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.
2016-02-07
2016-02-01
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 ;)
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 ;)
2016-01-31
WSPR activity in January
I got the WSJT-X program running on my notebook. The program includes the WSPR mode, ant that is what I have been running mostly, because it can run unattended.
Bands from 630m to 10m have been tested, mostly on receive only, and the results are encouraging.
- 630m have shown spots from Europe, up to about 2000km.
- one night 40m showed and FY5 many times, and just a few days ago VK6XT came through with more than 10 spots in an evening, one evening my 5W signal was spotted by VK6XT once or twice.
- 80m mostly shows European stations
- then there is 10m. This band has shown low activity in December and January, with some local spots and scattered spots from EA8 and a few sporadic E openings into Europe. Today I have had three surprise spots from VK2KRR until now. It looks like 10m is waking up a bit from the winter doldrums.
Having said that, I have also been listening to beacons on 10m, and the 4X6TU and ZS6DN beacons, as well as 5B5CY are frequent visitors in my receiver. Also some Mediterranean fishing buoys have been heard on a multitude of frequencies on 10.
10m is not dead, as such, it just lacks some dedicated operators.
Almost all this WSPR receiving activity has happened with my old Dressler active antenna, not dedicated resonant antennas. Just shows that the antenna requirements for propagation monitoring are not that big. The active antenna, though not as efficient as a dedicated antenna, works surprisingly well.
WSPR receiving is done here more or less continuously. Transmit activity will require a dedicated transceiver and antenna, so will only be active when I am in and around the house. I am thinking of testing some of the cheap Raspberry Pis to do more WSPRing.
Update 1100Z : I just spotted VK6DZ on 10m.
Bands from 630m to 10m have been tested, mostly on receive only, and the results are encouraging.
- 630m have shown spots from Europe, up to about 2000km.
- one night 40m showed and FY5 many times, and just a few days ago VK6XT came through with more than 10 spots in an evening, one evening my 5W signal was spotted by VK6XT once or twice.
- 80m mostly shows European stations
- then there is 10m. This band has shown low activity in December and January, with some local spots and scattered spots from EA8 and a few sporadic E openings into Europe. Today I have had three surprise spots from VK2KRR until now. It looks like 10m is waking up a bit from the winter doldrums.
Having said that, I have also been listening to beacons on 10m, and the 4X6TU and ZS6DN beacons, as well as 5B5CY are frequent visitors in my receiver. Also some Mediterranean fishing buoys have been heard on a multitude of frequencies on 10.
10m is not dead, as such, it just lacks some dedicated operators.
Almost all this WSPR receiving activity has happened with my old Dressler active antenna, not dedicated resonant antennas. Just shows that the antenna requirements for propagation monitoring are not that big. The active antenna, though not as efficient as a dedicated antenna, works surprisingly well.
WSPR receiving is done here more or less continuously. Transmit activity will require a dedicated transceiver and antenna, so will only be active when I am in and around the house. I am thinking of testing some of the cheap Raspberry Pis to do more WSPRing.
Update 1100Z : I just spotted VK6DZ on 10m.
2016-01-10
More weak signal activities.
Signals from the outdoor active antenna have been routed to the desk in the living room. Of course with much better results than with the indoor wire.
For now signals are split to a SW RX and to a VHF RX for 4 and 6m.
The SW receiver is set up for WSPR signals, and some tests have been done.
On 472kHz the system works nicely with spots every night, once as far as SV8 (about 1400km) No complaints about that.
On 30m and 20 spots all day on most days, so not too much activity there.
My daylight time efforts have been focused on 28MHz. However, in the dark of the winter season there is not too much activity on the band at this time of the solar cycle. Mostly I have seen a local station about 50km away, and some scattered spots from EA8.
More activity will be there as the days get longer. Among others, an old HF transceiver (IC-706) will be placed downstairs for some casual CW activity.
For now signals are split to a SW RX and to a VHF RX for 4 and 6m.
