Are you a parent, always waiting around for teenagers? Well, fear not! Simply install a rig in your car, and be instantly ready to play radio at a moment's notice!
This, dear friends, is how my life is at the moment. It's either radio from the car, or radio from night-time beaches, where I can get some peace and quiet:
And the reach of 6W from a 17m stick, on a rough geomagnetic day, makes it all worthwhile:
Somehow, I've reached the milestone of 1000 blogposts!
Should I make it special? A review of those all-time greats? Maybe not!
Let's return to some WSPR results, grabbed from the beach again, late last night.
It turns out I should have been more prepared, because the Kp was rising to quite high levels. Sadly, I hadn't paid much attention to the geomagnetic forecasts, although I could, towards the end of my listening period, see that the propagation had become very short, with many European and local UK stations suddenly making an appearance.
The 14MHz WSPR signal from VK3QN, the main reason for the outing, was attenuated by ~6dB relative to two evenings ago, when the field was quiet, although the benefits of the beach remain just as strong. Happily, my home set-up kept going this time around, and did very well, relative to the other UK stations who were also hearing VK3QN in this period:
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| Big disturbance! Kp reached ~6. Image: IRF, Kiruna. |
The disturbance in the magnetic field was well seen in the case of
8P9DH (again, 14MHz), where his signal dropped off a cliff as the field reached peak
southerly deviation, and started to rebound to quieter, but still
disturbed conditions (2E0PYB's straight line is explained by only two spots, at either end of the period).
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| UK station receptions of 8P9DH |
It was too cold for me to stay beyond 01:30 local time (00:30UT) at the beach last night, so I rely on 2E0PYB's very good station to show how the propagation became very short as the magnetic field rang to the beat of the Sun. Note the interesting peak around 03:15UT - a single reception of K5XL (-23dB) -which seems to be another one of those well-noted sudden DX spots that appear as the field goes from south to north in a field restoration:
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| Spot ranges for 2E0PYB, 2020 August 30-31 |
For comparison, here was 2E0PYB's receptions for the field-quiet conditions of 2020 August 28-29:
A little more analysis of the 28/29 August night-time outing to the beach (14MHz) brings us to 8P9DH, and an interesting demonstration of low angle radiation.
Why did I choose 8P9DH, first of all? It's because I visit this particular beach at IO73rf to listen for long path signals from the south west direction, and this path is also a clear, short path shot across the sea horizon to 8P. Most of the US stations coming in take a glancing and brief path over some local land to the NNW, so another location is needed for the best enhancements to be seen for those.
Here are the results, showing the absolutely critical importance of very low angle signals, which are clearly lost entirely to the other stations as the night progresses. With a longer listening period (already planned), I suspect 8P9DH would continue to be heard at good signal strength throughout the night time period from the beach:
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| 14MHz WSPR (5W) from 8p9DH received by COAST/RX, IO73rf (beach) |
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| Proppy prediction (SNR) for 01UT from 8P9DH. |
With the weekend looming, and my friend, Ian Williams, VK3MO running his long path WSPR transmissions, I decided to have a very late evening's listen to 14MHz long path from the coast.
Conveniently, the tide was a neap, with only a couple of metres' variation in height between high and low water - meaning no trouble in keeping the equipment close to the water, yet dry! Even the wind was almost calm.
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| Shortly after setting up at the beach, 20UT, ready for a 4-hour RX session. |
I had my vertical delta loop running back home, but the software, very unusually, crashed after a couple of hours. But there were plenty of other UK stations to compare with.
If we look at Proppy's signal strength output for what's going on at 0 UT, then we can see Ian's energy is focused, for our western European purposes, at the antipodean point, out in the tropical mid-Atlantic. Consequently, it appears that this is the area that my coastal antenna is seeing throughout the listening period, not least because the signal, just like the prediction for this antipodean point, remains quite stable throughout - very different from morning long path reception earlier in the year:
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| Predicted signal strength distribution VK3QN, but only with very approximate input values - there is no model that accommodates a 12-element 14MHz array very well! |
Now, I do admit to taking great pleasure in torpedoeing those few American cowboys who vote for Trump and troll the internet, saying my results for coastal radio are 'BS'.
The latest 'BS' comment was about my fully-documented evidence of a 10-14dB typical advantage from the coast, relative to a slightly inland, identical antenna.
