark raving mad???

I can see no good justification for this 1MHz of spectrum. 2m was already under-used and the 146-147MHz allocation is probably being used by a tiny handful of people from time to time only.  DATV tests could quite as easily happen at 70cms.

I can think of far better parts of the spectrum OFCOM could have allocated e.g 100kHz around 40MHz (for Es propagation experiments), 73kHz, below 8.3kHz and a contiguous 5MHz allocation. Oh no, these require a brain to be engaged by OFCOM people.

Maybe this is an April fool's wind-up, although  I suspect it is true.

Surely if OFCOM wants to further real experimentation in radio science there are better ways of going about it?  Yet again, I am totally unimpressed. Between OFCOM and the RSGB, I think this is, yet again, a stupid stupid decision. So we now have 2MHz of extra spectrum for 12 months that a very few might use. Big deal. OFCOM, engage brains, think radio science. If you want to help grow future engineers that we so badly need, these allocations will not help at all. Think again!

See http://www.rsgb.org/ .
See http://www.70mhz.org/ .

472kHz WSPR - fewer stations now?

Although I've been on 472kHz WSPR using the earth-electrode "antenna" for some months now, it is some time since I was spotted by a new station. I think the last was EI0CF and that was weeks ago. I am beginning to think the time is coming to "pull the plug" until the autumn. By then I really should try to improve my antenna and my ERP in that band. Maybe as the Es season is fast approaching I should QSY to 50MHz (6m) WSPR.

10m USA spots early today

KT5W (6314km) was spotting my 500mW WSPR beacon at 1324z, which is earlier than of late. I was expecting 10m to open to the USA, but this was much earlier than I was expecting.

UPDATE 1422z:  A few more USA stations have been spotting me. Already, more different stations are spotting me than yesterday.

UPDATE 1612z:   My 500mW WSPR beacon has been copied by PY3OL (10412km) as well as by lots of USA stations. So far, 12 different USA stations spotting me.

UPDATE 1946z:  PY3OL has spotted me 20 times so far today at up to -18dB S/N.  As the solar cycle declines I expect these N-S 10m openings will be far more common than E-W ones.  As I have mentioned before, I have worked LUs on 10m SSB when using QRP in the sunspot minimum before, so expect these N-S paths to still be there even with very low sunspot numbers. Often the maximum usable frequency (MUF) is much higher for paths over the equator, possibly as the F layer splits (equatorial spread-F) and the "bounce" over the equator occurs at a shallower angle than a normal F2 reflections - no ground reflection occurs over the equator.  Don't quote me on this as I am no propagation expert, but it is a fact that N-S paths over the equator "work" at much higher frequencies than paths in other directions. Of course, here I am referring to F layer propagation. Most years you may strike lucky and hear USA stations in the summer time by Es. Some Es paths are massive and it is not that uncommon for S.America,The Caribbean and N.America to be worked on 6m in the Es months.   In summer 2007 I worked a USA station on 6m CW when I was using real QRP to a vertical V2000 omni antenna. I have heard 6m DX from S.America, The Caribbean and N. America by Es many times. My best DX on RX by F2 (years ago) was the USA and South Africa.  I doubt I'll see these F2 conditions ever again in my lifetime.

UPDATE 2210z: KT5W (6314km) was spotting my 500mW WSPR beacon at 2100z.  I think this was the last spot from the USA today as it has been quiet now for over an hour.

First (restarted) VLF earth-mode test

5W VLF beacon TX

OK, I was only testing from the shack to the lounge, but this is a start.  TX is 5W from my TDA2003 beacon.

TX frequency 8.976kHz initially with 10wpm CW, 300Hz bandwidth, sending my callsign and a dash. Nothing copied at first using a dummy load but over 70dB over noise using the earth-electrode "antenna" with no attempt to optimise match (fed via the same 3C90 step-up transformer used on 472kHz).   With no probe at all (i.e.no RX antenna) the S/N was still some 40dB i.e. very good using the TX into the earth-electrodes.

QRSS3 signal received on Spectran (0.37Hz BW)

Later with QRSS3, a 50 ohm TX dummy load, E-field probe at the RX, I got the signal at 10-20dB S/N.  At the RX end I was using my simple E-field probe into a USB soundcard into my Windows 8.1 laptop. 

E-field probe

The blue photo shows the signal at the RX. The first part shows the TX signal on the earth-electrodes and the second part (weaker) was the signal on the EFP with the TX into a dummy load.

Honestly, this has really exhausted me!

Sunspot number and 10m propagation - April 1st 2015

Sunspot number remains at 53 today and 10m propagation is again expected to be "fair".  Is this the same as I haven't a clue"? So far this morning just G4IKZ (18km) but it is very early still.  Based on yesterday when conditions were slightly more disturbed (K==1 today, but yesterday K=2) and there was a marginal 10m opening to the USA, I would expect 10m to open to the USA later this afternoon.