Morserunner...a CW contest simulator

An 18 month absence from the radio hasn't done much for my CW skills. At first, very rusty yet after a few minutes, it starts coming back. I guess it's a bit like learning to ride a bicycle, one you can do it, you never forget.

As well as listening to CW on the various bands, one of the ways to brush up on your CW is to use a contest simulator.

I came across Morserunner a few years back and it's a novel way of listening to morse. It basically simulates operating in a CW contest and you just use the function keys on the PC keyboard to control everything. As it is all off-air, there is no pressure and you can make as many mistakes as you like.

10 metres...Thurs 24th March 2011

After the good conditions on 28 MHz yesterday, I tried listening again the next day on the 24th of March. The band was a lot quieter though. No SE Europe or Middle East.

The first signal heard was Z22JE in Zimbabwe at around 11:00 followed soon after by the Z21ANB beacon on 28250.2 MHz.

The band was pretty quiet though. Then I came across WA4FC/B in central Virginia on 28231.1 MHz running 5 watts to a vertical. Other than that beacon, there was no indication that the band was open to North America so I put this spot up on the Dx-Cluster. While the Dx-Cluster gets a fair bit of abuse with lots of rubbish spots, it's invaluable for the likes of 10 metres where a unusual path can open up.

Also heard was ZS6TQ and then VP8LP in the Falkland Islands. The VP8 station seemed nice and loud so out came the microphone from the drawer...plugged it in...and gave him a call......and....no joy :o(
There were just too many stations calling him. So, I just the radio on in the background and about 10 minutes later, his signal seemed to peak and I tried again....and success! :o)

My first contact since July 2009. I have worked Falkland Island before on 10 metres but it was still nice to see that my signal was heard way down in the South Atlantic....even if it was only a 5/3 ;o)

Also heard were ZR1ADI (South Africa) and LU5FC....but the level of activity was still well down on yesterday.

....and finally, I heard 5N7M on cw. Really weak. He was 219 and peaking 319. There was no point in calling since I wouldn't be sure if I would hear my own call coming back.

So again, I left the radio on that frequency.........and about 15 minutes later, the signals got strong enough to try. After a few attempts, 5N7M was in the log....Nigeria on 10m cw :o)

Back on the radio & conditions on 28 Mhz...

Turned on the radio again today after a long absence. Looking at my logbook, my last contact was in July 2009! Back then, the talk was of solar minimums and how poor conditions were.

Today, the Solar Flux Index is at 100 and the 28 MHz band was in fine shape. There was plenty of genuine F2 propagation about with signals coming in from SE Europe / Middle East / Africa / South America / SE USA.

Considering I was only listening with an old simple half-wave CB vertical antenna, I was suprised at how strong some of the signals were...especially the beacons running only a few watts.

This is a list of what I heard on 28 Mhz today...
South East Europe...SV3AQR/B (Greece 4w vert), SV5TEN/B (Rhodes), IQ8CZ/B ,  IT9EJW/B (Sicily 3w), 5B4CY/B (Cyprus) , SV0XCC/9 (Crete), SV2AHT/B
Mid-East...HZ1DG (Saudi Arabia), TA4AU
Africa...EA8CTF , ZS1AX , TJ3FC (Cameroon) , D44AC (Cape Verde Is) , TR8CA (Gabon) 
South America...PU2TGK , PU2UEO , LW4EU , YV5DTJ , ZP5DBC
Caribbean...FM4NB (Martinique)
USA...W4TIY/B (Georgia) , KB4UPI/B (Alabama 5w) , KJ4QYB/B (Alabama), W3HH/B (Florida 12w)


Other unusual signals heard were...
1) G0IVZ in Cornwall...just about audible....either weak tropo or F2 back-scatter?
2) Illegal Fishing Buoys.....or at least that's what I think they were as suggested by this IARU piece.
The ones that I noticed were in the 10m beacon band. They transmitted a carrier for a few seconds and then gave a CW id. The ones I noted were...
28191.4 cw ident was 'CT' with a very bad chirp
28225.0 cw ident was 'EI'
28255.0 cw ident was 'DK'
....as for their location???

Climbing Towers...

This clip has been doing the rounds on YouTube recently.

Not for the faint of heart ;o)

More WSPR spots on 28 MHz...

