Author Archive
Events in Ukraine
I have just got off the air after making several contactsintoRussia and Ukraine on 10m PSK31. Ham radio transcends political boundaries and engenders friendships betweenpeople of all nations. All politicians could learn from it. My thoughts today are particularly with my radio friends living in Ukraine I hope that peace and normality are restored soon
до свидания!
SSN data file goes AWOL
I’ve not updated the VOAProp file ssn.txt for a while as some irritating health issues kept on getting in the way. I thought I would have a try today butit seems the NOAA data file Iused to update it from has moved to a new address. Does anyone know where it has gone to?
Tracking wildlife
I watching a wildlife programme on TV the other day which had a feature about urban foxes. The naturalists had fitted radio collars to some of the foxes and were able to track them over a wide area.One fox went off on a trek that lasted a couple of weeks and covered a distance of several kilometres.
In another programme radios have been attached to larger birds such as geese and ospreys to track their migration paths.
I wonder what frequency is used? One of the maturalists in the urban fox project seemed to be trying to DF a fox using what looked auspiciouslylike a 3 element 2m Yagi. I’ve seen similar antennas used o locate larger animals in Africa.
I would love to know what technology they use. My Kenwood TH-D7E APRS radio – despite being too big to use as a tracker for anythimg much smaller than an elephant – can run for only a few hours with the GPS enbled and the power set to a sufficient level to enable tracking over a reasonable distance.using a less than optimal transmitting ntenna.
Across the pond on 10m with 200mW
WSPR never loses its ability to astound. Today I’ve been WSPRing on 10m, still with 0.2W. My signal was decoded by 5 different Stateside stations.
Timestamp | Call | MHz | SNR | Drift | Grid | Pwr | Reporter | RGrid | km | az |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014-01-18 14:26 | G4ILO | 28.126105 | -25 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | KZ8C | EM88pm | 5973 | 287 |
2014-01-18 14:36 | G4ILO | 28.126145 | -22 | 1 | IO84hp | 0.02 | KB9PVH | EN53oi | 5959 | 296 |
2014-01-18 14:44 | G4ILO | 28.126131 | -16 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | VE3SWS | FN06ge | 5201 | 293 |
2014-01-18 15:18 | G4ILO | 28.126107 | -9 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | N2NOM | FN22bg | 5267 | 286 |
2014-01-18 15:38 | G4ILO | 28.126104 | -23 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | K9AN | EN50wc | 6175 | 293 |
More WSPR with 20mW
I’ve been WSPRing on 30m today, still with a power of 0.2W. I think WSPR is more interesting when you use low power: it’s always interesting to see how far you can get.
20mW is not the lowest power you can use, though, it’s just the lowest power the K3 will comfortably produce. (You can set the output power to 0.0W but I’m not sure how accurately the rig will maintain the power at such a low level – something to check.
Today my 0,02W into the MFJ magnetic loop in my attic was received by 30 different stations. Here’s the list:
Timestamp | Call | MHz | SNR | Drift | Grid | Pwr | Reporter | RGrid | km | az |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014-01-13 11:52 | G4ILO | 10.140243 | -11 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | ON7KO | JO21ce | 637 | 124 |
2014-01-13 11:52 | G4ILO | 10.140209 | -23 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DL8HAF/P | JO53dm | 899 | 92 |
2014-01-13 12:32 | G4ILO | 10.140206 | -26 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DK6UG | JN49cm | 973 | 121 |
2014-01-13 12:54 | G4ILO | 10.140217 | -22 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DC5EO | JO31ed | 760 | 117 |
2014-01-13 12:54 | G4ILO | 10.140210 | -18 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | G8CRB | JO02bf | 355 | 138 |
2014-01-13 13:18 | G4ILO | 10.140195 | -19 | 1 | IO84hp | 0.02 | G0GSJ | IO84jc | 61 | 170 |
2014-01-13 14:20 | G4ILO | 10.140199 | -19 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | G4ILR | JO02pp | 379 | 124 |
2014-01-13 14:20 | G4ILO | 10.140224 | -29 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | M0BLP | JO02ad | 359 | 139 |
2014-01-13 14:30 | G4ILO | 10.140210 | -20 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | OH8GKP | KP24rt | 1945 | 43 |
2014-01-13 14:30 | G4ILO | 10.140203 | -19 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | GM4SFW | IO77sn | 331 | 349 |
2014-01-13 14:30 | G4ILO | 10.140199 | -11 | 2 | IO84hp | 0.02 | OH3HTI | KP21ag | 1760 | 54 |
2014-01-13 14:30 | G4ILO | 10.140182 | -13 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | LA5GOA | JO29oi | 737 | 41 |
2014-01-13 14:38 | G4ILO | 10.140197 | -23 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | OZ7IT | JO65df | 1001 | 80 |
2014-01-13 14:38 | G4ILO | 10.140194 | -13 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | SA6BSS | JO68 | 1084 | 60 |
2014-01-13 14:48 | G4ILO | 10.140189 | -21 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | SM6WZI | JO67mp | 1067 | 65 |
2014-01-13 14:56 | G4ILO | 10.140208 | -21 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DC8SE | JN48xi | 1155 | 122 |
2014-01-13 14:56 | G4ILO | 10.140180 | -7 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | ON7KB | JO21ei | 634 | 122 |
2014-01-13 15:04 | G4ILO | 10.140204 | -11 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DK4TJ | JO31fc | 768 | 117 |
2014-01-13 15:04 | G4ILO | 10.140236 | -25 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | PA1GSJ | JO22da | 586 | 117 |
2014-01-13 15:14 | G4ILO | 10.140238 | -21 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DL1WER | JN58dd | 1189 | 122 |
2014-01-13 15:24 | G4ILO | 10.140195 | -13 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DL1KCQ | JO33uc | 746 | 99 |
2014-01-13 15:36 | G4ILO | 10.140188 | -25 | -1 | IO84hp | 0.02 | M5LMY | IO91oi | 405 | 154 |
2014-01-13 15:36 | G4ILO | 10.140197 | -12 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | PI4THT | JO32kf | 729 | 107 |
2014-01-13 15:36 | G4ILO | 10.140196 | -15 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | LA9JO | JP99gb | 1949 | 26 |
2014-01-13 15:36 | G4ILO | 10.140191 | -20 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | SM0FGT | JO89xg | 1384 | 60 |
2014-01-13 15:36 | G4ILO | 10.140182 | -12 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | LA5GOA/RX2 | JO29oi | 737 | 41 |
2014-01-13 15:46 | G4ILO | 10.140222 | -12 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DC0DX | JO31lk | 776 | 113 |
2014-01-13 15:46 | G4ILO | 10.140215 | -17 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DC4LC | JN48np | 1088 | 123 |
2014-01-13 16:22 | G4ILO | 10.140208 | -17 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | DK4LA | JO54ae | 868 | 88 |
2014-01-13 16:48 | G4ILO | 10.140196 | -23 | 0 | IO84hp | 0.02 | HB9FGQ | JN36kk | 1163 | 137 |
News for kit builders
Javier Solans, EA2GCY, maker of the Iler 20 and 40 kits is now selling a range of kits from YouKits. The new kits are already listed on his very impressive-looking web site. If this means that the Chinese-made kits will now have building instructions to the same high standard as Javier’s own kitsit is very good news for kit-builders.