The SW receiver is set up for WSPR signals, and some tests have been done.
On 472kHz the system works nicely with spots every night, once as far as SV8 (about 1400km) No complaints about that.
On 30m and 20 spots all day on most days, so not too much activity there.
My daylight time efforts have been focused on 28MHz. However, in the dark of the winter season there is not too much activity on the band at this time of the solar cycle. Mostly I have seen a local station about 50km away, and some scattered spots from EA8.
More activity will be there as the days get longer. Among others, an old HF transceiver (IC-706) will be placed downstairs for some casual CW activity.
2016-01-02
2016 ... Beginning Weak Signal Experiments
This is the first post of 2016, so first of all let me wish you a Happy New Year.
This year started for me with installing the WSJT-X program and start monitoring (again) WSPR signals, and the first tests on receiving JT65 on the HF bands.
Right now the receiving is done by a FT-817, and just a piece of wire strung along the living room max 2m AGL.
In spite of this, the first night on 40m provided reception of FY5KE. The first night of the year was rather poor due to the arrival of a CME, so the magnetic field was quite disturbed.
This is done from a secondary "shack" in my living room. No cables have been extended to this, but soon ... A few practical things must be done in the house, so it may take a little while.
Next year should see some 6m activity, mainly in the sporadic E season, or if some strong aurora propagation appears, and hopefully some 2m SSB/CW activity, possible with an omnidirectional antenna with a modest gain - most likely two (maybe four) stacked Big Wheel antennas.
Several more experiments are planned for 2016, and I will report as I get to do them. One of those will most likely involve a multiband QRSS grabber receiver.
A look back on 2015 :
I moved back to my native Denmark, and got some antennas up in September and October :
- an active receiving antenna covering all bands from 136kHz to 70MHz, not in any way an ideal antenna, but it has provided some interesting reception, and the signal is good enough to split up and provide output to several receivers for monitoring purposes. Further, it should not be too much work to add some amplification for the extension down into the living room, at least on the higher bands.
- a multi dipole for HF, covering, with good SWR in the lower parts of the bands 80/40/20/15m, and a few more bands with a useable SWR
- a 10m half wave antenna with the feed point up 7m.
- there was already an old triband Comet antenna for 50/144/432MHz. This may need some maintenance in the spring summer, or may have to be replaced (I have a replacement antenna, if necessary.
Since I got back I have been pretty active on 10m, and the count at the end of the year was 71 countries and 6 continents worked, mostly with the vertical. On other bands was a QSO with the US on 80m with the multiband dipole - the feed point is only up 7m, so it was a bit of a surprise.
I am looking forward to getting the house in better order, so it will be feasible to receive visitors. The Kitchen/Bathroom is from 1970, so a renewal is in order ...
So I look forward to making my own experiments, and see what others will be doing in the coming year.
This year started for me with installing the WSJT-X program and start monitoring (again) WSPR signals, and the first tests on receiving JT65 on the HF bands.
Right now the receiving is done by a FT-817, and just a piece of wire strung along the living room max 2m AGL.
In spite of this, the first night on 40m provided reception of FY5KE. The first night of the year was rather poor due to the arrival of a CME, so the magnetic field was quite disturbed.
This is done from a secondary "shack" in my living room. No cables have been extended to this, but soon ... A few practical things must be done in the house, so it may take a little while.
Next year should see some 6m activity, mainly in the sporadic E season, or if some strong aurora propagation appears, and hopefully some 2m SSB/CW activity, possible with an omnidirectional antenna with a modest gain - most likely two (maybe four) stacked Big Wheel antennas.
Several more experiments are planned for 2016, and I will report as I get to do them. One of those will most likely involve a multiband QRSS grabber receiver.
A look back on 2015 :
I moved back to my native Denmark, and got some antennas up in September and October :
- an active receiving antenna covering all bands from 136kHz to 70MHz, not in any way an ideal antenna, but it has provided some interesting reception, and the signal is good enough to split up and provide output to several receivers for monitoring purposes. Further, it should not be too much work to add some amplification for the extension down into the living room, at least on the higher bands.