An unusual spot this morning.......I heard G8JNJ on WSPR on 28 MHz.

Timestamp	Call	MHz	SNR	Drift	Grid	Pwr	Reporter	RGrid	km	az
2010-04-09 08:06	G8JNJ	28.126037	-18	0	IO90hx	10	EI7GL	IO51tu	495	284

At the time, there doesn't seem to be any other reports.

G8JNJ was running 10 watts and the distance was 495 kms.

Mode of propogation....?

Tropo......10 watts over 500 kms! Very unlikely. Tropo propagation on 10 metres is very poor.

Sporadic-E......guess it's possible, you can't really rule it out.

Meteor Scatter.......my guess is that it was probably meteor scatter. Even though you need a transmission 2 minutes long for WSPR, I have often heard very long bursts on 10 metre beacons. Even checking the trace a few hours later, I can see traces of some signal on exactly the frequency that G8JNJ is supposed to be on.

WSPR & V51 Namibia on 10m

Back messing about with the radio again. Tried out listening with WSPR on 30m & 60m over the last few days. It's so easy.......just run the software, put the mic from the pc next to the loudspeaker of the HF rig and away you go.

Spotted a few German stations this morning so there was some Sp-E about. Start of the Sporadic-E season!

Around 14:00, I heard V53ARC in Namibia which was a big suprise! So much for a dead band!

I would say the most likely reason was a single F2 hop from V53 to southern Europe and then via a single Sporadic-E hop from there to the UK and Ireland.

WSPR spots below for V53ARC

Timestamp	Call	MHz	SNR	Drift	Grid	Pwr	Reporter	RGrid	km	az
2010-04-08 14:30	V53ARC	28.126160	-22	-1	JG87	1	IW2DZX	JN45kp	7624	354
2010-04-08 14:14	V53ARC	28.126148	-19	0	JG87	1	G3JKV	IO91uf	8373	349
2010-04-08 14:14	V53ARC	28.126147	-2	0	JG87	1	EI7GL	IO51tu	8630	344
2010-04-08 13:56	V53ARC	28.126173	-23	0	JG87	1	IW2DZX	JN45kp	7624	354
2010-04-08 13:40	V53ARC	28.126151	-22	0	JG87	1	G3JKV	IO91uf	8373	349
2010-04-08 13:24	V53ARC	28.126142	-27	0	JG87	1	G3JKV	IO91uf	8373	349

WA1ZMS...the 2m trans-Atlantic beacon???

This item appeared on the IRTS news last Sunday...

Will this be the year? The 2m WA1ZMS trans-Atlantic beacon The WA1ZMS beacon on 144.285000 MHz is now running a 500 watt transmitter giving 7 kW ERP The beacon is GPS locked and the antenna comprises two 5-element stacked yagis beaming at 60 degrees from IARU locator FM07fm.

I'm sure most people accepted it at face value and assummed that it was a beacon on the Eastern side of the Atlantic beaming accross (60 deg) on 144 MHz to Europe.

However, when you look at the location of it, some serious issues arise...

The distance between the nearest point in Europe (Ireland) and the nearest point in North America (Newfoundland) is generally considered to be around 3,000 kms. The WA1ZMS beacon is in locator square FM07fm which is in the state of Virginia, some 5,480 kms from Ireland. In fact, it's so far away that it's one Sporadic-E hop from Newfoundland alone. To put that into a European context, it's the same as putting a trans-Atlantic beacon in Romania (YO) and asking someone in Newfoundland to listen for it!

Now, I'm sure that it's an excellent beacon and it is very valuable fas a propogation indicator along the Eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada. And I guess, there is always the possibility that it might bridge the gap accross to the Azores (72 deg...12 deg off beam heading of 60 deg)....especially when the Azore High Pressure system moves around when it expands in the Summer/Autumn month. Even at that though, the distance is still about 4,500 kms.

To suggest that it might make it all of the way accross to Europe proper would take a big leap of faith.

Long distance Sporadic-E on 144 MHz...

This is something I meant to post a while back but never got around to it unil now.