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| The Moon and Jupiter drift together, low along the southern sea horizon (23:15UT) |
So I will greatly enjoy this moment again, as I present the results for last night's reception of VK3QN for my (COAST/RX) station, as compared with the few other UK stations also hearing him (a Yagi operator has been omitted, for obvious reasons, although he was a median 16dB weaker in RX anyway (beam direction NW, so away from the peak antipodean source)).
I wonder what Cowboy Troll would say about a 20dB+ advantage seen in
this case? Remember, the data is available for all to examine for yourselves at WSPRnet - no need to believe anything I say at all.
Finally, here's the comparison of VK3QN with VK3MO heard at the beach. Low angle optimisation gives a small advantage to QN, which is in reality a significantly larger advantage, given that QN is a 12-element array, whilst MO is 20 elements.
During midsummer, I spent more time than usual with my 2-ele 50MHz quad pointed across the Atlantic.
As well as increasing my DX count to the US and central America a fair bit, I started hearing unusual bursts of propagation, which I dubbed 'metallic bursts', which reasonably captures their quality. If you listen to this short example, which is beaming and receiving only US signals at the time, you hear a brief burst that one could say is a meteor ping, followed by a much longer burst of propagation of many stations.
What were the conditions of these bursts?
(1) Occurred frequently (within a few seconds to minutes) during peak midsummer days
(2) The bursts bring propagation from many stations from a wide area of the US simultaneously
(3) Exhibited a metallic quality that suggests Doppler shifting, but could be another effect.
(4) In my case, never heard when the antenna is pointed towards Europe, regardless of strength of Es
(5) Have been heard from Europe by some others (who have provided recordings as evidence)
(6) Occur far less frequently when the peak of midsummer has passed
(7) Did not show a rise in occurrence during the Perseids, which we would certainly expect if the bursts are, as some aggressively assert, simply "meteor scatter, nothing else". The following recording, where there are no such bursts, is of August 10th, 2020: https://soundcloud.com/user-722868764/50313000-user-u-5
The main - and I think fatal - flaw in the meteor scatter supporters' camp is the last point. That, plus the fact that a single meteor, at ~100km ablation height, could not provide propagation from the US to the UK.
At 100km, the maximum propagation for a meteor appearing on the horizon (presumably inaccessible in reality) would be 2 x 1134km, or 2268km - more than 1000km less than the absolute minimum distance between my antenna and Newfoundland - which is about 2000km closer than where the signals were actually coming from (E. coast USA), at well over 5000km distant.
It is possible that what I expect would have to be at least three meteors could provide the aligned path. I am not sure what the likelihood of that is, in practice.
I listened carefully for the duration of the Perseids, as did others. I heard no 'metallic bursts' at all. I listened to many recordings made by PE4BAS, who provided those without making any claim or judgement, I should point out. Those recordings show to me that there is (1) a big difference in the rate of bursts heard, even during the largest meteor shower of the year and (2) the bursts are more of a typical meteor scatter ping than midsummer.
Whilst there's a long way to go before any conclusions can be reached, a few facts are worth considering:
(1) The rate of meteoric input into the atmosphere is highest during midsummer (see reference)
(2) The enhanced rate might explain the metallic bursts heard.
(3) The DX path to America, where I heard all my bursts, could exhibit a geometric effect where looking through more atmosphere means 'capturing' more meteor pings.
(4) There is a lot of activity in the mesosphere at midsummer, creating the quite intimately related phenomena of NLC, PMSE and Es.
(5) PMSE are bones of contention in the scientific community. One leading professor working on the mesosphere asserted that PMSE do not contribute to long-distance propagation, although I noted he did not qualify the wavelength he might (or might not) have been thinking about in making that assertion. Another professor, equally eminent, and working on atmospheric radars daily, said he "would not be surprised" if PMSE did allow such propagation.
(6) The now well-established openings at 6m between Europe and Japan seem to cluster around the peak midsummer period, as do the 'metallic bursts'.
My working assumption - and I put it no more strongly than that for the moment - is that these peak midsummer bursts might be the product of multiple, shallow and very turbulent reflections by PMSE-like structures. These kinds of structures are seen visually in NLC, and can be expected to be very similar or identical in PMSE and other reflecting structures at mesospheric height. Their movement is typically in the several tens and up to 400 metres per second, which allow for a good potential Doppler shift.
An example NLC image below, by no means the best I have in a large collection, is one from 2013, low on the horizon, and shows how a transient, rapidly-moving structure reflects sunlight strongly from one edge, whilst the rest is very diffuse. Alignments of two or more of these structures could allow RF propagation, which would be quite brief as the alignment broke up. The reflection would be due to the metallic, charged core of the NLC particle, not the coating of ice as in the case of visible light.
