The solar activity has been low the past few days, and is slowly picking up again.
Still, the past 2 days there have been a bit of DX spotted with my modest setup.
Stations from Vietnam, Indonesia spotted with FT8, and today I spotted VE1PZ in Nova Scotia. No, I didn't work any of them, but just receiving them is good.
With a solar flux as low as 163 that was a bit of a surprise for me.
I know. FT8 has made weaker signal detection much easier, we are in for interesting times.
There have been DX signals on 6m every day for about 2 weeks.
I have received signals from 6 continents, and had QSOs with 4:
North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Last one was TR8CA today, Gabon, Africa using FT8.
All this with a small station, using a V-2000 antenna and 75W from my IC-7300.
I should try building a better antenna for 6m, capable of running more power. I do have a linear, and it would be nice to be able to run 3-400W with a bit of a directional antenna.
Today I made my first two-way QSO on 6m by F2- propagation ... from my station in Denmark.
Why not before? You may ask.
My very first experience on 6m was in November 1979. At that time 6m operation was not permitted in Denmark, as there were still TV stations operating in that band in many places of the world.
Yes, it would be listening only. I had been chatting with a local ham about building a converter, and he had done that.
One Saturday afternoon he re-transmitted a ton of strong 6m signals on the local 2m FM frequency. I thought, now is the time, so I found a crystal in my drawer. Normally I would have used a 22MHz crystal to convert to 28MHz, the closest I had was one on 21.4MHz.
That would work, so I found the components from the junk box and that Saturday evening and Sunday morning I finished the converter, built according to the ARRL Handbook.
Sunday afternoon came, and the US and Canadian stations were booming in, but all I could do was listen and make RX log entries.
That was OK for the first day. I contacted a friend who had borrowed my HF receiver and asked him to return it. He did, and now the crossband fun could begin.
The next days I was working many QSOs, transmitting on or near 28.885MHz, listening on 50MHz, and I followed that up for the rest of (solar) Cycle 21, and had a lot of fun with that. Later the UK and Irish stations started getting permits and I could continue the crossband fun with them.
Then, in 1989 I moved to the Netherlands for 25 years, and did not have the opportunity to work much ham radio in Denmark. At that time there were still no 50MHz permits in Denmark (or the Netherlands for that matter) In those 25 years we had 2 pretty good solar cycles with 50MHz openings, and I worked a bit from apartments in the Netherlands. when it was finally allowed there.
I can say a bit more about this, and maybe I will do that later.
Moving back to Denmark in 2015, it was at the decline of the weakest solar maximum in memory, with no 50MHz F2 propagation, so this year, with the prospect of a much better cycle 25, I could hope for some F2 propagation.
Come November 1st. the wait payed off.
Yesterday, October 31st, I did hear some transatlantic propagation, after having some indications of openings into Australia and Asia. All with a very poor antenna located between lots of trees, and just monitoring.
Yesterday I got my 6m radio connected to a V-2000 antenna (6m-2m-70cm vertical) and got it working with WSJT-X. Still no QSOs, and I got it working a bit too late.
Today I got up at about 8 local time, and there were signals coming in from several areas of Kazakhstan UN..., and some EX, and more in that area.
I managed to work two stations with this setup: UN3G and UN7GW. It was not that easy to get through the European callers, and I received reports about 20B worse S/N than I sent. I am guessing it's because of Eu-QRM and maybe a high noise level at the UN stations. yes, OK, I worked "only" 75W to protect the transceiver and the antenna and I am guessing that a minimum of 10dB difference in transmit power is not unreasonable.
Finally I made it! F2 propagation on 6m from my modes station at OZ9QV.
I do hope that the solar activity will continue high in November and over the winter. It could give some excellent QSOs on 6m, even with such a small station.
Update Saturday afternoon, 2nd November, in the afternoon:
After trying in the morning with stations in UN, EX etc, Finally some success in the afternoon.
I worked Two stations in North America: N1BUG with CW, and VO1SIX with SSB.
I tried a lot with FT8 on 50.313, but no luck. I guess my signal was mostly drowning in European QRM from stations much bigger and much more well situated than mine.
If we get another opening like this, I might try to use the secondary frequency, 50.323 with FT8, and possibly trying out with FT4. I need to look up the frequencies used for FT4, though.
I did see a lot of reports of my signals being received, in the East Coast, from VO1 in the North to Southern Mexican stations.
I will regard this as a very successful day with my modest station. Excellent propagation.
We have F2 openings.
The past week I have received Australia 3 times, Vietnam once and Kazakhstan several times. The 6m F2 season has started.
This morning 4 stations from Kazakhstan are reported with my monitor station using the 6m part of my HF (half wave) vertical, which is a very poor antenna.
I suspect that the many European spots are F2-back scatter, with distances above 2500km are probably F2.
I have heard (seen) many local stations working the DX
So yes, the F2 season has started. I will not be surprised if we start hearing North American stations within a week or two, if the solar flux stays high.
Today the solar flux is 256, and from what I learne decades ago, at this time of the year (late October, early November) this could easily result in Trans-Atlantic F2 propagation.
My best 6m antenna at the moment is my V-2000 tri-bander, and I am a bit worried about running continuous modes like FT8 with 100W, so I will probably stick to using 50-80W.
If the openings get like back in 1979, that should not be a problem.
Exciting times.
Today a local ham came here and assisted in getting the 23cm vertical up and running.
My X-7000 antenna is now mounted with the feed point 6m above the ground.
A quick test showed decent signals at a distance of about 40km, so the system is working well enough.
I can still hear the OZ7IGY beacon, even though it is horizontally polarized.
Now I need to get some more antenna work done before winter.
Focus will be on 23cm, because it's a fun band and we need to use it or lose it.
Second band focus will be 6m, as we might get into an autumn season with very high solar activity in the comning winter half of the year
I need to check my 23cm antenna system again.
I have a helical mounted on the mast with a small AR-500 rotator.
This has worked for a while, and now the antenna is stuck in (about) 180 deg. The rotator seems to turn, when I look at the antenna outside, nothing happens.
Oops!
As a temporary solution until I can get a rotator running, I am thinking of using my old vertical, the Diamond X-5000, so, at the least, I can work on out local net on 1297.500 FM.
A local ham has offered to help with that, so in a few days I should have that up and running, at the least.
Now, if the rotator is ruined, that was a very short life span. We shall see what I can do. In the worst case, I will have to purchase a new (bigger) rotator.