Back on the 3rd of July, there was some excellent Sporadic-E propogation over Europe with some very impressive distances. One of those contacts was between Tom, EI4DQ (IO51wu) and SV9CVY (KM25ka) on the island of Crete, a distance of about 3,213 kms. Anyone that knows about Sporadic-E will know that the usual maximum distance for 1 hop is around 2,300 kms so the above distance is unusual. (On the map above, 2300 kms would be roughly from EI4DQ to roughly the heel of Italy).

Now, there are probably 3 possible explanations for this type of contact...

1) Double hop Sporadic-E as shown above...using clouds #2 and #3

2) Chordal hop where the Sporadic-E clouds may be slightly tilted and the signal goes from cloud to cloud rather than bouncing off the ground in the middle.......i.e. the signal goes directly from cloud #2 to cloud #3.

3) There was an extension at either end or both ends due to tropospheric propogation.

Considering that the MUF does not reach as high as 144 MHz that often, it's remarkable that it should happen in 2 spots at once. Hence, that's why these type of contacts are pretty rare.

Now for a bit of fun ;o)......what happens if we take that 3,213 km contact and plot it from EI4DQ's location in the opposite direction...

In fact, if EI4DQ managed to get a signal to travel that far to the west, it would end up in Newfoundland! To date, no-one has managed to make a contact accross the Atlantic on 144 MHz and it remains the 'holy grail' of VHF propogation. In fact, the IRTS have a special trophy called the Brendan Trophies for the first 2 stations to achieve this special contact.

Now, there's a big difference between the path from EI to SV9 compared to the path from EI to VO (Newfoundland). For one thing, EI to VO is a lot further North and Newfoundland is a lot closer to the magnetic North pole, all factors which seem to reduce the chances of there being suitable Sporadic-E.

It does however raise the question of whether it is possible? Europe to North America direct on 144 MHz.......can it be done???

WSPR after 3 weeks...

I have been listening on the low power weak signal mode WSPR for about 3 weeks now. For a lot of that time, I have left the receiver on overnight on 30 metres to see what signals I could hear.

A typical morning might show plenty of signals logged from Europe and the East coast of the USA. But there's nearly always one or two signals from the West coast that I have heard and more often than not, I am the only one or one of a few in Europe to have heard their signal. An typical example looks like the one above from K7LG in southern California. As you can see, I am the only European station that heard him that night/morning.

Looking at the great circle path, it becomes obvious that Ireland and Britain are closer than most of the mainland Europe for propogation to the west coast of the USA. As well as 30m, I have seen the same results on 40m and I presume it is the same for 20m.

So, if you are an EI/GI/GM station and are on the air after midnight or in the early hours of the morning, have a listen for those west coast stations.

AMSAT-UK announce a new satellite project...FUNcube

I came accross this a few days ago. It looks like an interesting satellite with a linear transponder as well (2m/70cms). Here are some details...

"AMSAT-UK has announced a new amateur satellite project – FUNcube – that features a 435 to 145 MHz Linear Transponder for SSB/CW operation.

FUNcube is an educational single cubesat project with the goal of enthusing and educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics.

The target audience consists of primary and secondary school pupils and FUNcube will feature a 145 MHz telemetry beacon that will provide a strong signal for the pupils to receive.

It is planned to develop a simple receiver board that can be connected to the USB port of a laptop to display telemetry in an interesting way.

The satellite will contain a materials science experiment, from which the school students can receive telemetry data which they can compare to the results they obtained from similar reference experiments in the classroom.

FUNcube is the first cubesat designed to benefit this group and is expected to be the first UK cubesat to reach space.

It is anticipated FUNcube will be launched into a Sun Synchronous Low Earth Orbit about 600-700km above the earth using one of the many launch opportunities that exist for Cubesat missions. In such an orbit the satellite passes over Europe approximately 3 times in the morning, and 3 in the evening, every day, perhaps allowing the morning passes to be used for educational purposes and the evening passes for Amateur Radio communications.

FUNcube will carry a UHF to VHF linear transponder that will have up to 1 watt and which can be used by Radio Amateurs worldwide for SSB and CW communications.
Measuring just 10 * 10 * 10 cm, and with a mass of less than 1kg, it will be the smallest ever satellite to carry a linear transponder and the choice of frequencies will enable Radio Amateurs to use their existing VO-52 or DO-64 station.