Work that needs to be done - and could be done quite easily - is as follows:
(a) More recordings of these bursts on DX paths, notably on Europe-US and Europe - Japan paths at midsummer, and noting their occurrence across the 24 hour period.
(b) Careful listening during 6m openings in winter, to record the nature and quality of any bursts heard then.
(c) More recordings of 6m bursts, if any, heard during other meteor shower events
As part of the long-running analysis of long path signals from Ian Williams, VK3MO and his associated VK3QN call, I had a good listen overnight, now just three weeks or so from the autumn equinox.
Already, the 14MHz band is very weak in the very early, dark morning hours, with few DX stations heard during that period.
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| VK3QN low angle, long path fixed array. Image (C) and with permission of Ian Williams, VK3MO. |
Here's how VK3QN, fixed on a 130 degree, long path heading towards Europe, was heard by my vertical delta loop and SDRPlay RSP1a:
When compared with the output predictions of VOACAP, the long path circuit actually seen agrees very well, except for the real peak signal being received about an hour later than predicted in the evening, but earlier by a somewhat smaller amount of time in the morning:
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| VOACAP long path prediction, VK3-Wales, 26-27 August 2020. |
When compared to the short path prediction, it's clear that Ian's beam is indeed pointing LP, and that the SP route plays very little or no part in propagation, except for the small peak at around 01UT, where weaker radiation from the back of his beam seems to 'leak' along the SP route to my antenna:
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| VOACAP short path prediction VK3-Wales, 26-27 August 2020. |
Well, that was Storm Francis! The only legacy he left, with his probing gusts of wind, was this scene, which greeted me on opening the window blinds this morning:
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| Minor work... |
The fibre glass spreader arm on my 6m quad is intact, and doing very well after nearly a decade of exposure to the weather by now. The only repair needed - already finished early this morning, was to replace some sun-decayed plastic cable ties that hold the arms in place.
For the future, I've ordered some stainless steel cable ties to keep the arms in place on the aluminium crosses, and will now use them wherever I can on other antennas, too. I've been buying plastic ties with 5% carbon in them for a couple of years, hoping they would be a little stronger and more UV-resistant. But in fact, they seem no more resistant to UV than cheap ones I can buy at the local hardware store, where failure happens after only a couple of years.
Having had months of very hot, sunny weather earlier in the summer in the UK, it's a good idea to check any plastic cable ties for signs of failure before the winter makes such work unpleasant or even impossible.
Well, it got up to about 90km/h gusts, but that is a fairly quiet day up here! 2m Yagi down for protection.
If you like ham radio, you will probably like Julian, OH8STN's various video reviews that frequently achieve tens of thousands of views in very short times.
I think I've only ever criticised Julian once for his review of a portable antenna that failed very quickly, but was nevertheless described as a worthwhile product.
Julain's latest offering is, as is relevant for a portable-focused channel, again about power provision in the field. I did find myself throwing my eyes skywards a little today, because the video comes across really more as a promotion of the PowerFilm LightSaver Max, rollable PV panel.
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| PowerFilm rollable PV panel. Nice, but expensive. |
Now, the PowerFilm products look and probably are very well built devices. But the price! In the US, the LightSaver Max is about $359, whilst in the UK, it is much the same, but in Sterling. That's a lot of money.
But we dedicated /P operators do need something like a easily-packable PV panel sometimes, so the obvious question to ask is: can we get something similar, for less money?
It turns out that we can. For example, Amazon and various other online retailes have several, typically 80W foldable panels with various USB outlets, for about £130. A 22Ah lithium 'powerpack' is typically about £25 at the moment, so for less than half the price of the PowerFilm unit, you can achieve much the same effect. It may take slightly more room in your bacpack, but not so much as you might turn down the offer of significant cash savings.
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| A Choetech 80W foldable PV panel. A lot cheaper. |
Indeed, I suspect that the foldable panel might be preferable to the PowerFilm unit, for the fact that it has no integrated sockets that, inevitably, will become damaged over time. I find that USB sockets, notably the central plastic contact support part, are very susceptible to breakage after not much use. Whilst you may be able to replace them on the PowerFilm body, it will be a lot easier to do so on a separate battery pack, or simply replace that pack.
Autumn has got off to a rough start this year, with very windy conditions coming to hold sway over North Wales.
But yesterday brought a very calm, warm day, ahead of Storm Francis, although that particular storm is just bringing a very windy day, rather than anything particularly bad this time around.
