Early spot on 10m WSPR from Reunion Is

It is only 1048z and already my little 10m 500mW WSPR beacon has been spotted in Europe, Asia and Africa . Conditions on 10m are the best I have seen them this autumn season so far.

6m WSPR

After several days with no success at all on 6m WSPR, giving or receiving spots,  I decided to give the band a miss. My usual pattern has been 10m and 6m during the day with 630m (472kHz) overnight. Sod's Law will no doubt apply and my absence on 6m will herald some super TEP and the best conditions on 6m for many years! I can just imagine! Well, it is not the end of the world if it happens.

Sunspots and 10m - Wed Sept 30th 2015

Sunspot number has dropped back a bit to 125, which is still respectable. K=0, so conditions are undisturbed and the propagation forecast for 10m is still "fair". Some reasonable F2 conditions are possible on 10m. If we are lucky there might be a little "out of season" Es on 10m WSPR as well.

UPDATE 0924z:  So far, just local G4IKZ (18km) spotting me on 10m WSPR,  but it is early still. I decided not to bother with 6m WSPR today.

UPDATE 0940z:  Just after writing the update above 4X1RF (3519km) in Israel spotted my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon.  F2. Today should be a good day on 10m.

472kHz WSPR RX overnight

Overnight no new stations were received on MF. Just the same stations, some at good strength.

South America on 10m WSPR

KD0VWO (7412km) monitoring in Brazil has copied my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon again today. This is not the best DX today, but good to see my signal getting to South America. The question is will there be any North American 10m WSPR spots tonight?

UPDATE 2014z:  No signs of any North American spots on 10m WSPR. I shall be going QRT on 10m shortly. Below are the unique stations spotting me on 10m WSPR today. Note that the KD0 is actually monitoring in Brazil and not the USA.

Unique spots of my 10m WSPR beacon today

UPDATE 2042z:  Now QRT on 10m WSPR but will be monitoring 630m RX only overnight.

Even lower price for the Yaesu FT991

Steve G1KQH has just informed me that the Yaesu FT991 is being sold at £991 by Moonraker until stocks are exhausted or Oct 4th. I am sure we will see lower prices still in the months ahead. I can see MLS, Waters and Stanton and others doing battle.

The question is what price will the IC7300 be?  Once this becomes available there will be a price war between the UK dealers to offer the best deals. I expect even now a better deal can be had for the FT991 if paying cash and not looking for terms.

A price war is brewing....

Re-tarring the windmill - NOT amateur radio

The 200 year old restored windmill next door is getting a new coat of tar. The mill currently has a cog problem which is preventing the sails turning in the wind and grinding corn. They are hoping to fix the issue. The picture was taken from our drive. Inside, you can climb to the top (great view), although my health has prevented me doing so since the restoration.

Processing weather satellite images

This is not my thing but others may find this of interest if you enjoy weather satellite images. I am content to put seaweed out the window here or even watch the BBC weather! The latter seems only to be correct if we have a long settled period here in the UK. So, you do as well looking out of the window.

See http://www.satsignal.eu/  .

2m big-wheel and feeder on HF

As an experiment I loaded up my feeder and 2m big-wheel on HF tuned against a mains ground. It matched on 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m and 15m but it did not like 10m. I have still to try other bands. On 15m it was getting USA spots on the first transmission at 2W and on 40m it got 9 spots (all Europeans) in the first TX with no effort. It was receiving well on all the bands I tried and giving plenty of stations spots via WSPRnet. The feeder and 2m big-wheel, tuned with my LDG ATU, would allow me to WSPR on most HF bands. One night I shall try the 2m big-wheel and feeder on 472kHz, using a ferrite rod to resonate it and a 3C39 toroid to match it. It will be interesting to see how this compares with the earth-electrode "antenna".

UPDATE 1427z:  I see my 10m WSPR has been spotted by FR1GZ (9724km) using the 500mW beacon and Par triband end-fed wire. Conditions on 10m are good.

UPDATE 1556z:   LA9JO (2096km) spotted me on 7MHz, for my best WSPR DX, so far, on that band.

The SLOW decline

Well, we are on the down slope of the current solar cycle.

The down part of the cycle is usually slower than the climb from the minimum to the next peak, so we may have a few more years of reasonable conditions.

