10m and WSPR on 10 and 630m

Today was the day with a lot of life on 10m CW. Partly because there was a contest and the FOC members. 5 continents were heard here, and the 6th was detected in WSPR. My TX activity has been limited, since the FC only wanted QSO with FOC members, and most of the other activity was contests. I did work CU3AA, though.

The past few weeks the 4X6TU and 5B4CY beacons, and lots of Turkish beacons have been heard. Also several CB type FM and AM activity has been heard. Further, the past week or so the ZS6DN beacon, and activity from ZS6 and V5 has been heard.

I intend to try out JT65 and/or JT9 on 10m, there seems to be some activity.

Now, WSPR was interesting. For several days in the past week I have detected VKs, and the complete list of unique spots for the last 24 hours looks like this :

 WSPR spots 28MHz (unique for the 24 hours)
 2016-02-07 15:32 OZ7IT 28.126129 -19 0 JO65df 5
 2016-02-07 12:08 EA8/DL9XJ  28.126029 -27 0 IL18sm 2
 2016-02-07 10:30 VK3DXE 28.126184 -22 -1         QF21nv 2
 2016-02-07 09:28 DK1RS 28.126116 -25 3 JO60mm 5
 2016-02-07 09:20 VK2KRR 28.126150 -22 0 QF34mr 10
 4 countries in 3 continents is not too bad. A lot of the openings detected in CW were missing on WSPR, the activity is lacking.

10m in general has low activity, even though there are openings. I wish more people would try 10m, not just listening over and saying "nothing here", but creating activity.
Right now I am looking forward to more 10m activity for the spring season, I expect the band to be open, if not with booming signals, to most of the world during February and March, if the solar activity stays in the same range as it has been for most of the autumn and winter.

Now for 630m (again, unique spots) :
 2016-02-07 06:40 DL6TY 0.475641 -8 0 JO44lo 1
 2016-02-07 04:26 PA3ABK/2 0.475785 -26 0 JO21it 0.5
 2016-02-07 03:44 DH5RAE 0.475755 -22 0 JN68qv 0.5
 2016-02-07 02:44 DL6II 0.475705 -26 1 JO30nx 5
 2016-02-06 23:58 G8HUH 0.475660 -20 0 IO81mg 1
 2016-02-06 23:56 F5WK 0.475652 -28 0 JN18hp 0.5
 2016-02-06 23:40 DK6XY 0.475629 -22 0 JO53jv 0.2
 2016-02-06 23:20 IW4DXW 0.475795 -25 0 JN64bw 0.5
 2016-02-06 22:34 LA3EQ 0.475776 -29 0 JO28xj 1
 2016-02-06 22:24 EA5DOM 0.475785 -26 0 IM98wn 1
 2016-02-06 22:12 DK7FC 0.475683 -3 0 JN49ik 1
 2016-02-06 22:04 DD2UJ 0.475631 -28 -2           JO61wc 0.2
 2016-02-06 21:58 DK2DB 0.475641 -27 1 JN48fw 0.5
 2016-02-06 21:52 DK6NI 0.475731 -25 -1           JN59ln 0.1

This is quite the norm for a night of WSPR on 472kHz. As usual the longest distance heard is EA5DOM at about 2100km.

All the WSPR listening activity mentioned here was done with the active whip antenna. I should do other tests with transmit antennas, and a TRX fully controlled by the WSJT-X program. Some shack re-arrangements are needed.

During the week I managed to work some DX on 80m, now I have worked into 4 continents, the last was 7X4AN for Africa. I also got JA7BXS for my first Japanese station, all with the inverted V dipole antenna.

Mini-Shack in the Living Room.

I made myself a mini-shack in the living room. A single transceiver and a bit of receiver equipment is there along with the most used computer, in the "office-corner".

Right now the mini-shack runs 10m receiving WSPR by day and 630m WSPR RX by night, uploading spots to WSPRnet.org, and a 2m FM transceiver with an indoor antenna.

The "main" (HF) transceiver runs with a cable from the main shack (upstairs), most often connected to the multiband dipole. Without the tuner I can run CW parts of the bands with a good match on 10-15-20-40-80m. With the tuner it is *possible* to match the 12-17-30m band, 60m is outside the tuning range.

Results have, for now, been fine, I have worked some DX on 80m, JA, UN7 in Asia and 7X in Africa. I am very happy with the JA, and quite happy with the two others.

I should probably set up a VHF station there as well, apart from the small FM TRX I use for local chats, and run another cable downstairs for that one. Otherwise, just some receiving stuff, so it does not take over the living room ;)