So, my daughter and I took advantage of the fine weather ahead of Francis by taking our monthly 'fix' of aviation. Being quite busy at the airport, we were allocated a PA-28-180, somewhat (but noticeably) more powerful than the usual PA-28-140 we fly.
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| Next generation pilot. A lovely day at the airport. |
Aircraft are aircraft, but their instruments can vary from very basic radio stacks and navigation receivers to extremely complex, fully computerised systems. The AM radio worked OK, but was incredibly noisy such that I was slowly going deaf! After a minute or so, I figured out the very small button that was the squelch operation of the radio, which made things a little more tolerable!
Flying can sometimes be demanding on the brain's resources, and one is left wondering why radios in aircraft are not designed to be much simpler to operate than some of them are. Just like amateur radio, purchase price is one factor that can sometimes lead to less-than-ideal radio devices inside cockpits.
Whilst calling the local RAF base, I had to then quickly work out the secondary radar transponder, where a 4-number code sent by the radar operator, so that a aircraft is uniquely identified on his/her screen, has to be entered into the transponder panel. Usually, this is just a process of punching in the numbers on a 0-9 keypad, and maybe a final 'enter' on some units. But this one had no such numbers, instead having a rotary encoder and a few buttons. Well, that took me about 30 seconds - which felt a lot longer - to figure out, such that there was no delay in entering the 3720 transponder code issued to me. Again, a very poor design which I have never seen in any other aircraft.
After all that, we much enjoyed looking down at the very crowded Welsh beaches, and laughing at the thought of how they would all be fighting with wind-battered tents and caravans in just a few hours' time!
Most of us have heard about trees being used as antennas. I most recently heard about them a year or two ago via blogging colleague, PE4BAS, who had a degree of success, as I seem to remember. Tree antennas featured very early on in the story of radio, as you can see here, from 1919.
Well, with Storm Ellen rapidly approaching North Wales, but the conditions fairly dry and warm nevertheless, I decided to try out my own tree antenna.
Usefully, there is a small plantation of ~20m-tall conifers only a few minutes away from the house, and which happens also to be along the shore of a freshwater reservoir.
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| Tree connected up. |
I had a look at some other experiments, and decided that the usual method used to energise the tree (if, indeed, it is being energised at all), of a coiled 'spring' of wire wrapped around the trunk, is suspect.
Suspect, because when using WSPR to assess antenna performance, even a short piece of radiating wire can fairly easily result in spots being reported. For sure, a matched coil around a tree risks confusing the picture of where the radiation is in fact coming from.
Because the conifers are cut down every 25 years or so and have little or no ecological importance locally, and won't anyway be injured to any degree, I had no qualms in inserting a 150mm stainless steel screw into one of them. Stainless isn't strictly necessary, but at least it is almost entirely non-magnetic and therefore won't 'steal' any energy to reorganise domains as the RF flows.
I clipped the screw via a ~1.5m-long wire to a 4:1 current balun - a direct connection without a step-down balun didn't yield a very good natural match anywhere on the bands. The other side of the balun went to a copper ground tube.
Very surprisingly, I found an excellent match in the 10-14MHz range, which was very useful due to the large amount of WSPR activity there. Here's the full HF sweep from the SARK analyser; red is impedance, green the SWR. Not suprisingly, the match range is quite broad:
I operated at 14MHz, where transmission confirmed at the rig that the matching was as indicated by the analyser:
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| Good match! |
The results were very interesting. Transmit was pretty poor; 1W out was only getting as far as EA8BFK and central Europe, although propagation was quite poor at the time. The tree managed -29dB at EA8BFK, against a median for the 17 other UK/Irish stations of -20dB. Not a good performance, but perhaps suprising that a tree was only 9dB down against full wire antennas.
But receive was another story. Here, the performance could be outstanding. For example, I was amazed to receive DP0GVN at -27dB at this time of day - one of only four total European stations, none at all from the UK, hearing him: F4GFZ (-27db), EA8BFK (-25dB), HB9TMC (-25dB). Quite remarkable!
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| DP0GVN appears on the WSPR decode screen! |
The other excellent spot was AA7FV, at -30dB for the tree antenna, when there were again no UK stations at all hearing him, and only a small number from anywhere in Europe: OZ7IT (-19dB), HB9TMCC (-26dB), OE9GHV (-21dB), ON5KQ (-25dB), OE9HLH (-23dB).
LU1EGT was another surprise spot. Here, there were a good number of UK spotters, with a median received signal of -24.5dB. The tree heard him at -20dB.