A key feature of the satellite is the absence of an On-Board Computer. For reliability and maximum power efficiency, the design has been kept as straight-forward as possible with satellite control being achieved using simple commands. "

ZL on WSPR on 30 Metres...

Left the rig on overnight on the 18th/19th of July. One of the ususual signals this time was ZL2FT in New Zealand.

Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az

2009-07-19 06:34 ZL2FT 10.140222 -22 0 RF70mb 5 EI7GL IO51tu 18664 10

2009-07-19 06:26 ZL2FT 10.140223 -22 0 RF70mb 5 EI7GL IO51tu 18664 10

2009-07-19 06:16 ZL2FT 10.140223 -21 0 RF70mb 5 EI7GL IO51tu 18664 10

2009-07-19 06:12 ZL2FT 10.140224 -22 0 RF70mb 5 EI7GL IO51tu 18664 10

Looking at the map on the WSPR website, I was the only European station to hear him that morning. Why??

I assume it was a short-path signal over the artic? If so, my take-off in that direction is excellent with the ground to the north here falling away rapidly. Is that the reason? Is it just because I am in the North-West of Europe? Combination of both?

I'm just suprised that I should be the only one in Europe to hear the ZL station when my horizontal antenna is only 4-5 metres above ground, hardly a 'DX' set-up.

18th July...another opening on 50 MHz

18th July......The summer Sporadic-E season seems to be on the wane a bit with more days on 50 MHz with no openings. The 18th of July was an exception as the band seemed to be open to somewhere most of the day with brief surges in activity.

I worked 20 stations in 15 locator squares over 4 seperate activity periods. Much of the activity seemed to be from Scandanavia and I even managed to pick up 2 new locator squares up there....something that is unusual considering that I have been on 50 MHz for about 18 years ;o)

The most unusual contact was when W3UR in Maryland called me! I had to ask him to repeat his call as I was sure I had made a mistake...but no, it was W3UR in FM19. It's kind of funny to think that W3UR would end up calling someone in Europe on 50 MHz with home made 2 element wire beam in the attic of their house pointing the wrong direction!

It makes me wonder what could I work if I had an antenna for 50 MHz outdoors?? Maybe next year...

WSPR...40m Activity Period - 15th July 2009

The majority of stations using WSPR seem to mainly use 30 metres. In an attempt to encourage more use of other bands, special activity days are organised every week. For this one, I opted to listen on 40 metres and left the rig on receive from early on the 15th to around 08:00 on the 16th.
Using my very low doublet antenna (~5m agl), several European stations running around 1 to 5 watts were heard, nothing special. One notable exception was DL6NL who was running only 50 mW and was heard for the whole day, even at local noon which is probably a sign that the MUF was pretty low.

The following DX was logged...

VE3ODZ (5w)

WB4KLJ (2w)

KE7A (5w) in Texas...consistent signal for ~4-5 hours both mornings.

PY8ELO (20w)

VK6POP (10w)...heard several times on the evening of the 15th. First heard 16:00...several hours before local sunset & several hours before sunrise in VK.

KE0CO (5w) & W7RDP (5w) in Washington state in the NW USA.

2009-07-16 04:34 KE0CO 7.040085 -26 0 CN87tl 5 EI7GL IO51tu 7317 kms

2009-07-16 04:56 W7RDP 7.040073 -23 0 CN87xo 5 EI7GL IO51tu 7291

2009-07-16 04:34 W7RDP 7.040073 -22 0 CN87xo 5 EI7GL IO51tu 7291

Both stations (3 spots in total) were only heard at my local sunrise which was at 04:33. I was suprised to see that I was the only station in Europe to hear them that morning!

The following morning I noticed something similiar on 30 metres where only 2 European stations heard AC7SM in Las Vegas, Nebraska running 5 watts. GM4YJB had one spot at 03:30 and these were my spots...

2009-07-17 05:26 AC7SM 10.140218 -27 0 DM26ie 5 EI7GL IO51tu 7937 39

2009-07-17 03:22 AC7SM 10.140219 -27 0 DM26ie 5 EI7GL IO51tu 7937 39

2009-07-17 03:12 AC7SM 10.140219 -30 0 DM26ie 5 EI7GL IO51tu 7937 39

This time, the 'sunrise' effect was not so obvious....perhaps it is more pronounced on the lower bands like 40 & 80m?

