Aurora Heard on 2m.

 Today the arrival of a double CME from the sun resulted in aurora on 2m.

I heard several solid signals, but due to my poor antenna, a "Big Wheel" (cloverleaf) antenna, I did not make any contacts.

And one of my favourite radio propagation sites SolarHam is back. I had solarham.net in my links, and it stopped working, so tried solarham.com today, and there it was.

K- index went high

First time in a long while I have heard such strong aurora on 2m in a long time.

The opening lasted about an hour, and the interplanetary magnetic field  (Bz component) went almost neutral, and then South again, so there may be an update later today.

Update 2100Z:

The K-index higher again, but I was not hearing more aurora with my small antenna.

1296 Antenna.

 A local ham sold two helical antennas for 23cm, and I went to get them. The price was good, and the antennas looked good, and ready to mount in the mast.

Now I am waiting for the opportunity to mount at least one of those antennas in place of the horizontal yagi. 

For this I need the combination of good weather and a ham friend or two to assist.

I suspect the results will be similar with stations using horizontal yagi antennas, and an improvement to local stations using vertical antennas, as the helical should have a slightly higher gain, offset by a 3dB loss in signal strength as is usual when using a circular polarized antenna with a linear polarized antenna.

The weather forecast looks decent, so I hope I can get it done within a week. We shall see.

More Sporadic E Monitoring.

8m had more sporadic E today. Openings to Slovenia, Greece and Spain, with plenty of spots from my 40.680MHz FT8 propagation monitor.

Lots of spots on 6m. Were some of them F2 backscatter.

Yesterday 6m had spots on 6m from Southern Africa. Is this TEP enhanced by sporadic E?

Update approx. 2000Z:

6m opened to South America (Brazil) this evening. Detected a few stations with my very poor monitoring antenna. I could see many "local" stations working into PY/PU.The opening lasted at least an hour.

Exciting times.

Beginning of the Sporadic E Season.

We are approaching the month of May, and I am seeing the first signs of the sporadic E season. 

For a few days the 6m FT8 monitor has shown more signals from across Europe than a few weeks ago, and a few days ago the first signals from Spain came on  8m. In Spain stations of (certain license type) can apply for 8m permits, and a few have been seen on 40.680MHz with my FT8 monitor.

This afternoon (and some days ago) a few Irish stations were through on the 8m FT8 monitor.

1296MHz etc. Portable. New Toy.

 I have got myself a new transceiver. For the microwave band I am now testing a new IC-905 and the 10GHz module (transverter).

This rig runs 10W on 144,432 and 1296MHz, and 2W on 2.4GHz and 5.7GHz, and 500mW on 10GHz.

It has 2 mast mounted modules, one transceiver for 144,432,1296MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.7GHz, the other converts the 2400MHz band to 10GHz. Everything is controlled fro a control module that resembles the IC-705, and it feeds 40V up to the modules via PoE (Power over Ethernet), and the rig has a common N-connector for 144,432 and 1296MHz, and separate SMA connectors for each of the higher bands.

The system has a built-in GPS for controlling the reference frequencies.

Time to do some tests, I started a few days ago. First, get it up on a tripod in the living room, and the tests could begin.

The very first tests was checking that the GPS system worked, and even indoors it would lock. I should be right on the frequency in the display.

I have not yet tested the 144 and 432MHz parts, but I set up a small 12 elements yagi in my living room, just 0.5m (about 2 feet) above the floor. To my surprise the OZ7IGY beacon located behind some hills about 20m higher was clearly audible. First successful test done!

I tried setting up a 2400MHz yagi (16 elements), and I was not surprised that I heard nothing from OZ7IGY. I could hear noises that I suspect came from the local wireless network. 

Using a PCB log-periodic antenna, exactly the same happened on 5760MHz. 

On 10GHz I set up a synthesizer generator in the house, and got a strong signal, using a PCB patch antenna array (16 patches in a 4x4 array). The transmit side was tested using my QO-100 receive setup, and worked nicely.

Today it was time to get out in the field. Temperature in the 15-20C range and some sunshine, it was a beautiful day to get started. I drove the system a few km from my home, just a bit up a hill, but not to the top (no driving permitted there). It took about 1/2 hour to get it up, and the test could begin, using the exact same antennas as in the indoor test.

The 1296MHz antenna was about 2.5m above ground and turned towards OZ7IGY. Signal was booming in, above S9. RX Success!

