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Roger G3XBM's (Mainly) Amateur Radio Blog

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Transatlantic 2m beacon stopped

Posted: 08 May 2022 08:06 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/transatlantic-2m-beacon-stopped.html


EI2DKH, the Irish transatlantic 2m beacon is off air according to the EI7GL blog. This is partly due to the site and cost of electricity as well as no reports in 7 years. I have recommended the use of FT8 if the beacon is re-sited. This works with fleeting signals weaker than CW.
See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ .

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Simple SSB

Posted: 08 May 2022 07:48 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/simple-ssb.html


Steve G1KQH just pointed me to this inspiring video. Thinking about simple,
low cost SSB rigs for 10m, there must be some great ideas here!




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6m good

Posted: 08 May 2022 12:50 PM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/6m-good.html


Better equipped 6m stations are working some remarkable distances. There
have been openings from Europe to South Africa and South America and
reports of even further contacts. Although these could involve F2, the
N-S QSOs are probably a combination of Es and TEP.
They don't call 6m (50MHz) the "magic band" without reason. With the right combination of propagation almost anything seems possible. Even with a very simple vertical antenna and 1W I have worked the USA on 6m QRP CW.
FT8 is an ideal mode as it is widely monitored on 50.313 MHz and works with fleeting signals much weaker than CW.
UPDATE 1948z: 6m opened to the USA this afternoon.

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10m WSPR (Sunday)

Posted: 08 May 2022 11:50 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/10m-wspr-sunday.html


My 500mW 10m TX WSPR beacon was turned on at 0830z. Nobody has spotted me
yet.
UPDATE 1155z: Still no spots of me today. 13 unique spots on 10m WSPR of
my QRP in the last day mostly by Es.
UPDATE 1452z: Plenty of spots from the Canary Is now.
UPDATE 1850z: 3 unique stations spotting me. It seems the Canary Is
stations nearly always spot me if they are on.

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Special stations? National Mills Weekend

Posted: 08 May 2022 01:54 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/special-stations-national-mills-weekend.html


This weekend is National Mills Weekend in the UK. Many mills in the UK will have special event stations as part of this event. Watch out for special UK stations and QSLs from UK stations operating at mills. Our local museum an windmill have free entry. The photo shows the windmill next door.

See https://burwellmuseum.org.uk/

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8m experiment (Sunday)

Posted: 08 May 2022 04:27 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/8m-experiment-sunday_8.html


The last couple of days have been quite good on 8m with new stations
spotted and an exchange of reports with a station in Slovenia. Later this morning I will be on FT8 TX on 40.680 MHz USB dial.
UPDATE 0832z: FT8 TX (40.680 first) turned on at 0829z.
UPDATE 1125z: Just EI9KP (649km) spotted on 8m FT8 RX today. No spots of
me.

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Sunspots - Sunday May 8th 2022

Posted: 07 May 2022 10:22 PM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/sunspots-sunday-may-8th-2022.html


Solar flux is 118 and the SSN 66. A=3 and K=2.

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Free PDF book progress

Posted: 07 May 2022 02:45 PM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/free-pdf-book-progress.html


Well, I think most of the text is now done. I have to reorder the pages and
add photos and schematics. At the moment, it is still on target for the end
of May, but I make no promises!
As I have said before, this will be a free PDF book, so anyone can have a
copy. All I want to do is share my ideas and fun. If you want to print it
out, that is your choice.
It will be linked from this blog and (I hope!) most major radio magazines.
At least I shall send them the link. Whether or not it is used is outside
of my control!
As I find mistakes or things to add, I shall create newer versions with probably the same link. This way, the link should always point to the
latest version. There are bound to be mistakes or omissions. At least, this
way I can readily change or add things.

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DSB v. SSB

Posted: 07 May 2022 03:55 AM PDT
http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/dsb.html


Now, I am very happy to be told I am wrong, but I think DSB rigs can be received on other DSB receivers, but it is much more tricky than receiving
DSB on an SSB receiver. I have no experience of this, but a comment on a
post yesterday has me thinking. The comment was made by Ken G4APB. Thanks
Ken.
Clearly a simple SSB 10m transceiver (if very low cost, simple and easily copied) would be much preferable to a DSB transceiver, but I am unsure of
the relative costs.
If you have experience, please let me know.
Clearly, if 2 DSB transceivers can not (easily) communicate, maybe a simple
10m DSB transceiver is not as ideal as a club project, even though most
QSOs would be with SSB stations.
I wonder how inexpensive a 10m SSB transceiver can be made as a simple kit?

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10m WSPR QRP TX

Posted: 07 May 2022 03:50 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/10m-wspr-qrp-tx_7.html


On 10m WSPR TX I am using my 500mW beacon. So far (at 1017z) I have been spotted by nobody!
UPDATE 1050z: One spot from Italy suggests there is Es about.

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8m experiment (Saturday)

Posted: 07 May 2022 01:49 PM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/8m-experiment-saturday.html


After my best day yet yesterday, I am again on 40.680 MHz USB dial FT8 TX.
No spots yet.
UPDATE 1012z: EI4GNB (445km) spotted strongly on FT8, but no spots of me. UPDATE 1630z: 4 stations spotted here today on 8m FT8 RX with the
furthermost ZS6WAB (8931km). Today has been surprisingly good. The ZS was probably a combination of TEP and Es. There are a couple of newly active 8m stations near Preston that I hope to copy.
UPDATE 2047z: Actually 5 unique stations were spotted today. GR9B near
Preston was spotted on FT8 working ZS6WN, but for some reason this did not appear on PSKreporter. At -21dB S/N he was not strong so this might have
been Es backscatter or tropo. Now QRT.

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Sunspots - Saturday May 7th 2022

Posted: 06 May 2022 11:35 PM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2022/05/sunspots-saturday-may-7th-2022.html


Solar flux is 119 and the SSN 64. A=5 and K=1.

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