Oscar 100 from Sweden with 100mW

Apparently, according to Southgate News, Swedish amateurs are restricted to 100mW on 2.4GHz, yet still they can activate the narrowband transponder on this geosynchronous satellite.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/november/qo-100-geostationary-satellite-with-just-100-milliwatts.htm

Swedish changes to amateur licences

According to Southgate News some new regulations come into force for amateurs in Sweden on November 1st. Apparently the free licence will drop the maximum power from 1000W to 200W, although higher power permits are possible, presumably for money!

As a confirmed QRPer who sees 200W as an awful lot of power, this seems fine to me. If you cannot work the world with 200W you should give up amateur radio and play golf or go fishing instead.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/september/swedish-amateur-radio-regulation-changes.htm#.W6pMUPZFzIU

Unfortunate name! - NOT amateur radio

I was amused to spot this in Sweden!

Lower power for Sweden?

According to Southgate News the Swedish regulator is proposing to drop the maximum power on the "free for life" amateur licences to 200 watts. As a confirmed QRPer this is still a really high power! If they cannot work the world with this perhaps they should use the internet instead?

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/march/swedish-regulator-proposes-ham-radio-power-reduction.htm#.WqEHI0x2vIU .

4m CB in Sweden

Until I read this in the Southgate News today, I had no idea that there is a 69MHz CB band in Sweden. Being just below our 4m band, this is interesting.

Overnight 500kHz WSPR tonight

For one of the last times this winter, I'm going to leave the 500kHz WSPR beacon running through the night. Beating the 1000kms barrier seems to be limited not by my low 1mW ERP, but by the absence of stations in the 1000-1200kms range staying active through the night when conditions are quieter. So, a few more tries before I say enough is enough.

If you have a well equipped 500kHz WSPR station in Poland, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic or at a similar distance from England please leave your RX running for the next few nights and keep a close watch for G3XBM around 503.900kHz +/-20Hz.

Another try at the 1000kms target tonight

Again there are a LOT of stations in Europe listening on 500kHz WSPR and I've already had reports tonight from stations 685, 701 and 896kms away from me. The beacon will again be run through the night to see if anyone over 1000kms away manages to decode me. Unfortunately I think the main problem will be there won't be anyone listening in the 1000-1200kms range: TF3HZ is much further away (1836kms) and the station in Poland and one near Stockholm seem to have gone to bed and switched off :-(

SM6BHZ hears me on 500kHz WSPR

SM6BHZ heard me at last on 500kHz WSPR at 0556z this morning, so my best DX has now gone up to 951kms with the tiny station. He reported my WSPR signal at -26dB S/N. The distance beats my previous record on the band by almost 100kms. Gus, thank you so much for country number 6 on the band and Joe K1JT for designing the software to make this possible.