- a multi dipole for HF, covering, with good SWR in the lower parts of the bands 80/40/20/15m, and a few more bands with a useable SWR
- a 10m half wave antenna with the feed point up 7m.
- there was already an old triband Comet antenna for 50/144/432MHz. This may need some maintenance in the spring summer, or may have to be replaced (I have a replacement antenna, if necessary.
Since I got back I have been pretty active on 10m, and the count at the end of the year was 71 countries and 6 continents worked, mostly with the vertical. On other bands was a QSO with the US on 80m with the multiband dipole - the feed point is only up 7m, so it was a bit of a surprise.
I am looking forward to getting the house in better order, so it will be feasible to receive visitors. The Kitchen/Bathroom is from 1970, so a renewal is in order ...
So I look forward to making my own experiments, and see what others will be doing in the coming year.
2015-11-04
Active antenna
I have finally got my active antenna connected. This is an old Dressler ARA-60 that officially covers 100kHz (50kHz ?) to 60MHz with a substantial gain, and a decent dynamic range.
First things first. Using this antenna while transmitting does not work very well. No surprise there I have my 10m vertical about 5m from the active antenna, so it is, of course heavily overloaded when transmitting 100W on 10. All true signals simply disappear. No, I am not disappointed, I was expecting that, even with my 3W CW, that I use mostly on the HF bands with a dipole, overloads the amplifier.
Similarly, the medium wave broadcast signals tend to generate IMD in the receivers on frequencies below 500kHz. At least, that is how I interpret all the apparent spurious carriers on those low frequencies.
Also, I am not yet using the original power inserter (connectors have to be provided), so I am using a simplified power inserter with a high value inductor. This works fine on MF/LF, but, unsurprisingly the inductor appears to have some resonant frequencies, making the gain vary over the (large) frequency range. I suspect that when I get the correct power inserter ready that will change.
I am splitting the signal from the antenna into ~>49MHz and ~<30MHz, using a commercially available diplexer. The >49MHz signal is then entered into a broadband power splitter (3 outputs), going to scanner receivers. One goes to a multimode scanner, listening to beacons, meteor scatter from TV transmitters, SSB, CW etc. and the other to an FM scanner receiver. The <30MHz goes via a 4-way satellite TV signal splitter to (at the moment) a single HF receiver covering ~0 - 32 MHz. Things work nicely, and I have good signals on all HF bands - noise level is rather high on some frequencies. On 600m the signals through the splitter are still quite sufficient, although there seems to be some IMD present. I expect to use this setup later for QRSS and WSPR monitoring, most likely with simple home made receivers.
It will probably be a good idea to split the frequencies further, e.g. with a low pass/high pass filter centered around 500kHz, in order to remove the MW band signals from the receiver for the lower frequencies.
Now, just listening, the antenna provided a nice surprise. The spec tells me that the antenna is good up to 60MHz, but the "local" beacon on 70 MHz (about 40 - 50km away) comes in nicely. The receiver set up for the 70MHz FM calling frequency of 70.450MHz suddenly came to life, and a station about 180km away appeared on frequency via tropospheric propagation (tropo).
All in all this is a nice generally applicable receiving antenna. The limitations are clear to me, but it presents a good compromise until I can improve the antenna system, and is good for general LF/MF/HF/6m/4m monitoring.
First things first. Using this antenna while transmitting does not work very well. No surprise there I have my 10m vertical about 5m from the active antenna, so it is, of course heavily overloaded when transmitting 100W on 10. All true signals simply disappear. No, I am not disappointed, I was expecting that, even with my 3W CW, that I use mostly on the HF bands with a dipole, overloads the amplifier.
Similarly, the medium wave broadcast signals tend to generate IMD in the receivers on frequencies below 500kHz. At least, that is how I interpret all the apparent spurious carriers on those low frequencies.
