The WSPR that wasn't.

After days of exciting build-up, HAARP powered up its Gigawatts of power from 23:40-00:10UT last night.

The preceding excitment of the ionosphere was conducted at the usual, very high ERP, with WSPR transmissions to test the effects following about half an hour later, first on 80m, then on 40m.

The aim of the experiment was to generate FAI, with the WSPR activity said to be "a bonus", secondary activity.

Over the past day or so, I also came to understand one other, rather important aim, might be said to be public relations.  Some of the tweets suggest HAARP could be under threat of funding cuts in this catastrophic Trump era.

At least I made the effort to (in the semi-dark) hammer a fence post for a 40m, wide inverted vee for the occasion!

Being a nice summer evening, I took to the country and installed a 40m dipole, with one half of the peak gain pattern aligned towards Alaska. Back home, I was listening on 80m with a half sloper.

Well, I looked at the screen in a half-zombie state, waiting for HAARP's call of WI2XFX to appear on the waterfall.  Even the bats had stopped hunting flies by this time (obviously, due to the 'radiation effects' of HAARP, as conspiracy theorists would have it!)

Nothing at 80m.

Nothing at 40m.

Looking at WSPRnet at the time, I couldn't see anyone else hearing HAARP, either.  Eventually, an excited experimenter at HAARP tweeted:

Now, this was an NVIS test, no matter how high the ERP.  But perhaps, when daylight was beaming down on the US, it wasn't very surprising that 80m - or even 40m for that matter - produced no spots beyond Alaska's back door.

Maybe the experimenter was, as it seems from his tweet, perfectly content with that result, and had expected the daytime conditions to inhibit longer-range reception.

Well, that was a lot of hype for HAARP, and probably a lot of tired, disappointed WSPRers across the world.  By way of comparison, I was receiving a K station on 7MHz at 3500km at a decent -20dB SNR from just 7dBm, or 70.6dB less power than HAARP, NVIS or not!

The experiment, should you still be interested, repeats tonight (31/7/18) and tomorrow night, supposedly around the same kind of time.  Latest details come through quite regularly in real time from Chris Fallen at his Twitter account.

The best chance of hearing HAARP at all, as the tweets below indicate, is to listen in on the GW+, FAI-inducing sweeps prior to the WSPR transmissions.

TF4M Reference WSPR - quiet geomagnetic conditions.

Here is a reference WSPR spots record for quiet (Kp 1-2) geomagnetic conditions of signals from MW1CFN, heard by TF4M, within the auroral oval.

Vertical lines aid identification of midnight, UT.  Strongest propagation is strongly centred around midday.

Impressive receiving antenna, a recycled ionospheric sounder, at TF4M. (C) TF4M

HAARP WSPR on 80m (and maybe 40m)!

This should be interesting - HAARP transmitting WSPR!  Power levels 'only' around  80kW of the potentially-available 1.2GW!

Running July 30 - August 01, 2018, as WI2XFX. Latest on timing is 23:00 - 24:00UT, July 30, 31 and August 01.  Broadcasts in AM mode, but either USB or AM will work on receive.

Best details direct from the experimenter on Twitter.

Re-working the 'I-Am' end-loaded vertical dipole.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you may recall this post, all about an end-loaded vertical.

More recently, I moved on to a very robust, all-aluminium version.  Whilst this worked well, it is somewhat too heavy and, especially, the 2.5m-long top load catches more wind than is ideal.

My latest idea was to make this antenna more portable-friendly, based once more around the first seven sections of a 10m fibreglass fishing pole, but with physically smaller end loads.  With the seventh section being about 25mm in diameter, the pole is quite stiff, and quite resistant to strong winds.

A quick forum post on QRZ.com brought an unusually constructive response from one fellow operator, who suggested the rather obvious solution of disc-shaped end loads.  I thought I would have a go at this.

My first test end loads were about 30cm in diameter, which were calculated from guidance in the ARRL Antenna Book.  This very nearly worked out, but not quite.  My TS480SAT's internal ATU could only match the antenna down to 14.260MHz, so the loads were slightly too small.

I decided to build loads 40cm in diameter, a nearly doubling of total area, which connect to two vertical wires, each 2.5m long (essentially, a 10m vertical dipole, plus end-loads).  To maintain self-support, I used 1.8mm bare copper wire, which proved to be a good choice.  So that the hat will fit over a fence post that holds my fishing pole, the hat is made as a concentric set of rings. 

Careful soldering is needed to ensure mechanically-robust links.