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| TX (green calls), and RX (red) for my tree antenna. All but EA8BFK TX spots are hidden in the European mess. |
KK1D came in to the tree at -18dB, against a median UK received signal (only two others) of -25dB.
W3BCW was heard by no UK station, except for my tree, at -24dB. Across Europe, DK0DLR was hearing at -28dB, OZ7IT at -20dB, DK4RW/1 at -20dB, DF4UE/P at -24dB, OE9GHV at -24dB, DK6UG at -21dB, and LX1DQ at -18dB.
KB1HKN was heard by 13 other UK stations, with a median reception of -22dB against the tree's -18dB.
At the moment, I suspect the tree is doing very little, except perhaps as a grounding point for one side of the feed from the balun. The feed wires and ground stake is, I think, acting as a kind of short, grounded dipole, albeit one that seems to receive very well at DX distances.
Later today, I'm going to try and connect two trees, side-by-side, using as short connecting wires from the balun between them as possible. I'm expecting this to work very poorly; we shall just have to wait and see! Another permutation will be to connect both sides of the feed wires, running along the ground and grounded at copper tubes, which I am sure will be as effective, and probably more effective, than using trees.
RESULT UPDATE: Using two trees proved problematic. Although the impedance was quite close to 50 Ohms using a 4:1 balun, I couldn't match it with the internal ATU, and there was no time or equipment available to try and resolve this.
In fact, I only got the results thanks to a pair of scissors. I accidentally connected the rig up with the wrong polarity, blowing a 25A in-line fuse. Having somehow not packed any spares, I had to improvise with scissors blades to make the connection!
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| When portable, you have to be either prepared, or resourceful! Coping with a 25A fuse blow (not recommended normally, obviously). |
Listening with the trees, regardless gave the following indicative result for VK3MO: UK median (18 stations): -14.5dB; 2-tree antenna: -8dB. With a grounded short dipole (2.5m per leg) into a 4:1 balun laid flat on the ground, the UK median (17 stations) was -24dB, the ground dipole -15dB. I suspect most of the advantage I saw in the woods was the result of an extremely low noise background, relative to practically everybody else. Some might have been down to the anyway quiet nature of ground dipoles.
Whilst the tree antenna is pretty much a dud, and the ground dipole not a scintillating perfomer either, they are both capable of producing good results relative to antennas located where most of us live. But, of course, if you are out in the coutry, you are better erecting a full dipole or 1/4 vertical in this low-noise environment, rather than acting like some kind of Yeti in the trees!
It's interesting to look back at the 1919 material, where nails were driven fairly high up trees, with consequently fairly long feed wires hanging down from them. It's difficult not to conclude that the signals that were heard - and sent - using the 'tree antennas' were achieved from those vertical feed wires, not the tree itself.
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| The two-tree antenna, coupled by 40cm legs to a 4:1 balun. Not a success, although it still yielded stronger signals than the median UK reception of VK3MO. |
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| The grounded ~2.5m legs of the ground dipole. |
As for the coil, there was no good, natural match anywhere to be found, so I will have to come back and look at that again when I have more time. For now, here's the SARK sweep for it, which at least shows that matching the fairly flat, modestly high SWR, should not be too problematic for most bands from about 5MHz and above.
The 2020 storm season gets going today, as Storm Ellen makes her way towards Ireland and the UK.
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| Big trouble on Friday. |
Already at 967hPa and still deepening, the end of the week is going to be very lively, with winds up to 100km/h here for 36 hours or so, and up to 130km/h over Ireland and Scotland.
First job this morning, therefore, was to wind down and push over the 12m Yagi and the 20m delta. Under these conditions, a 20m 1/4 wave vertical and 17 and 15m deltas keep me active.
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| Last evening's /P activity. This station is put up in a couple of minutes, and is better than a Yagi system only slightly inland. Why am I bothering with a tower and home antennas, fighting the wind? |
Well, this is what we will get now, as former hurricanes make their way across the Atlantic every few days. The simplicity and flexibility of /P and /M radio is, frankly, getting ever-more attractive...
The move towards portable operating here is now pretty serious, and to be honest, I'm quite looking forward to abandoning complex antenna systems and their even more complex systems for resisting wind.
Like many amateurs in the UK, I find keeping everything up and serviceable throughout our increasingly violent winter storms quite stressful and time-consuming.
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| Wow! Stick that in your rucksack and enjoy! |
Whilst a lot of excitement is bursting out all over about the ICOM-705, the alternative offering from Lab599 - the TX-500, is also stoking great excitement amongst the /P community.