At the present time, conditions, even on 10m, are quite good. This time next year I think we may be losing 10m (largely) as a DX band although N-S paths may still have some decent openings. I have mentioned before that I have worked LU on 10m SSB even with QRP right at the lowest part of the cycle.

It is a pity that more don't stick with WSPR on 10m as this is a good way to "smoke out" transient openings. Activity levels on 10m WSPR are way down on last year. Next year I suspect there will be even fewer stations on 10m WSPR.

Sunspots and 10m - Tues Sept 29th 2015

Sunspot number is 120 today, a little down on yesterday. K=3, so conditions are more disturbed than yesterday. K reduced to 2 later, so less disrurbed. The propagation forecast for 10m today is "fair" again, although I remain skeptical about 10m WSPR spots from North and South America.

In recent days the 10m band has been good with Africans and South Americans worked on CW.  On WSPR my 500mW beacon has only been spotted in North America on one day this season so far, which is disappointing. 10m, like 6m, is a magic band and one can never be quite sure how it will behave. Although I hope my tiny 10m beacon will be spotted in the Americas, only time will tell.

I shall be on 10m and 6m all day again. On 10m I am 100% TX with the beacon, but on 6m I am looking for others 80% of the time.

UPDATE 1112z:  Best DX on the 10m 500mW beacon today remains 4Z5ML (3572km). No Es seen here today on 10m WSPR and no F2 DX spots from Africa or the Americas. 6m WSPR remains dead here!

Good start on 10m WSPR this morning

As well as local G4IKZ (18km) I have already had spots from a couple of stations in Israel this morning early on 10m WSPR. I assume these are by F2.

On MF I spotted 9 unique stations last night. In all, I have spotted 15 unique stations spotted this season. Best DX on MF remains a German spotted at 995km.

472kHz RX

Using the RX preamp is allowing me to give stations I spot better reports, but my best DX stubbornly still stands at 995km to a German station. There are EA and SV stations active that I have not spotted yet this season. I shall leave the RX on overnight and hope they are active. I think both should be copyable, even with the earth-electrode "antenna". It would be good to copy one of the USA stations too at some point. I have managed to copy one before but never from this QTH on MF.

UPDATE 2148z:  I have now closed my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon until breakfast. Despite the early promise (lots of spots from Israel), not a single spot from North or South America today. With conditions looking good I really thought today would have been better on 10m. 6m was a dead loss yet again. I tend to go on 6m and 10m daytime. I am still active on 472kHz WSPR receive and will remain looking overnight until breakfast. The best nights so far have yielded spots from 12 unique stations on 472kHz WSPR.

Late swallows - NOT amateur radio

Eating lunch at the Maid's Head

Today we went for a walk around Wicken Fen and afterwards we ate at the "Maid's Head" in Wicken  village. In 1982 this thatched pub was badly damaged by fire but it was beautifully restored. Wicken is a lovely sleepy village with nice greens.

We went all around the boardwalk route at Wicken Fen and got back in the car when we saw 4 swallows overhead and quite close. This is, I think, the latest time I've seen swallows up here in East Anglia. I have seen them much later in Devon, but most have gone south by now. There are usually some late younger birds at Wimpole Hall but the latest I saw these was Sept 21st.

Swallow

As I get older, I wonder if this will be the last time I ever see a swallow in my lifetime? Hopefully I shall be around for their return next spring and for many springs to come, but there is something comforting in knowing this cycle will be going on long after I am just dust.

See  http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/s/swallow/  .

BBC Radio 4 on Longwave

From Steve G1KQH today:

"End of BBC on the LW?

Of course if they let this go, what will  the crystal set builder have to listen to?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11892805/End-of-Shipping-Forecast-on-long-wave-radio-could-leave-sailors-high-and-dry.html

Build another Solid State transmitter that is the answer..

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/"

Sunspots and 10m - Mon Sept 28th 2015

With a high sunspot number of 154 (K=0) 10m could be in decent shape today. The forecast remains "fair" for 10m today. Although WSPR spotted in Brazil again yesterday, I was surprised not to have been copied in North America by F2. The problem with 10m and 6m WSPR is activity is much lower than a year ago so often openings go unnoticed. This is a great pity as WSPR is an excellent very weak signal mode. With more activity, lots more openings would be spotted on both bands.

Had my mother lived she would have been 98 today. She died of a secondary cancer several years ago now.