I would have thought that other European stations with better antenna systems would have heard these US stations as well? These initial results would suggest that location is just as important. I must check again on another few mornings to see if something similiar happens again.

Listening on WSPR...

I spent the weekend trying out WSPR......'Weak Signal Propogation Reporter'. It's a new type of mode which was only developed in April 2008 and allows users to detect very weak signals with the soundcard on their PC's. I saw this mentioned on the Soldersmoke Blog recently so I downloaded the software.

It basically works as follows.....

1) You tune to a specific frequency on each band. On 30 metres, the most popular band for these kind of signals, you set your rig to 10.138700 MHz on USB.

2) The software listens to the received audio from 1.4 to 1.6 khz. This equates to 10.140100 to 10.140200, a 200 Hz wide section of spectrum.

3) For a basic receive set-up, just put the microphone from your PC next to the loudspeaker of your rig and run the software.

There are a few issues that still need to be resolved. You need to set the time on your PC so that it is accurate to within 1 sec. You also need to find out where 10.138700 MHz is! You can't assume that your rig is accurate. I found that on my rig, I had to set it to 10.138778 MHz.

There is a nice short explanation of WSPR on the G4ILO website.

The main website for WSPR reports is WSPR Net which lists all the WSPR spots and can also display them on a map.

The picture above is a screenshot of the WSPR screen. The horizontal waterfall displayat the top shows the signals heard in the 200 Hz band split up into 1 minute segments. In the data section below it, the 2nd column is how far below the noise floor the signal is. The last 3 columns on the right are callsigns heard, their locator square and their power in dBm (20 dBm=0.1 watts, 27dBm=0.5w, 30dBm=1w, 33dBm=2w, 37dBm=5w, 40dBm=10w).

Most stations seem to be running around 1 to 5 watts and over the space of a day, I was hearing signals from both sides of the Atlantic. The activity level seems a little low so perhaps it is still a mode that is only growing? Still, I was suprised at what was heard with the WSPR software digging out signals buried in the noise. Here is a map of what was heard in 30 minutes on a Sunday afternoon in July. Note that the antenna in use was a low doublet antenna only about 4-5 metres above ground level.

As a mode, WSPR has a lot of potential. Some of the advantages might be....

1) You can automatically see if various propogation paths are open although a lack of global receiving stations might make this difficult?

2) Within minutes of sending out a signal, you can see what type of signal you have at various receiving stations.

3) By using very low power, you should be able to see roughly how you are getting out. Then if you make any major antenna changes, you should be able to get instant feedback on your signal strenght?

For anyone interested in very low power operation, this mode has obvious attractions. I tried messing about with QRSS (slow speed CW.....a dot = 3 seconds!) and I found it difficult to find let alone read the signals. WSPR seems to have a lot more potential.

I can feel myself at the edge of a slippery slope with this one ;o)

6th July 2009...Sp-E opening into Europe

There was a nice opening on 50 MHz into Europe on the 6th of July. I worked 29 stations in 23 grid/locator squares. It's only when I plotted out the various squares that I noticed the usual oval shaped footprint which is pretty common with Sporadic-E. Most contacts were in the 1200 to 2000 km range.

Two contacts stood out....

1) YO7LCB in KN15OA at 2428 kms. Almost certainly not single hop. Probably double hop or chordal hop Sporadic-E.

2) UT5PI in KN77OM at 3123 kms. Double hop.

Working double hop on 50 MHz is pretty common but it's still nice to do it, especially with an indoor 2 element beam in the attic made from scrap pieces of TV coax ;o)

HF antenna repaired...

Repaired the HF Doublet antenna today. It had been down for months after getting damaged in the spring gales last March. It's currently only about 3 to 5 metres above ground level but it's better than nothing.

With the 10 metre vertical and the 2 element for 6 metres in the attic, I can now operate and listen on all bands from 3.5 MHz to 50 MHz (80 metres to 6 metres).

26th June 2009...Big opening to NA on 6m

Big opening on the 26th of June to North America and the Caribbean. Needless to say, with a 2 element beam in the attic pointing east, signals were incredibly weak here.

