QRX

73 hpe 2 cu in 2 weeks.

1 watt surprise

I read today that a station was using 400 watts on WSPR. Why?

Jay - VE3SWS wrote on wsprnet.org:

Hahahaha - that's funny - maybe more pathetic. I get 14,000+ km reports on 20 meter WSPR with 100 mW! On the other hand, I do use 2757 watts ERP occasionally on 2 meter WSPR, but that's a whole different animal. I have actually found that if you use too much power on HF, the signal is over-driven and not able to be decoded anyway. Never mind the fact that usually the over driven signal is splattering the hell out of everything within 2.5 Kcs and ruining the experience for other hams.

Same thing on JT65HF though. Some macho guys using 80 watts or more and desensitise the whole JT65 band. And, for what ever reason, they still don't realize their distorted signal cannot be decoded. Still too much "10-4 Good Buddy" mentality out there - More power is not always more distance. Sometimes more power is NO distance because their data is not decode-able. These guys should just put some echo and a roger beep on their WSPR And JT65HF signals - it would perform just about as well.

I thought: maybe 1 watt tonight and the audio almost down, and see where I am reported tonight. Well, I was very surprised to see this results.

Chuck W5PG Silent Key

Tonight I got this email:

Hello everyone, my name is Jonathon Idar and I am Chuck and Cindy's son-in-law. It is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you all that Chuck passed away very suddenly yesterday 7/18/12. We are in the process of making all the funeral arrangements. I will send another email when all has been finalized. Please say a prayer for Cindy and all of the family. Please feel free to call 972-462-1107 or email back. Sincerely, Jonathon

Chuck (Chas) was one of my blogging friends. We 'talked' about losing weight and health. And CW training. He was a very nice man. Unfortunately, we haven't work each other on HF. My thoughts and prayers are with Cindy and the family & friends, I wish them strength.

W5PG Blog

Speed test

This is a speed test. Testing my internet connection. My promised download speed is 120 Mbps, my upload speed 9 Mbps. So I am satisfied with ISP Ziggo. No need for a glass fiber connection.

HF is recovering

Today bands on HF were almost dead. I did some WSPR on 10 meter. Best DX Israel, that's 3351 km.

Tonight the HF comes alive again. I made a nice 2 way QRP qso with IZ5FDE Stefan on 40 meter with CW. He was also running 5 watts from a FT817 transceiver.

Another day on 6 meter

Again good Es propagation on 6 meter. And more activity on 50.250 MHz with BPSK-31. I like that. I hope that it will be the same on 2 meter and 70 cm. I did work the following stations with BPSK-31: UR5CJN, ES4RC, OH5FWB, YL2CA, OH1KPR, SM7UFR and ES6DO. With CW: EA6SX, F6HKA and OH3JF. Last night I worked LG5LG on 40 meter SSB from Morokulien, I know that area, I've been there in the early nineties. You can rent the shack there for holidays. Read about it on www.qrz.com

My first bpsk-31 on 6 meter

The shack of IK4WTU, I did work him on 6 meter with BPSK-31, my first on 6 meter. I never heard BPSK before on 6 meter. He was running 6 watt from a home made transceiver. I also worked IZ8EPA with BPSK-31.

I heard several Spanish stations with SSB on 6 meter.

Now something else

Now band conditions are awful, something personal. My daughter Anna (left) and her girlfriend Janna were helping with the catering last night. The XYL gave a little party for her colleagues. The two girls did a wonderful job. Real beauties, aren't they?

This afternoon I brought a visit to my female dentist. Every half year just a check up. No problems, but in some way I don't like it there. Next visit in January 2013.

Mobile station

Today we had a rainy day, again. I wonder if my antennas did work, it was hard to make a qso. After I crank up the power to 75 watts I could make a qso with MM0UDI/M (Picture) with SSB on 40 meter. It was to nice make a qso with Robbie, he was driving on the A97 in Scotland. I noticed less activity to my blog, I think because of summertime or low radio activities and geomagnetic disturbances. But even when I make just 1 qso today, it's worth while writing about it.

I continue to read about Rory Storm

Not much today, I gave some CQ’s on 40 m and 20 meter QRP without success. Later in the afternoon I worked two stations with JT65 on 20 meter with 5 watt. F2VH and F4EAN. The last one fade out and all signals were gone. So enough for today, just go on reading about Rory Storm, his short musical career in Liverpool, started in The Cavern, where The Beatles also started. The book is written by Tom Egbers, a Dutch sports journalist.

Share This

Why do we blog? For sharing our radio adventures, I belief. You can tell your wife or girlfriend about it, but she will stare at you with a glazy look, so there is nothing else to do than share it with other radio amateurs or the world. Why limiting your blog to a few amateurs, while the world is waiting for your adventures. Now there is a nice sharing tool for your blog called ‘Share This’ The original Blogger widget for social media is very small and hard to see. With 'Share This' there is more choice in different kind of social media. The icons are larger and very nice. You only have to make a free account and put the tool on your blog.

Link to 'Share This'

There was an Aurora alert for 6 meter this afternoon. I tried JT65A but no takers. I put a message at Hamspot that I was QRV. It must be possible to make nice contacts with JT65 on 6 meter. After a few calls I switched to WSPR. I was spotted only by two Dutch amateurs. So I went to 17 meter because I heard AO5HT with CW. With my 20 watts he could copy me. On 40 meter I worked IK2WAS with bpsk31.

O-QRP-Contest

It was good to hear some activity on 20 meter qrp section, because of the O-QRP-Contest. I had some spare time to give some points away. On the photo you see EA4XT Angel from Cuenca. I worked him with 5 watt CW. Also worked: YU7AE, S57JA and EU1AA.

Because of renovation works of the barn I must remove my end fed wire. But... I found a tree in the neighbours garden and attached my end fed wire to it. It's an old lady and I do not think she noticed.

WSPR 20 m

When I checked propagation data I noticed that only 20 meter is in good shape this morning. First I tried Opera, but nobody seems to be QRV with this mode. With 5 watt WSPR I was spotted by a few stations from the USA on 20 meter. K7UEB, KK4XO, VE6PDQ/1, WA3DNM, KA1MDA and N8LI.

Latest news from Space Weather: Sunspot AR1515 has grown into a behemoth more than 10 times wider than Earth. The active region is crackling with M-class solar flares and seems poised to produce even stronger X-flares in the days ahead. At least one CME is en route to Earth, and ham radio operators are reporting short wave solar radio bursts roaring from the loudspeakers of their receivers.

André Kuipers

André Kuipers, Dutch astronaut, returned from space after 193 days in good health somewhere in Kazakhstan. He stayed in the ISS. The return to earth is always hard for astronauts, as well as Kuipers. "It was not comfortable, it was a painful experience," Kuipers said in an interview with ESA TV. During the landing, the rate declined from 28,000 mph to a standstill, were Kuipers and his two fellow space travelers exposed to forces up to nine times gravity. At that strength, they were half a year no longer exposed.