UPDATE 1000z: There is already F2 about on 10m WSPR. 4X1DA (3597km) and 4X1RF (3519km) have already spotted my 500mW WSPR signal a few times. Thank you both. On 6m WSPR I am looking for others 80% of the time, but so far 6m is dead with no spots given or received.

Reboot of PC needed

Although I was spotting F5WK (364km) well again this evening on 472kHz WSPR, my spots of him were not being uploaded to the WSPRnet database. My PC was showing that the WiFi was connected but I had no internet connectivity, except that other machines were connecting perfectly well! So, I rebooted the Win 7 PC and now all seems to work - spots of F5WK on 472kHz WSPR are now being uploaded OK. Although the first uploaded spot of F5WK is 1812z, I was copying him well before then.

On 10m WSPR the beacon is stand alone and the PC is only needed to start the sync. I could use the radio pips. The 10m beacon then runs (at least) all day on its own on 10m. I use the PC and WSPR software on either 6m or 630m.

Brazil again on 10m WSPR

KD0VWO (7412km) monitoring in Brazil has spotted my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon again. No signs yet of spots from North America today. Maybe later? Yesterday I was sure I'd be spotted in North America as conditions were better than the day before, but I was wrong. 10m can be fickle.

New blog from Denmark

Jan OZ9QV is back in Denmark and has started a new blog. In the past I have worked with Danes and I much like them. In many ways they are similar to English people, although I guess this is because, going back over 1000 years, we share the same genes!

I remember visiting AP Radio in Copenhagen many years ago and liking that at 3.30pm on a Friday they went to the lab fridge and got out the beers!  The Danish sense of humour is quite similar to that in the UK. I like the Danish people.  Denmark seems a nation at peace with itself.

See http://oz9qv.blogspot.com/  .

QRP Operation

There is a Wikipedia entry about QRP I see (that is where you will find this image). QRP appeals to a lot of people, although when times are hard more power can reach further. On modes like WSPR QRP powers are usually fine.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QRP_operation .

New EU directive?

Steve G1KQH has just sent me this:

"I thought that was the idea of the EU to break down the barriers, it appears not?:

http://simonthewizard.com/2015/09/27/eu-shipping-stops-end-of-september-2015/

All the link to the crazy directive are on the bottom of the Blog..

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/" 

At one time the UK leaving the EU sounded a step too far. These days, even a European enthusiast like me wonders. The EU does seem to serve little purpose these days, never agrees a budget, is undemocratic and over-bureaucratic. Maybe it is time for a big overhaul? Perhaps the UK should leave?

No lightning in Northern Europe

Here in the UK, most of us are enjoying a decent spell of settled weather with a big high pressure system overhead.  Looking at the lightning map, it looks storm-free over lots of northern Europe. No doubt things will change towards the end of the week when low pressure systems roll in again. Still, it is nice whilst it lasts. Maybe conditions on 2m and 70cm will be good with some tropo later in the week?

Sunspots and 10m - Sun Sept 27th 2015

Sunspot number is still good at 138 (K=1) and 10m propagation remains "fair".  Although my 500mW 10m WSPR beacon got some F2 reports, I was disappointed not to have been spotted in North America yesterday. Maybe today? Who can tell.

UPDATE 0910z:  Just locals spotting me on 10m WSPR so far. No late Es, or F2, on 10m WSPR seen here as yet. 6m is dead so far today. Overnight 11 different stations spotted here on 630m WSPR with best DX again 995km.

UPDATE 0948z:  Still just local spots on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 1338z:  Still just locals G4IKZ and G4KPX spotting me on 10m WSPR. No sign yet of any F2 or late Es on 10m WSPR.

No North America on 10m WSPR?

Well, unless things change very late, there will be no WSPR spots of my little 10m beacon from the USA or Canada today. This surprised me as I was definitely expecting an opening in that direction. There was some late Es in the form of DK0SC (827km).

Some life on 6m WSPR and return to MF RX

G4TZX (146km) has been spotted on 6m WSPR a few times. He is in JO01 square, so I suspect we are seeing some help from aircraft on the approaches to London, Heathrow. This is classic tropo/aircraft reflection distance.

MF preamp

It would be good to see some real DX on 6m, but feel this is unlikely as activity levels are low, F2 DX is very unlikely and we are no longer in the peak Es months.

UPDATE 1518z:  Now QRT on 6m WSPR and moved to 630m RX for tonight and overnight. Last night best DX copied on MF was 995km.