 

Autumn conditions have now swept in from the Atlantic after two months of very dry, hot weather.  So it wasn't the best day to test the antenna, as winds exceeded 100km/h under very enormous cumulonimbus clouds.
Having hooked everything up with the 300Ohm twin, I found the antenna now matched up easily right down to the lower end of 14MHz.  I could match all bands except 28MHz, but could overcome that simply by detaching the lower end load.  This might seem to make the antenna very unbalanced, but because one end of the dipole is much closer to the ground than the other, it is already unbalanced and removing the hat for 28MHz probably makes the antenna relatively balanced, overall.

I have to admit that the weather was quite dangerously close to generating lightning locally, with plenty of storms already underway across the UK.  Interestingly, and very unusually, propagation was extremely variable on all bands.  One minute they were strong, then all of them would fade together, as though a geomagnetic storm was happening (geomagnetic conditions were fairly quiet).   I suspect this was related to the strongly convective weather, and indeed, the MST radar in Aberystwyth shows very strong returns, probably the result of strong gravity waves, the structure of which is, unusually, actually evident, induced by severe thunderstorms.

Very strong returns from the mesosphere today.

Not a good day for operating!

The top hat proved unperturbed by very strong winds.

I ran a quick WSPR test.  Overall, and although the power output for my field set up was not calibrated, the end loaded dipole was about 2dB weaker on the median than my vertical delta loop across all distances, and about 4dB weaker on DX distances greater than 6000km.

Because the delta loop is effectively a pair of closely-spaced verticals, that difference is pretty much exactly what one would expect, compared to a single vertical dipole.  So the end loads are not having a noticeably negative effect on efficiency.  The radiation pattern seems to be a little higher for the dipole.


I found the antenna could withstand winds of 100km/h and more without guying, but a single guy to windward certainly made things less exciting!  In those conditions, taping or clamping the sections was essential to avoid slipping.  This is now an ideal multiband antenna format, just 6m total height, for portable working.

Later WSPR test over about 1 hour at 14MHz.  MW1CFN/P is the end-loaded vertical.

Very useful website of the day: VK6YSF

Having a science background, I just love analysing WSPR data.

But, up until this afternoon, I found it rather difficult to import data from the WSPRnet site into Open Office or other spreadsheets.

I am therefore really grateful to VK6YSF's excellent instructions on how to import data by a simple 'copy and paste' method which overcomes the column formatting problems I have struggled with for ages.  In fact, the current version of Open Office takes the data even more easily than seems to be the case for Excel.

And if, like me, you are struggling to get the unequal time intervals that arise from WSPR spots plotted according to their proper position, the answer is to select 'XY Scatter Plot' in the chart type, and not 'Line' type.

Sadly for readers, this does mean my analyses of WSPR signals will now increase substantially!

Thanks, Iceland!

Very usefully, a number of WSPR stations have started operating permanently in Iceland over the past few weeks.  Iceland sits right under the typical edge of the auroral oval, allowing some interesting investigations of geomagnetic effects on propagation.

A couple of the stations do not hear so well for some reason.  Luckily, another two - TF4M and TF1A - are working efficiently and to a very similar level, allowing some fine scale changes across locations to be revealed.

Last evening provided a chance to see the effects of a G1 storm.

This was the magnetometer data from Kiruna:

Image courtesy IRF/Kiruna.

 And this is how my 1W at 14MHz was heard in Iceland:

Well, a clearer example of the effects of a deep southerly swing in the Z component could not be wished for!

You will notice that TF1A, who is a little further south than TF4M, suffers a stronger attenuation.  TF4M was probably located within the auroral region, whilst TF1A lies at its inner edge.  Perhaps that explains the difference.

Of course, this strong disruption of HF signals is not universal, and the results above only apply to the UK-Iceland path.  As I've previously reported, many geomagnetic disturbances lead to HF propagation enhancement for other paths, notably to the western half of the USA.

I was lucky enough to enjoy four nights of clear skies with aurora in TF-land in 2011, despite every daytime being completely rain-soaked!  The image below was taken just north of Selfoss (looking SSW, i.e. towards the edge of the auroral oval):

UPDATE.

I ran WSPR again on the following evening (24-25 July 2018), where the field was disturbed in a complex manner over most of the evening and all of the early morning.  Here was the situation at Kiruna:

And the reception of my signal at TF4M now looked like this, which is pretty much the inverse of the previous evening. 

Update (2)

Another run during the following, geomagnetically quiet evening (2018 July 25-26), reveals what's going on with the propagation.  As you can see below, with darkness now becoming deeper in very late July, normal ionospheric 14MHz propagation is shutting down in the later evening, with TF4M returning no spots from me until well into my local dawn period, where the sun, and not the aurora, allows ionospheric propagation to resume.  Yes, I did check TF4M was running all night!  He is currently running 24/7.

