4m in the USA

Although the prospects of an amateur 4m band in the USA remains a distant dream - the FCC seem very very slow allocating 137kHz and 472kHz - Southgate News reports that the 3kW ERP 4m beacon in the USA, in FM07 square, has been granted clearance to continue for another 2 years. 6m openings to the USA occur by Es most summers, but 4m is much harder. This is a useful propagation indicator.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2017/march/4-metres-and-wg2xpn.htm#.WLgpUoXXJMs

4m is a band I have hardly tried. I do recall working ZB2VHF with a few watts of AM by Es back in my university days as G3OUL from Liverpool - 1969? These days there are lots of European countries on the band and I would think it a decent band for inter-G QSOs. I recall doing one 4m contest in my early days at Pye Telecom. It was April 1971 and we were in the back of a Land Rover. It was freezing! We used a converted Pye AM Cambridge and a 3 el I seem to recall.

Given up on 10m?

It would appear that most have given up on 10m and migrated to lower frequencies where there are easier pickings. Understandable, but a shame as it means there are now far fewer people around to catch the openings that still do occur on 10m.

For a long time I have recommended digital modes like WSPR or JT65 running in the background. Only low power is needed.  WSPR creates its own beaconing format, but sending "B callsign locator" in JT65 appears on PSK Reporter Maps, so you can soon see where your JT65 signal is being copied. Yes, 10m DX is still there, but harder to find now than a few years ago.

But, are you man enough to take the 10m challenge?

I have said before, but if all you want to do is chat to friends around the world you can do this by video for nothing on the internet. Amateur radio is about learning and pushing the boundaries. For many years 10m will be that final HF frontier.

Care to join us?

Amateur Radio Blog

This is always worth a look as there is usually something of interest.

See http://www.amateurradio.com/ .

WSPR on PSK Reporter Maps

This is something I have not used. Apparently PSK Reporter Maps can be used to plot WSPR spots. PSK Reporter can, in fact, be used with very many modes. I use it for JT65 but I may try ISCSAT on 2m tonight sending a beacon message like "B G3XBM JO02" if this is supported.

EME

Moonbounce (EME) impresses me as I know some work really hard to optimise their stations to achieve this most difficult aspect of our hobby. In recent years it has become a little easier (although still hard) with the advent of digital modes optimised for EME paths.

Jan, LA3EQ posted a video on YouTube showing his SSB reception of HB9Q via the moon. Amazing!

SAQ (17.2kHz) VLF

Southgate News reports that there was a successful transmission this last Christmas. There was some doubt due to a fire earlier in the year. I did not try to copy them this year. My VLF converter may be used to copy them. I have a QSL card from them from years ago.

See http://alexander.n.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/SUMMARY-REPORT-ON-SAQ-TRANSMISSION-CHRISTMAS-2016-12-24-1.pdf for a summary report.

See also https://sites.google.com/site/sm6lkm/saqrx/ for a very good software RX. On my You Tube channel (G3XBM) there is a video of this in use.