Also, I am not yet using the original power inserter (connectors have to be provided), so I am using a simplified power inserter with a high value inductor. This works fine on MF/LF, but, unsurprisingly the inductor appears to have some resonant frequencies, making the gain vary over the (large) frequency range. I suspect that when I get the correct power inserter ready that will change.
I am splitting the signal from the antenna into ~>49MHz and ~<30MHz, using a commercially available diplexer. The >49MHz signal is then entered into a broadband power splitter (3 outputs), going to scanner receivers. One goes to a multimode scanner, listening to beacons, meteor scatter from TV transmitters, SSB, CW etc. and the other to an FM scanner receiver. The <30MHz goes via a 4-way satellite TV signal splitter to (at the moment) a single HF receiver covering ~0 - 32 MHz. Things work nicely, and I have good signals on all HF bands - noise level is rather high on some frequencies. On 600m the signals through the splitter are still quite sufficient, although there seems to be some IMD present. I expect to use this setup later for QRSS and WSPR monitoring, most likely with simple home made receivers.
It will probably be a good idea to split the frequencies further, e.g. with a low pass/high pass filter centered around 500kHz, in order to remove the MW band signals from the receiver for the lower frequencies.
Now, just listening, the antenna provided a nice surprise. The spec tells me that the antenna is good up to 60MHz, but the "local" beacon on 70 MHz (about 40 - 50km away) comes in nicely. The receiver set up for the 70MHz FM calling frequency of 70.450MHz suddenly came to life, and a station about 180km away appeared on frequency via tropospheric propagation (tropo).
All in all this is a nice generally applicable receiving antenna. The limitations are clear to me, but it presents a good compromise until I can improve the antenna system, and is good for general LF/MF/HF/6m/4m monitoring.
2015-11-01
10m in October
Late September I got my half wave vertical for 10m mounted with the feed point about 7m above ground.
This seems to have been good timing because that was about the time that the band started opening, at the time mostly in the North-South directions.
As October has passed, this has expanded to most of the world, and I have had the pleasure of working 6 continents. Antarctica is the one missing, it was active, but I could not get it. Maybe later.
As of today the country count is up to 56 in 6 continents on 10m alone. Not bad for a low Solar Cycle and a vertical. I suspect that, if the solar flux keeps up, we will have mostly daily F2 openings on the band until March/April. Several days we have had openings into the Mediterranean, i.e. down to about 2000km, indicating a relatively high MUF, albeit not enough to have 6m open. On 6 there is always the small hope of a few TEP openings around the Equinox.
I am now going to be listening to the low frequencies, especially during the dark hours which are aplenty here in the next few months - and probably try some low power work at the lower HF bands. After all, 10m is not very much open during those hours in the winter season of the current Solar Cycle, except for a few sporadic E openings in December and January.
I am still waiting for VK and ZL. I have heard them, but not yet being able to work them.
This seems to have been good timing because that was about the time that the band started opening, at the time mostly in the North-South directions.
As October has passed, this has expanded to most of the world, and I have had the pleasure of working 6 continents. Antarctica is the one missing, it was active, but I could not get it. Maybe later.
As of today the country count is up to 56 in 6 continents on 10m alone. Not bad for a low Solar Cycle and a vertical. I suspect that, if the solar flux keeps up, we will have mostly daily F2 openings on the band until March/April. Several days we have had openings into the Mediterranean, i.e. down to about 2000km, indicating a relatively high MUF, albeit not enough to have 6m open. On 6 there is always the small hope of a few TEP openings around the Equinox.
I am now going to be listening to the low frequencies, especially during the dark hours which are aplenty here in the next few months - and probably try some low power work at the lower HF bands. After all, 10m is not very much open during those hours in the winter season of the current Solar Cycle, except for a few sporadic E openings in December and January.
I am still waiting for VK and ZL. I have heard them, but not yet being able to work them.
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