First report from Brazil today on 10m WSPR

In addition to locals G4IKZ (18km) and G4KPX (14km) I am being spotted by DX stations on 10m WSPR. As well as many (24 so far today!) 10m WSPR spots from 4X1RF (3519km) in Israel, I have just had a spot from Brazil of my 500mW WSPR beacon.  Thank you to the stations spotting me. I am always grateful for your reports.

Today 10m is in good shape. I am almost certain there will be 10m WSPR spots from North America later. Yesterday, I was spotted in Canada for the first time on 10m WSPR this autumn. Conditions today are better than yesterday, with a higher sunspot number and very undisturbed conditions.

Sunspots and 10m - Sat Sept 26th 2015

With K=0 and a very high sunspot number of 145 it is not surprising that 10m is in good shape today.  Even the solar forecast has conditions on 10m as "fair" rather than "poor". This is the first time they have not been "poor" in many weeks.

UPDATE 1014z:  Quite a few spots already on 10m WSPR from 4X1RF (3519km). I think this is F2. I confidently think I'll be spotted in both North and South America on 10m WSPR later. Today is going to be a good day on 10m. Enjoy it as these conditions will be distant memories all too soon.

UPDATE 1018z:  So far, a total blank on 6m WSPR where I am on RX for 82% and TXing for 18% with 1W ERP.  No spots of UK stations either on 6m.

FT991 price HAS dropped

MLS are selling the FT991 now at £999.95 with free UK delivery.  I was right about the price dropping, but they dropped it sooner than I expected.

There is going to be a price war between the FT991 and the IC7300. This is just the first salvo. I can now see them both below £899 for Christmas.

At the moment I think the IC7300 will be a better radio, but with a price war likely now there will be strong competition between ICOM and Yaesu.  A price of £799 for both would no longer surprise me. ICOM will have more chance of slashing price and still being profitable with their SDR architecture. Personally, I'd prefer 4m to 70cm and 2m, although having 2m and 70cm makes the FT991 more of "a station in a box". It is quite likely there may be early issues with both radios. It is often better to wait a few months until these are ironed out and prices fall a bit.

First North American 10m WSPR spot this autumn

VE1YY (4597km) was the first in North America to spot my 10m 500mW WSPR beacon this autumn.  He has spotted me a couple of times this afternoon. They are back!  At -19dB S/N this not too bad a report either. It suggests he may well of copied me if I was using 50mW as long as his noise level was low.

No doubt we'll get USA and Canadian spots on 10m now until the spring by F2.

UPDATE 1920z:   Have now gone QRT on 10m WSPR until the morning, and now looking on 630m rather than 6m. Will be on 630m RX overnight.

SX-2000 HF (to 4m) QRP transceiver and SunSDR-MB1

This was news to me. I have never seen this before although the post on the website below was earlier this summer.  It looks like a poor man's IC7300 and covers the same range but at QRP power levels. It is an Italian transceiver. Personally I prefer the ICOM. I have no idea about price. It looks like a "back shed job" to me.

See http://www.cqdx.ru/ham/qro-qrp/qrp-hf-transceiver-with-touch-screen/ .

On the same website are details of the Sun SDR-MB1 assembled prototype, which is another rig I have never heard about! There is a video of this at https://youtu.be/SIfvVUw0774 . This rig looks more professional and the YouTube link quotes a price of $5500. This was 3 months ago.

Does increasing ERP on 10m WSPR make sense?

In the past I said that increasing 10m WSPR ERP was probably not worth it. However, I have changed my mind. G4IKZ (not that far from me) runs 5W and a Moxon beam on 10m WSPR. His ERP in the best direction is probably 10-13dB higher than me, and maybe even more.  On RX he will have the gain of the Moxon in his favour. Looking at reports on WSPRnet today, he has been copied by far more stations than me and he is copying some decent stuff on RX too.

No, I think in more marginal 10m conditions the extra would be worth having. For now, I'll stick with the beacon and 500mW, but I may switch to the FT817 so I can run a bit more power on TX and listen too on 10m WSPR. My antenna is a compromise.

10m F2

Already my 10m 500mW WSPR has been spotted in Brazil by KD0VWO (7412km). So far, this is the only DX seen on 10m WSPR today. I remain hopeful that I may be spotted in the USA later today on 10m WSPR.

