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CN8LI (2113km, Morocco) spotted my 1W ERP twice around 1200z today on 6m. This is the first real DX (Es presumably) today.

G4HBA (189km) is the best GDX so far today. He was spotted at -27dB S/N at 1138z when running 10W with 2Hz Doppler, so maybe some aircraft reflection?

Recent 6m WSPR spots today

Last night my new Win 8.1 Dell PC decided it needed to install updates. I chose to  switch off until restarting this morning. It said “Loading Windows updates. Do not switch off your computer”. Being a good boy, I obeyed and waited as it got to 81% complete …… and waited, and waited, had breakfast, went for a walk, had more breakfast and still it said 81%, please wait. In all it had now been 1 hr 40 minutes!

At this point I was about to ring up that nice Dell man in India when I decided to turn off the PC and try again. THIS time it sailed through 81% and reached 100% complete in no time. PC works fine! What the heck was going on?

Tuning around this morning, 50MHz hasn’t been massively open, but there have been some interesting signals popping up. First thing as I was drinking my first coffee, I worked IK6HIR from JN63 who came up quite nicely for a while. I6WJB was heard calling CQ DX, so I didn’t call him, but he was a decent signal.

Although I don’t use clusters much these days – especially on HF, this Es season I have been looking at dxheat.com which is a very nice web based cluster and allows me to filter everything except 50 and 70MHz spots. I noticed a 70MHz spot fly by of Martin GM6VXB on 70MHz meteor scatter. I tuned to the frequency in question and did get a short burst from him, but not enough for a QSO. Hardly surprising, given my vertical antenna.

Returning to 50MHz just before getting some chores done, I tuned around the CW end and SV5DKL (KM46) was coming through. With the small antenna, I don’t work SV, SV5 or SV9 very often from here, so dropped in a few calls. Signals were quite weak and then, in typical Es fashion peaked up to S7 or so and I was able to sneak a QSO in, which was very nice. The distance is just under 2900km, which I think is ok for the setup here (SV5DKL was doing all the work, of course)

As I frequently do, when I work someone, I tapped his callsign into Google and found that Efstathios has a very nice blog, with information about his operating and QSOs, particularly on 50MHz.

Series Seven Episode Twelve of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss RSGB teaching radio in UK schols, and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) anf Colin (M6BOY) are joined by Ed Durrant (DD5LP) and Frank Howell (K4FMH) for an International Roundtable.

• RSGB to develop links with school
• ILLW set for another good year
• New pirate stations in Ukraine conflict
• HamDisk now in Beta testing
• VK9 going on a DXvacation
• Spain's ham radio king to abdicate
• Honor Roll DXer, Assistant ARRL Director H.O. Townsend, K5CX - SK
• Swiss 5 MHz Experimental Beacon Project
• Sligo 2m voice repeater
• Antarctic radio ham now online
• Philadelphia area Hams celebrate 4th July holiday with 13 Colonies Special Event
• International Museums Weekend 2014
• Guest operation in Brazil during FIFA 2014 World Cup
• USB driver update for Icom D-STAR repeaters
• South African RAE results released

Series Seven Episode Twelve of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss RSGB teaching radio in UK schols, and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) anf Colin (M6BOY) are joined by Ed Durrant (DD5LP) and Frank Howell (K4FMH) for an International Roundtable.

• RSGB to develop links with school
• ILLW set for another good year
• New pirate stations in Ukraine conflict
• HamDisk now in Beta testing
• VK9 going on a DXvacation
• Spain's ham radio king to abdicate
• Honor Roll DXer, Assistant ARRL Director H.O. Townsend, K5CX - SK
• Swiss 5 MHz Experimental Beacon Project
• Sligo 2m voice repeater
• Antarctic radio ham now online
• Philadelphia area Hams celebrate 4th July holiday with 13 Colonies Special Event
• International Museums Weekend 2014
• Guest operation in Brazil during FIFA 2014 World Cup
• USB driver update for Icom D-STAR repeaters
• South African RAE results released

My friend Tony, KD8RTT, is an Extra from Cleveland, Ohio. He has launched a new YouTube channel and is giving away prizes to four lucky hams who subscribe in order to get new followers.

Tony is a sophomore studying engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana.

It’s always great to see a young ham jump so enthusiastically into the hobby. From his recent trip out to Hamvention to operating maritime mobile from a Disney Cruise, Tony has done a fine job documenting his ham adventures on video.

Great job with your videos, Tony. Keep up the hard work!

10m is my favorite band of all: there is the possibility of local QSOs on 10FM out to 30-40km (at least) even with very modest (CB level) powers to a 1/2 wave vertical. It is good for GDX with suitably equipped stations out to many hundreds of kilometres. F2 and Es propagation allow really long distances.

6m is the “magic band”. It seems to be good for locals and GDX seems to work out pretty well too out to several hundred kilometres, as for 10m. Although F2 is rare except close to good sunspot maxima, Es is there every spring and summer and at other times too, but more rarely. More stations active (e.g. on WSPR – a great DX mode) would indicate more openings, I suspect.

Actually one could do a lot worse than concentrate on WSPR on these 2 bands only. That is what I may do in future. In effect I  am already doing this, but I could better optimise the antennas – maybe a 1/2 wave vertical on 10m and a halo on 6m? My antennas may be compromised but in my present state of health (stroke) they will have to do.

UPDATE 1820z:   All afternoon on 6m it has been just locals G4IKZ, G4KPX and G0LRD only here with no signs of GDX or Es at this QTH. Things on the “magic band” can change quite quickly, so I shall be staying on 6m for the rest of the day. We’ll see.

UPDATE 1830z:  Looking back through the WSPR logs I see G3IGU (172km) near Doncaster was being spotted here at 1254z with only very slight Doppler or warm-up drift (-1Hz).  This may have been tropo or a favorable aircraft again. So there was some GDX around.  I have seen a surprising number of GDX stations now on 6m at decent distances. Theseare all “accidental” spots – no skeds, I just happened to see these stations.

As I write this I see G6AVK (78km) is spotting my 1W ERP at -27dB S/N at 1830z , yet more GDX.

UPDATE 2030z:   Just the locals reporting me. No Es or GDX currently.

UPDATE 2155z:   Still just the locals.  Soon be time to pull the big switch to off.