23cm SSB sked with G4BAO

This was very successful. John gave me an RS58 report which was very satisfying for 2W indoors to a 2 el yagi indoors. John suggested an FT8 test at some point in the future, which I shall do. Aiming the small beam in all sorts of directions made little difference on John's signal.

G4BAO away?

Several times I have tried to contact John to arrange a quick sked on 23m SSB. It seems odd to me that he has not replied even when I sent to an address he had used quite recently and another that I had. 

At first I wondered if my address had gone into SPAM by mistake. I have come to the conclusion he is away.... or I am no longer in his good books,HI!

23cm QSO this week?

If he is around, I may try a 23cm SSB QSO with G4BAO. John has a superb 23cm station, so I should certainly be able to copy him. 

My station has an ERP about 40dB less than his. I hope he can copy me! I am still using 2W pep to my 2el beam pointing out of the shack window.

6m JT6M

In the end I looked on 50.230MHz last night, but only copied G4BAO who was working an OZ. I suspect I was copying John directly and not off MS pings. Tonight I'll try the newer JT6M frequency further up the band. Now back on 6m WSPR during the day and early evening.

UPDATE 0915z:  Plenty of 6m WSPR spots of G0OQK (98km) by tropo and aircraft reflection. He has also spotted me lots of times again.

UPDATE 0938z:  There were no overnight 10m WSPR spots. I thought I might have been spotted in Europe via the Perseids by MS but guess the 2 minute TX period, low power and Doppler were all against me. MS pings are much longer on 10m. In the past I have worked QRP SSB DX by 10m aurora but never tried 10m MS. Maybe I should. It is a pity there is not a 30sec WSPR mode!

G4BAO - 70cm new beacon testing

John G4BAO (about 8km) has been testing beacon bits for the new 70cm UK beacon network, at 1mW level so far, to a vertically polarised antenna. Not knowing his polarisation, last evening I copied the 1mW signal on my 5 el horizontal 70cm beam at about 559 by ear. Signal is about the same level as the Kent beacon on 2m here.

I will look for his test beacon (G4JNT design,, GPS disciplined) on my V2000 vertical to avoid cross-polarisation losses, if still on the air. Frequency is/was temporarily 432.440MHz.  The beacon sends FSK and JT65.

It will be excellent when the UK 70cm beacon network is running again. At the moment, the only beacon I can copy frequently is in Holland! GB3BSL (Bristol 70cm beacon) used to be a decent signal here and was a good propagation indicator, sadly now QRT like most of the original 70cm UK beacon network.

SMA version of the G3XBM 472kHz transverter

In an email,  John G4BAO tells me he has built an SMA version of my 472kHz transverter. At present, he is getting 5W RF out using standard SMA parts and a different FET.  If you wish to enquire about this version please contact John and NOT me!

G4BAO's SMA version of the G3XBM 472kHz transverter

Moonbounce with WSJT and MAP65

At a recent EME conference in Cambridge John Regnault, G4SWX demonstrated EME using WSJT by remotely operating his 1kW EME station (using the call GB2EME) located on the east coast of the UK. They worked well over 100 DX stations off the moon during the conference (which I did not attend). Joe Taylor W1JT who invented WSJT and MAP65 (and WSPR!) was there.

Although I'm an engineer who enjoys doing "a lot with a little", one has to be impressed by the dedication and sheer hard work some amateurs put into the hobby. Recently G4BAO demonstrated to me his 10/24GHz station which has software controlled rotators, mast top RF sections and GPS locked SDR receivers. He was able to make state of the art 10/24GHz narrow-band operation look easy, when in reality it was the culmination of a lot of very hard work over very many years. Of course, the effort goes on and on.  

144MHz across the Atlantic?

A new beacon, GB3WGI in Ulster, has been approved by OFCOM. When turned on it will radiate at least 100W ERP (possibly much more) in the direction of the USA. It will be monitored in the USA and Canada for possible 144MHz openings across the Atlantic.

For many years people have speculated about the possibility of working across the Atlantic on 144MHz. On very rare occasions, this might be achieved by various propagation modes including multi-hop Es, auroral E, tropo or MS, or more probably a combination of these. There have been tantalising hints that this path has been open before now, but no objectively verifiable proof. With new weak signal modes it surely will happen sometime soon.