XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated

OZ9QV : Amateur Radio, Propagation and Electronics

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Es on 10m, 60 and 4m.

Posted: 12 Jun 2022 03:01 PM PDT http://oz9qv.blogspot.com/2022/06/es-on-10m-60-and-4m.html


The sporadic E season seemed to start a bit slow this year.
OK, I was away for a week around 3. June, so I have probably missed several openings.
Now I am back, and the activity has got going again.
In my 5W challenge I have worked a few dozen QSOs on 10 and 6m. The QSOs
worked in the challenge just passed 200, so I am fully on track. On 4m I
worked a single station with 25W, and could probably have done more with
more activity.
The solar activity has been a bit lower after the quite strong activity we
have had in April and May. The SFI just dropped below 100 for a few days,
but now it is coming up again. There was one spotless day (the first this
year, I think). The geomagnetic field has been rather quiet, as there have
been no significant flares or coronal holes to send any substantial solar
wind in the direction of Earth.
The solar power for the shack is still insufficient for the use of all the radios I want to make use of in this time when propagation monitoring is
quite interesting for the high HF bands and the VHF bands. More battery capacity as well as solar panels need to be connected, and some low power monitor receiving equipment is also needed.
There are now 8 LiFePO4 cells ready to build a battery for the lab I have upstairs. All have been charged and balanced with the small solar power
system for the lab, and I still have 20 cells to prepare for more energy storage.
What I need for making a good, solid battery (12V - 200Ah) will be some bus bars (heavy duty copper connections between the cells) Right now I will
test the system with a somewhat lower load, and therefore I *can* use some heavy duty wire for the connections, but I will have to locate or make some
of the bus bars if I want to use the battery efficiently for powering the
main part of the lab.
When ready the lab solar power system should be able to deliver/store 12V - 200Ah and shared with the 12V system, an added 12V -> 24V for use with soldering iron and computer. I also have a 100W inverter, so it should be possible to power the spectrum analyzer and the TRX test set, plus other
230V test equipment for limited periods. This system should also be used
for the charging/balancing of the remaining LiFePO4 cells.
Also, I noticed a substantial amount of switching noise from my primitive switch mode charger for the single cells, so I will have to limit the charging/balancing of the remaining cell to the night time, then get some
EMI filtering connected as soon as possible.

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