Last night the UK clocks went forward an hour. This means BST is an hour ahead of GMT. Quite often at this time I forget!
31 Mar 2024
6m QRP FT8 (Sunday)
My 2.5W FT8 to the V2000 vertical omni antenna was on until I QSYed to 630m WSPR. Stations that spotted me were from across England. On RX, my best DX was a station in Germany.
Kings Lynn port - NOT amateur radio
These days, it would appear to be mainly a few fishing boats.
8m dilemma
My TX permit runs out shortly, and I am undecided about a new one.
From an experimental view point, I have already proved that 2.5W FT8 and a low dipole is enough to reach many parts of the planet when F2 is good. Just to experiment I have to pay £50 a year, which I find offensive and stupid. I blame OFCOM and the RSGB for this utter stupidity. There are many people who want to do genuine research at 8m!! Pay?? How daft when amateur radio is meant to be about self-training!
My inclination is to operate on 40.680MHz WSPR under ISM regulations (10mW ERP and IR2030 compliance) which is totally free and open to all in the UK. This would be much harder, but radio science would benefit more. I suspect that much of Europe would be in range on the better days in the Es season. The main issue could be too few monitors. I suspect 10mW ERP 8m FT8 would be too low.
It would be good if others joined me by keeping to ISM rules (or similar) in your area of the world. In some countries I believe one can legally beacon below certain powers. If enough people tried, the research would be more meaningful. Remember, operation under ISM rules is not amateur radio. Such use is essentially one way beaconing for propagation research.
It would be great to have a lot of QRPP 8m WSPR beacons operational.
Back to normal on 10m WSPR?
These last few days have resulted in some exceptional spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) 10m WSPR. Spots from the Canaries have been most days and I have been spotted in the USA by several stations in the last few days. Today, there are no spots at all, which I suspect is the norm. Perhaps I should try 10mW, which I suspect would be enough quite often.
UPDATE 2016z: 3 spots of my 500uW (0.5mW) by EA8BFK (2880km) today. I spoke too soon!
630m QRP WSPR (Sunday)
Rather earlier than usual, I have QSYed to 630m WSPR with my 10mW ERP. So far today (at 1455z) my QRP has been spotted by just one station G4FQI (128km).
UPDATE 2025z: 4 stations have spotted me.
English Lake District - NOT amateur radio
This part of England is probably one of the most beautiful. It has rolling hills and mountains and beautiful lakes. This photo was taken recently by a friend.
630m QRP WSPR overnight
With just 8 stations spotting me, 630m appears to be going "off the boil". Best was Norway, so it does not look like poor conditions.
Kings Lynn - NOT amateur radio
We recently visited here. It was once a Hanseatic League port and one of the most important ports in England . Although much of the town is nondescript, there are some fine buildings near the river.
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