ON3JT

A friend of me asked if I could detect some WSPR signals on 20m. He has been monitoring it a while without any activity.
I also read the comments of G4ILO on the WSPRnet.org site : http://wsprnet.org/drupal/node/384
I must admit that I was also stuck on 30m.
He made a statement and yesterday I had a day off. A whole day of listening later this is what passed my screen :

Timestamp        Call   MHz       SNR Drift Grid   Pwr Reporter RGrid  km    az
2009-01-21 10:48 EA1FAQ 14.097137 -24  0    IN71op 0.5 ON3JT    JO21fe 1274   30
2009-01-21 09:58 VK6BN  14.097091 -23 -1    OF88ac 10  ON3JT    JO21fe 14167 313

Not much.

Hey guys, if you want that propagation monitoring works, we need to activite all bands.

On several sites you’ll find some html code showing the Aurora status, European and North American Eskip status. These images are created by the DX robot, maintained and ran by Allard Munters PE1NWL.  You know what I mean if you can see it :

The DXrobot

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I noticed today that the Software Defined Radio from Twente University now has six bands to play with :  0-150 kHz, 1790-1930 kHz, 3500-3760 kHz, 6990-7135 kHz,  10030-10175 khz, 14000-14290 kHz.
But it lasts only a few days, so enjoy : http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

Last sunday I attended a hamfest in Bladel, The Netherlands, organised by PI4KAR.  From my qth it is a one hour drive to one of the niciest and last hamfests of the year. I had no special needs to look out for but after a while I stumbled on a Diamond W735 antenna. The W 735 is a 2-band loaded dipole for 80 and 40m. Overall length reduced from normal dipole dimensions by use of loading coils rather than traps. Overall length is 26m, fits just on the roof.

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On wednesday the 24th of december 2008 the vlf transmitter SAQ will be aired again. Not really in the evening, although it depends where in the world you live.
Transmission is planned at 08.00 UTC and 08.30 UTC.  The frequency is 17.2 kHz CW. Running up an tuning of the transmitter begins about 07.30 UTC.

And for 2009 :
The Alexanderson Day 2009 with transmission is planned to Sunday 28th June.

Sadly I have to work that morning, but nevertheless I find it a nice Christmas gift

Merry Christmas to all !!

Tonight I used WSPR again to see the activity on 30m. Now I received about 7 stations from the USA, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, UK and the Czech republic. After a few hours I ticked the 20% T/R option. This switches the transceiver on for 20% of the time and the remaining 80% listening.

And yes, my signal gets out. Using only 2 watts my signal is picked up by VK6KHD, Nigel in Australia. My first.
That is about 14190 km or 7095 km per watt or very very far from my qth

Last saturday night my computer has been running all night long the WSPR (whisper) software from ….. to see if I could receive that mode too. My wife had the night shift in the hospital and could not argue that the computer is making too much noise in the bedroom That is the downside of having the shack in the bedroom.
I set the receiver to 10.138.7 in the 30m band and went to bed.

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