Opening 26th June 2009...Yellow tracks (50 MHz), Blue tracks (28 MHz)

To put it into context.... 1) My take off to the west isn't great so height above local ground has a big impact. With the antenna in the attic, local houses are also in the way. 2) The 2 element has a front to back ratio of about 10-12 dB so signals coming from the west were getting attenuated a lot. 3) The antenna is indoors.....a loss of probably another few dB. Taken all together, the losses are probably around 15dB when compared to say a 2 element outdoors at the same height pointing west. (15dB is the difference between someone running 5 watts and 150 watts). 

In the early part of the evening, I could really hear very little....only German stations from the east via 1 hop Sporadic-E beaming this way towards North America. Eventually, signals improved slightly and I could just about hear FM5AA (2/1) and V29JKV (319). From North America, some of the stations that I heard were VE1YX (4/1), K1TOL (519), N9XG (519) and K4PI (529) among some others. Just to prove the point that the beam has a reasonable front to back, I could hear G and GW stations on tropo from the east (~300 kms) and were much stronger all evening. Highlight of the day however was the one and only contact I managed to make! I called KY5R in EM64 who was just above the noise level and somehow he managed to hear my 50 watts on cw. Alabama from Ireland on 6 metres with an antenna in the attic pointing the wrong direction.....amazing. 

Here is a selection of EI related dx spots from the night... EI7IX 50208.0 K9UHF en53io53 tnx 0038 27 Jun United States W1DYJ 50140.0 EI7IX FN42IO53 0013 27 Jun Ireland N3CR 50140.0 EI7IX 0000 27 Jun Ireland N5DG-@ 50095.0 EI1IP 2354 26 Jun Ireland N4GN 50095.0 EI2IP IO61 2354 26 Jun Ireland N1BAA 50140.0 EI7IX IO53 > FM16 2353 26 Jun Ireland W3ATO 50140.0 EI7IX FN20IO53 2343 26 Jun Ireland K8YTO 50095.2 EI2IP IO61<>EN82 2342 26 Jun Ireland VE3DO-@ 50140.0 EI7IX IO53>EN94 huge e/c pileup 2337 26 Jun Ireland N2CG 50140.0 EI7IX IO53 59 into NNJ FN20wv 2332 26 Jun Ireland VA3XJ 50140.0 EI7IX EN82MHIO53 loud in en82 2320 26 Jun Ireland K1DAT 50051.8 EI0SIX/B 549 >FN42 2248 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50167.5 KB8U EN71sw, Washtenaw cty MI 2236 26 Jun United States EI9JF 50089.9 K4BI Jim EM74 2221 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50178.1 WD5K EM12nr, Dallas cty TX 2211 26 Jun United States VE3EN 50150.0 EI0CL tnx ! 2205 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50208.4 KB8U EN71sw, Washtenaw cty MI 2202 26 Jun United States EI7GL-@ 50005.3 K1TOL FN44IO51 cq..in the bcn sectio 2202 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50150.0 EI9FVB Clg cq dx NA 2155 26 Jun Ireland EI9FVB 50187.7 K8MD EN82bq, Livingston cty MI 2152 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50200.0 N8CJK EN84gg, Iosco cty MI 2148 26 Jun United States EI9FVB 50128.4 WC2K Clg you here 2125 26 Jun United States VO1KVT 50167.0 EI3GYB IO53<>GN29LF 2123 26 Jun Ireland EI9JF 50081.0 AA1ON 579 2122 26 Jun United States K4YMQ 50146.0 EI2JD EM63IO63 2111 26 Jun Ireland NZ3M 50205.0 EI4EY 2111 26 Jun Ireland W5THT 50215.0 EI4EY 2109 26 Jun Ireland W2YR 50147.0 EI2JD 2105 26 Jun Ireland W2YR 50205.0 EI4EY 2102 26 Jun Ireland VE1SKY 50205.0 EI4EY FN74<>IO52 2046 26 Jun Ireland IK4IDF 50147.0 EI2JD 2031 26 Jun Ireland EI2IP 50110.0 WP4G cq cw 2008 26 Jun Puerto Rico EI2IP 50122.0 8R1DB cq still here 2007 26 Jun Guyana W4UDH-@ 50185.0 EI4EY 55 in EM52 2000 26 Jun Ireland FM5AA 50120.0 EI9FVB FK94> EI9FVB 50120.0 FM5AA FK94IO51QV 1957 26 Jun Martinique EI7GL-@ 50045.4 OX3VHF/B GP60qqIO51 2510 kms 1952 26 Jun Greenland EI7IX 50045.0 OX3VHF/B 599 over 1 hour 1944 26 Jun Greenland EI7IX 50104.0 V29JKV fk97io53 up .5kc 1939 26 Jun Antigua & Ba EI7IX 50104.0 V29JKV cq 539 1913 26 Jun Antigua & Ba EI2IP 50117.0 TZ6EI Still in most evening 1843 26 Jun Mali EI7IX 50175.0 WB4SLM em82io53 tnx 1842 26 Jun

New Prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24...

Reading through some recent e-mails, I came accross this...

NASA Releases New Predictions for Solar Cycle 24......An international panel of experts -- led by the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA) and sponsored by NASA -- has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle: Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots. "If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78,". This report clarifies a NOAA report from earlier this month that stated that Solar Cycle 24 would bring "90 sunspots per day on average."

Looking at the date, they are predicting the peak to be between 80 and 100 sunspots per month at the peak. So what does this mean? Let's compare it to previous cycles...

It looks as if it will be similiar but slightly lower than the peak of 1968/9 but worse than the last 3 peaks. What does this mean in practical terms?

In reality, near the sunspot maximum, the HF bands (14 MHz to 28 MHz) will be hopping and there will be worldwide dx regardless of how bad it turns out to be. The big issue is what will propogation on 50 MHz be like?

I remember reading before that the peak of 1968 was supposed to be pretty poor for DX on 6 metres with slim pickings via F2. If it turns out as predicted, I'd expect that there will be plenty of F2 type openings North-South from say Europe to Africa and South America. The big problem is will the MUF get high enough to support East-West type openings from say Europe to North America?....or Europe to the Far East? Stations in Southern Europe will probably work loads (EA/CT/I/etc) but what about those above 50 deg North?

Sporadic-E on 144 MHz...

Saturday, 20th June........In the evening, I noticed that stations in the UK (G/GW) were working EA/CT on 144 MHz on the Dx-cluster. Having no antenna for the band, I sent Alan EI3EBB a text to notify him and went back to 50 MHz.

Not long afterwards, I noticed that EI stations were now working CT/EA on 2m so I decided to have a listen....

I wired up my old Yaesu FT290R.....pulled out the telescopic whip on the front of it......held it up in the air with one hand......while tuning around with the other ;o)

Heard EI3EBB about 5/9 working CT2GUR and what was amazing was that I could hear CT2GUR!!

Got the microphone and plugged it in........called the CT2 station........'Who is EI7 station?'

Called him again..........he got my full call this time and gave me a 5/2 signal report.

CT2 from EI on 144 MHz using 2.5 watts into a telescopic whip on a rig that was indoors! If I had the rig next to a window with a good view to the south then I'd say it was fair enough. But it wasn't! To the south was a concrete wall about 1 metre away and the view out the window is to the west. Imagine what my signal would have been like with any type of outdoor antenna!

Amazing conditions. It must be one of the strangest contacts that I ever had on 144 MHz.



Postscript.......Message from Paulo....
Hi  John...I've been watching your blog and noticed in our fabulous contact at 144, that since their conditions FT290 2.5W with whip antenna! Spathe! I register it at the time the contact but I never thought that their conditions were such, my setup at the time 2x17el in. H +800 W + LNA


My new 144 setup: 4x12LFA+1.6K+LNA

Thank you for the wonderful contact...maybe in a next listen sporadic!

73´s de Paulo, CT2GUR

IT9X/b....the musical beacon

Since I put the 2 element up in the attic, I noticed that sometimes I would hear a series of almost musical tones on 50.057 MHz when the band was open. At first, I thought perhaps it was some commercial /military signal coming from North Africa but over the last few days, it got strong enough to get a positive ID.

 

Listening from Ireland, there are 2 beacons usually on 50.057 MHz........IQ4AD in JN54 in North Italy which is usually the strongest and IT9X in JM78 near Messina in Italy. From here, IT9X is almost at the maximum possible distance for single hop Sporadic-E. Even when it is almost impossible to read the morse ID, the alternating tones can be heard quite clearly.