UPDATE 1415z:  KD0VWO (in Brazil) has copied me several times on 10m WSPR, but 6m WSPR has drawn a total blank so far today with no spots given and none received on that band. I am ever the optimist and will stick on both 10m WSPR and 6m WSPR until this evening. Around 1900z I shall switch to 472kHz WSPR RX.

More Rallies

I have been notified of the following Radio Rallies:

Sunday 27 SEPTEMBER : PENCOED ARC TABLE TOP SALE
Pencoed Rugby Football Club, The Verlands, Felindre Road, Pencoed, Wales, CF35 5PB. Tables £5 each (first come first served). OT 8.30am sellers, 9.30am buyers, £2. C, REF. Madeline Roberts, 01639 885 126. www.mw0prg.co.uk/events.uk.

Sunday 27 SEPTEMBER : BELGIUM AMATEUR RADIO & COMPUTER RALLY
Hall 'LOUVEXPO', rue Michel Debauque, La Louvire (50km S of Brussels). TI 145.600 (rpt), 438.875 (rpt), 439.4375MHz (D-Star). OT 9am. 4000m2 of TS, FM etc. Michel, ON7FI, +32 475 45 45 78, michel.dewyngaert@skynet.be. www.on6ll.be.

A list of rallies can be found at http://rsgb.org/main/news/rallies/

FTSE 100 well up so far today - NOT amateur radio

So far, the UK FTSE 100 share index is up over 2.5% on the day. Yesterday it fell well below 6000, but not quite to the lowest point this year. So far this year it is down over 10%. At its highest it topped 7100.

Sunspots and 10m - Fri Sept 25th 2015

With a sunspot number of 86 and K=2 I think we could see some interesting 10m F2 conditions although the propagation forecast for 10m remains "poor". I am not expecting much on 6m. On both 10m and 6m some late Es remains a (remote) possibility.

UPDATE 1204z:  So far, not a single spot given or received on 6m and just local G4IKZ (18km) on 10m WSPR.

472kHz WSPR overnight

No new stations copied overnight but those copied were at good strength.

UPDATE 0850z:  F5WK (364km) is still coming in on MF. I am still on 630m WSPR but may switch to 6m shortly. Not sure why as 6m has been useless here for days!

10m WSPR comes to life

With 4 spots from 4X1RF (3519km) and one from KD0VWO (7412km) looking in Brazil, 10m WSPR has sprung into life. I think both of these are F2 propagation. I am pretty sure there will be further reports later. WSPR

I am also on 472kHz RX but nothing copied on MF, as yet, this evening.

UPDATE 2000z:  Plenty of stations being copied on MF WSPR. All DX seems to have stopped hours ago on 10m so I shall close down until breakfast on 10m, but I shall be monitoring 630m WSPR overnight again.

ICOM IC7300 transceiver (more)

At the moment, the best value for money for a 100W transceiver looks like the ICOM IC7300. This is an SDR based transceiver that covers HF, 6m and 4m (in Europe). The selling price is expected to be a way below £1000, making it far less than the FT991 from Yaesu. A 10W version of the IC7300 is not available outside of Japan, sadly. The SDR based architecture means BOM (bill of material) costs should be low. Much of the RX processing is done in software. The realtime spectrum scope is a nice feature.

I quite fancy one, but may wait until some of the early problems are ironed out. It would be good to have 50W on 4m too as more and more countries are appearing on the band.

See http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/hf/7300/default.aspx .

The image below is located on the ICOM America website and not on this blog. 

August 70cm UKAC results published

I see from the results of this contest that I managed to come 98th out of 162 in the AL section. I was pleased with this as I was just using a 2m big-wheel horizontal omni antenna and was only "on air" for around 40% of the time because of my poor, stroke affected, voice. I was only using 5W pep from my FT817. Activity levels are high in these contests and even if you don't bother to enter the contest you are almost guaranteed a QSO unless you are located in some extreme location.

472kHz sensitivity with a signal generator

With the preamp in front of the FT817 I can copy down to at least -127dBm, which is the lowest the generator will go without external attenuators. Without the preamp, sensitivity is at least 10dB worse. Of course, in reality, external noise will set the real limit. On my FT817, the IPO in/out made little difference to the sensitivity. I suppose the NF was being set  by the preamp. It is definitely worth having the preamp (with filtering) in circuit.

I am so grateful to the kind anonymous person who sent me this preamp. Thank you again. I have no idea who you are but I am extremely grateful for your great kindness. There really are some very kind people around.