Sunspots and 10m - Wed June 10th 2015

Sunspot number is 110 today (K=3) and 10m propagation is expected to be "fair" again. Spotted by 10m Es in Portugal early this morning, but otherwise no-one else spotting the 500mW 10m WSPR beacon.

On 6m, again lots of GDX, but no Es as yet seen.

24 hours with 1mW output on 40m

Well, that was fun: a 24 hour period with my WSPR beacon running at just 1mW RF output on 40m into the Par 10/20/40 antenna at just 5m up in the garden and yet still plenty of reports from around western Europe. Best DX reports were from F6HTL (737km) and F1ING (581km) with reports from G, PA, and F.  I shall now have a try at the same power level on 10m or 20m and see how it goes. It was interesting that there were few reports last evening and overnight on 40m, possibly because my 1mW signal was being crowded out by others running "high" power like 1-2W, HI.

Some of the reports with 1mW on 40m WSPR

A WSPR beacon TX at the 1-5mW power level is feasible with just one transistor and a single balanced diode mixer and may be one of my next "just for fun" projects.

UPDATE 1700z: on 20m WSPR with 1mW output I managed just one report this afternoon from F1JRC/2 at 971km.

1mW (0dBm) TX on 40m WSPR

Just for fun I'm having a go at QRPp WSPR on 40m. The set-up is the FT817 on 500mW going directly into a 26dB attenuator that feeds the Par 10/20/40 end-fed longwire antenna in the garden at around 5m above ground. So far, after about 10 minutes a few spots received: G3XVL at 61km being the best DX with reports also from G4IKZ and G4NRG.