9 Feb 2015

Sunspots and 10m

Sunspot number has risen to 94 today and 10m propagation is expected to be "good".

I have only just switched on my 10m 500mW WSPR-AXE-CW beacon, so it is still stabilising. My first spot (still showing stabilisation) was at 0916z from local G4IKZ (18km). To avoid drift and interference, the beacon is on TX 100% but the frequency is randomised to avoid warm-up drift and the risk of sitting under a stronger signal all day. This works well. Even on my 10m version there is no drift after the first 20 minutes..

UPDATE 0954z:  Surprisingly,  no spots yet from Israel, Russia or continental Europe and only a single spot (so far this morning) from G4IKZ.

UPDATE 1008z:  Spots are coming thick and fast now with best report so far from VK6XT (14719km) in Western Australia at 1002z.

UPDATE 1012z:   OH7AZL (2000km) was spotting me at 1006z at an enormous -2dB S/N. I think this was F2 propagation. Such strengths suggests he might still have spotted me at the uW power level rather than the 500mW I was using.  So far today, he has spotted me 5 times already. Other stations in Finland are also spotting me very strongly.

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