The 2400MHz antenna was very low above ground, about 70cm. The signal from OZ7IGY was a solid copy, though not very strong. RX Success

On 5760MHz the beacon was all but inaudible. I thought I could hear a signal tuning around the frequency, but I was not 100% sure, so I say no reception.

On 10GHz no reception (not surprising).

On 5.7 and 10GHz the cables used were some surplus semi-rigid cables with angled SMA connectors, so I suspect high losses, but the test had to be made. I am sure I could have gone to a different location with no hills in the way, and get reception, but I stayed because there was one more test to do.

I called on the local FM frequency (1297.500), and as I had announced my activity locally, there was immediate calls from 2 stations in the Copenhagen area and one in Sweden, just across the water. The SM7 station was 43km away and a solid S9, with a fairly unobstructed path.

One of the locals alerted a station in the other direction where there are some obstructing hills. Call made and good signals at 43km in the more obstructed path.

This was "first light" for my IC-905, and I am satisfied with the results. I can see many possible improvements to the system, so I have quite some work to do with the mechanical part of the portable system. Mainly better antennas for 2.4, 5.7 and 10GHz, and a better way to fix those antennas to the tripod. 

At today's test the 1.3 and 2.4GHz yagi antennas were mounted using gaffer tape, so there is already some hardware that I will need to go get, some holes to be drilled, so I can mount those antennas to the mast in a more secure way. As a first test, it was good enough, though.

1296MHz Improvement. Antenna Height.

 For a while I had my 1296MHz yagi mounted at a height of just 4m above ground. I could detect the DB0VC beacon in Kiel, about 200km distant, not constantly but every day I made the attempt.

On Easter Sunday I had a local ham help erecting a telescopic mast of 6m. This means that witg a little help from a friend it is possible to make antenna experiments for the higher bands. The rotatyor used is a small AR-500TV antenna rotator, and it works nicely with the small 1296MHz yagi.

The antenna is now 7m above ground (30m ASL), and I could detect a considerable improvement compared to the lower position, in some directions. In other directions there are still obstacles.

At the first test with 7m height 4 local stations were immediately heard, within about 10 minutes of starting operation on 1297.5MHz FM. This is encouraging. The furthest station was near Malmoe, Sweden, at a distance of about 30km, and while my yagi was horizontally polarized, and he used a vertical, we could get some fading signals. I suspect the fading, which came with very regular intervals, was due to some wind turbines along the path.

The beacon DB0VC is now heard a bit more regularly, and today I noticed something that I did not hear with the antenna at 4m. Several aircraft reflections were clearly audible, with the characteristic Doppler shift frequency change.

Today I also got a new station, running at a distance of about 20km, just running 4W, with the ADALM Pluto SDR and a front end with 4W output, running from a balcony with a home made 7 element yagi. Good signals, as we were both working with horizontal antennas.

For all this I used the IC9700. I also have a IC910 with a 1296MHz module.

Future developments:

Two more things are now needed to improve my system on 1296MHz:

- A good vertical antenna as high as I can get it. I intend to use the IC910 with this antenna, and a preamplifier near the antenna, just like with the yagi. Most likely the X-5000 from Diamond, used with a triplexer for multiband operation on 2m/70cm/23cm, with preamplifiers for every band.

- a power amplifier for each antenna/radio system. For the vertical/IC910 I intend to get a relay/sequencer up and running, so I can get about 25W at the antenna. For the yagi, I intend to get a maximum of about 75W at the antenna. I don't have the amplifier for that yet, but I will get one when I can.

Fault in the 23cm Antenna System.

There seems to be a fault in my temporary 23cm antenna system.

The signal disappears intermittently, and I suspect a fault in the connector for the cable bypassing the rotator. I have ordered better cables and N-connectors, so as soon as possible that cable should be replaced. Another option could be intermittent voltage to the preamplifier from the radio (IC9700), but the cable/connector fault is the most likely.

I will need to get some assistance from some local ham(s), as the antenna should be mounted about 2m higher, still in a temporary position. I cannot do that alone. The risk of damaging the antenna is too high.As the antenna is standing in my backyard and surrounded by houses and trees, every meter in height will help, so it will be interesting to see how much the signals will improve.

At a later stage I epxect to mount the antenna in 8-9m height. That is what I can do here. There will still be trees in the way in some directions, but it should be above houses in most directions.