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  • [G3XBM] Sunspots - Friday July 16th 2021

    From G3XBM via rec.radio.amateur.moderat@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jul 16 02:12:36 2021
    XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, uk.radio.amateur, free.uk.amateur-radio

    Roger G3XBM's (Mainly) Amateur Radio Blog

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    Sunspots - Friday July 16th 2021

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 10:44 PM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/sunspots-friday-july-16th-2021.html


    Solar flux is 74 and the SSN 22. A=10 and K=2.

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    Shores of Lake Erie, Canada

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 06:04 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/shores-of-lake-erie-canada.html


    This photo was on 365project earlier today. It is on the shores of Lake
    Erie in Canada. It was posted by a friend I follow.


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    472kHz transverter breadboard

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 05:42 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/472khz-transverter-breadboard.html


    This was some years ago breadboarding my transverter for 472kHz in the back
    of the garage in the old QTH.


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    10m WSPR TX 500mW (Thursday)

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 05:48 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/10m-wspr-tx-500mw-thursday.html


    Since breakfast I have been on 10m WSPR TX. So far (at 0950z) I have been spotted by 14 different stations.
    UPDATE 1249z: 17 stations have spotted me today.

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    6m FT8 RX with the V2000 vertical omni (Thursday)

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 11:54 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/6m-ft8-rx.html


    Since breakfast, I have been on 6m FT8 RX with the V2000 omni vertical. 61 stations spotted with the furthermost 9K2YM (4714km) in Kuwait.
    UPDATE 1038z: 66 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX so far today.
    UPDATE 1246z: 92 stations spotted.
    UPDATE 1853z: 103 stations spotted. Season ending?

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    WSPR idea

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 02:29 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/wspr-idea.html


    Jay, W5OLF, has asked me to forward this:"At the end of last year I
    designed the Retro-WSPR exciter around an Adafruit Trinket microcontroller
    and a 74HC4060 counter chip (see photos below). Retro- I guess because it
    is at a single frequency and you rely on up/down conversion to get it to
    the WSPR band you wish. It uses only one chip besides the microcontroller
    that is a 4.194304MHz oscillator and buffer, which is the RF out
    square-wave, and a counter that counts down to a 256Hz clock. The 256Hz
    clock is input to an I/O pin ‘software interrupt’ of a very simple Python program on the Trinket. This provides WSPR symbol timing and 2min timing
    by counting the beats of this clock. I have never heard anyone proposing
    such a design in that the WSPR symbol time interval is 8192/12000; if we
    divide numerator and denominator by 32 we get 256/375. Thus if we count
    375 beats of a 256Hz clock it is one WSPR symbol time interval. The next
    trick is that the clock at 4.194304MHz also is modulated with its mean frequency preserved - for long-term good timing - with the WSPR symbols by slightly changing the VCC to the counter chip (it takes very little voltage change to increase the frequency by 5Hz) using the A/D converter pin from
    the microcontroller. This setup puts out a 0Hz drift WSPR signal with
    average low delta-t drift for months once the oscillator is adjusted to the correct parameters and the crystal ‘aged’; although, it is only the exciter.
    Now the next question is the up/down conversion circuitry which I have not experimented with personally but would use standard gilbert cell IC and transistor amplifiers and bandpass filtering. If any of your readers of
    your blog want to experiment with doing this I can provide a unit or PCB
    and crystal for shipping postage only as well as emailing the software to
    them. The I2C interface is brought out from the Trinket micro and can
    easily be used to initialize a SI5351 board to an up/down conversion
    frequency to feed into the mixer. Please feel free to post this email on
    your blog.
    73’s, Jay, W5OLF"





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    Antennas mended

    Posted: 15 Jul 2021 06:09 AM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/antennas-mended.html


    Thanks to the efforts of Richard G3TFX, my antennas have been mended.
    I now have my V2000 and endfed halfwave for 10m re-erected at full height
    again with new coax cables. In the past I could have managed to do this,
    but I feel so giddy that ladder work is all but impossible.
    Richard has worked tirelessly in the true spirit of amateur radio.

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    Oscar 100 activity

    Posted: 14 Jul 2021 10:29 PM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/oscar-100-activity.html


    Every few weeks I try to give an update on activity levels on the
    narrowband transponder on Oscar 100 using the on-line SDR at Goonhilly Down. The most recent peek was last evening in Europe. Activity levels were
    moderate, certainly not busy.
    See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .

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    Sunspots - Thursday July 15th 2021

    Posted: 14 Jul 2021 10:22 PM PDT http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.com/2021/07/sunspots-thursday-july-15th-2021.html


    Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 23. A=14 and K=2.

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