Clearly, and as previous academic studies have reported, active geomagnetic conditions give rise to auroral Es, which supports propagation at a higher frequency than would otherwise be the case (in this case, there is no quiet-state, night-time propagation to the station in question). 

In reading the paper, note how far things have come since the 1990s, and how much information the WSPR network potentially provides to us all.  It's a shame there are so few WSPR transceivers in the polar regions, though.  It seems to me that all research stations in the Arctic regions should have WSPR tranceiver capability, which poses little by way of resource implications or technical challenge, thanks to the simple antennas that are required.

The geomagnetic condition:

And, below, the spots issued by TF4M for my signal.  I think you can see the difference between a quiet and active geomagnetic field!  Note also the very large difference in SNR during early daylight, about 500 times weaker following active conditions, as compared to the morning after quiet conditions.

Cabo Verde, ahoy!

6m was absolutely running like a river this evening.  Armed with 'just' a 2 element quad and 30W for this band, I'm not exactly a big gun!

Still, I called alongside D41CV, managing a strong signal to him after a few calls.

At 4438km, D41CV is by far the furthest I've ever managed on 6m - not that I try very hard, or often.

As luck would have it, my daughter had just been doing some work about Cape Verde, so the radio signals got here interest, too!

An hour after (local) midnight.

I got up early, at around 01:00 UT this morning, in time to see if there were any noctilucent clouds about (there weren't).  Autumn is certainly around the corner, with the stars of the Pleiades now starting to rise higher into the eastern sky.

So I turned the HF radio on to 14MHz, to find the band very busy with FT8 signals.  I tried a CQ, and soon found the band was open to pretty much the entire globe. 

In the few minutes I operated, I managed to get QSOs with V31DL (Belize), plenty of US stations, including Puerto Rico, and even the mighty VK7XX.  That felt very much like autumn HF conditions, or perhaps, if we are lucky and the forecast is correct, a continuing increase in overall solar activity.

Always worth a 'CQ'!

Amateur radio and permissions for antennas.

For many years, I've been trying to represent amateur radio in Wales in relation to planning permissions for antennas and towers.

This is not an easy or short-term task!  It is not made easier by the admission from the RSGB a couple of years ago that they have abandoned any attempts to change the planning system to help radio enthusiasts.

This was a very big surprise to me, because the ability to put up an antenna at one's home is fundamental to pretty much everyone who wants to be a full operator or SWL.  The RSGB, it seemed to me, were ignoring the foundation whilst building a house on sand.

To add insult to injury, when I pointed out many changes within the Welsh planning system, the RSGB responded in a very irritating and silly way.  It couldn't tell me how many times it had contributed to consultations by the Welsh Government on planning.  But it did get annoyed with my questions and called Cardiff to see whether the rules were really any different to those of England.

This call was merely an attempt to say 'look, lad, there are no real differences, and you should shut up!'

Even if the rules are similar (and they are, every day, increasingly different) to those of England, the fact remains that the RSGB has not made any meaningful - indeed any - input into the various changes underway in Wales.

One change that has been developing in favour of the commercial telecomms operators in Wales is an allowance for them to both increase the height and width of their masts without consent.  This now extends even into protected landscape areas.  Already, commercial telecomms operators can install masts without consent in many cases.

Big TV antennas were ubiquitous in earlier times - as this 1954 image shows. (C) Paul Townsend.

But this generous flexibility that helps the commercial telecomms operators does not extend to the amateur operator.  No, we poor folk are only permitted two antennas no larger than that required for TV reception.

Of course, up until the late mid 1980s, a TV antenna in the UK was actually much larger than today's UHF versions.  They were often phased dipoles or simple beams, with a lower reception frequency of 45MHz - a bit bigger than a 6m beam.

The modern maximum antenna size that doesn't require planning consent.  Tiny, compared to previous times.

So, it was once the case that big TV antennas were permitted development, either by law or by non-enforcement.  Since the mid-1980s, the law changed - seemingly without any input from the RSGB, that dramatically reduced the permitted size of an antenna on a domestic building.

This is not representing the radio community!

I've read another 60 pages of planning change proposals from the Welsh Government this morning.  I am not sure how many pages the RSGB has read, nor how many representations, if any, it has made.  Well, I made my own response, anyway.  I also invited EURAO to consider involving itself with campaigning for better conditions for the amateur operator, which I think would instantly make EURAO both very relevant and very popular!

Welcome to Britain, Donald!

Words are not needed.  Tomorrow, this baby will fly above Parliament.

Special events...

Over the past couple of weeks, I've run two special event callsigns.  One (GB0NLC) was to celebrate the annual noctilucent cloud season, and the other (GB8RAF) marked 100 years of the Royal Air Force.

Unlike some of the more obsessive types in radio, my interest in operating special event calls is not to gather thousands of QSOs in the log.  Rather, it is the satisfaction that at least some of the people calling in have taken an interest in, and perhaps learned a bit more, about something otherwise they would not.

Although noctilucent clouds are perhaps a little niche, GB0NLC attracted a lot of interest.  With NLC often occurring at the same time as summertime Es, I was happy to operate quite a bit on 6, 10 and 12m with good propagation.

GB8RAF proved even more interesting.  Most of us men who operate radio tend to have an interest in things military as well.  So it was no surprise to find an even bigger interest in this SES.  What was pleasantly surprising was the fact that so many German stations took an interest to call their old adversaries - though I was careful not to create a QRZ.com page for the call that was centred on aggression per se.

Excluding others...

Even more exciting than the latest, light-speed developments in our Brexit politics today is this announcement from the RSGB on Twitter:

I'm afraid I have very little to say to contests, let alone 'elite' contests, mostly because they seem to be the preserve of the compulsive-obsessive, and hardly ever seem to include women.

I had never heard of this contest, and was irritated to see it is an exclusive, invitation-only event.  Looking at the Wikipedia entry for the contest, there is indeed no obvious mention of any women featuring in any of the several years' worth of 'winners' - if they are, in any meaningful sense, winners at all.

Of course, highlighting this to most of the radio community is like inviting someone to punch you in the face.  Nobody sees the lack of women or younger participants as remotely a cause for concern, let alone the 'big gun' exclusivity of it all.

My view of amateur radio is very, very different from a lot of the mainstream's views.  I always strive to include, not exclude people, and show them how effective cheap, simple radio can be.  I have no time for huge Yagis, amplifiers and 48 hours of nonsensical points gathering.

Worse than my personal prejudices against the contesting fraternity is the very retrograde message that all this machoistic exclusivity sends out to those who might be interested in radio.

I have seen exactly this same kind of exclusivity emerge in amateur astronomy, especially in imaging.  The clear motivation in these astronomy 'closed clubs' is to ensure those who are best at self-promotion in the hobby media, and who are in a position to simply keep on buying the best, most expensive equipment, maintain their self-perceived importance.  It is, frankly, pathetic.

Anybody can create a world according to what they value by excluding the 'undesirables'.  I'm afraid this lot is merely creating its own 'elite' of people so that they can comfort themselves with that accolade.  I suggest we give them as little further attention as possible.

Chinese WSPRs

Last night, I obtained a special event callsign from the regulator, so that I can tell the world about noctilucent clouds through the medium of radio.

The new call is GB0NLC. 

Yet again, I had to contact QRZ.com to tell them to change the country flag from England to Wales, as entering Wales into the DXCC entity box doesn't have any effect on the flag displayed (it's based on the prefix instead, hence the confusion).  Strictly speaking, GB stations should be 'United Kingdom', not England, and everyone except the more extreme nationalists would be happy with that.  Still, it's better than being in Northern Ireland, a constituent of the UK, which typically, and rather sadly, has no flag displayed at all due to the intractable, centuries-long political sensitivities and conflicts there.

It's rather busy in the house these days, so this morning, I deployed the SES on 20m WSPR.  To my surprise, and for the first time in a very long while, I heard a station in China - BH3NVN, albeit at a weak -27dB S/N.

In the morning (04/04/18), only I and an OZ station heard the BH3 signal.  Two other stations heard it at 22:20UT the previous evening.  In the preceding 24 hours, about a dozen stations heard China, all but one in Europe.

Spots of BH3NVN in 24 hours prior to 09:10 04/07/2018.

 
The timing of reception of the BH3 signal doesn't show a very obvious pattern, other than being a daylight shortpath to Europe, with the signal disappearing in Europe between 18:00 and 22:20UT.  One Russian station heard the signal, as did one Chinese and one Japanese station.  There were no spots from anywhere else at all.

The return of the signal between 22:20 and about 01:00UT reveals propagation eastward to Europe along the 'greyline'.  The signal vanishes again until OZ picks it up an hour or so after local sunrise.

The BH3 station appears to have become active at around 11:40UT on 03/07/2018, when the first spot was returned from a nearby Chinese SWL.  Even though there has been plenty of common daylight between them since then, nobody at all has yet heard the BH3 signal in the USA.