There has been a lot of debate on the internet about the reality of the TX-500, with many claiming it would never actually appear on the market, and was simply 'virtualware'.
Anyway, it always seemed odd to me that someone wasn't actually trying to get the TX-500 out to market, because there are plenty of videos of a real device doing some real operating, albeit in the hands of only a very few Russian operators.
Well, recent videos seem to confirm the TX-500 is indeed real, with a fairly useful video appearing on one popular US-based Youtube channel. Adverts are also appearing at a popular US outlet, with the price knocking about the $800 mark.
OK, the TX-500 has no internal tuner. But that is no problem at all, because I only really ever use monoband vertical antennas when /P, and any matching that needs to be done with other antenna types can be achieved with a cheap portable matchbox.
At $800, provided the electronic performance matches the claimed mechanical case quality, then this transceiver is going to fly off the shelves, big time. Like most rig reviews, I haven't seen anything about the frequency stability of the TX-500, and so will not buy one unless someone can show me it is suitable for digital modes, notably WSPR, where high stability is a necessity.
With a bit of luck, these rigs will start appearing in Europe, ready for the 2021 /P season.
As regular readers will know, I abandoned the RSGB very soon after joining it, back at the start of 2012. I have to admit that my loose preconceptions of the society were not very good to start with, and only went down hill after I joined. To me, the RSGB was more like a hangover from the 19th century English imperialist past than a modern representative society.
For a year or so now, I've been a subscriber to Practical Wireless, which has a much fresher, modern and dynamic feel to it, with no hand-bitingly dull accounts of committees for this, and committees for that (none of which seem to actually ever achieve anything of real improvement to the average operator).
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| A screenshot from the dull introduction to a very dull RSGB presentation. |
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| A typical screenshot from OH8STN's Youtube channel, full of practical, enthusiastic content. |
Over the past year, PW has attracted, according to its editor, about 135 new authors. This remarkable fact itself suggests a lot more people are finding the RSGB unsatisfactory. PW also pays decent, industry-standard rates to authors, whereas the RSGB pays rates that are, at best, insulting, and entirely unlikely to attract new, good authors.
So this month, I was surprised to find the RSGB had taken out a two-page spread within PW, attempting to tell the world of its good works in promoting amateur radio. PW is not averse to taking a few pot shots at the RSGB when appropriate, so this really is quite unusual. It would suggest that the RSGB has realised the heel-turning that is going on.
The article, written by Heather Parsons, Communications Manager for the RSGB, makes much of the various 'Tonight@8' Youtube video presentations. I had a look at all the videos listed in the article, and they make for very soporific viewing.
A presentation about the Raspberry Pi begins with the speaker and his co-host trying to sort out some technical problems <drum fingers impatiently>. The droning about the Pi then begins in earnest, never getting to anything like a OH8STN-type video, where the Pi is shown being connected up and used in the real world with cold numb fingers. Instead, we get a Powerpoint presentation from the comfort of a study bedroom or similar. Nothing too daring for the old knee joints at the RSGB...
This first video I watched (OK, I skipped most of it, it was that dull), started a trend through all the RSGB videos: that all presenters are really quite old. There is nothing wrong with being old, not least as you may well have a lot of experience and ability, even with the latest gadgets. But only showing old, and often very old, white, male faces on videos meant to appeal to modern UK population, is really not getting to grips with reality. It's actually very sad, and something the RSGB seem to be incapable of improving.
Was the video really a success? I doubt it. It didn't show users how to set up anything at all, and had only been watched by 2631 people, and only 735 had bothered to thumb it up or down. A second video about antennas had been watched, perhaps predictably, by nearly 4300 people, only 107 of which had given any feedback. A third, about detecting VDSL RFI, had only been watched by 1158 people, with only 22 feedbacks given.
Remember, these are global audience viewing numbers. A recent OH8STN video about the Raspberry Pi attracted a whopping 57,000 views (and counting), which is not at all unusual for Julian's output. I suppose if, like the RSGB's General Manager, Julian was paid what was, until very recently, over £60,000 a year to promote radio, he could do a hell of a lot better than the RSGB. In fact, compared to the appeal of enthusiasts like Julian, the RSGB's videos are utterly irrelevant, and clearly of very little appeal.
The RSGB article moves on from videos and continues to try and persuade us all that it's a society worth joining. But it persuades me not at all, other than it is increasingly out of touch with what will attract new, younger and less pure-white middle class people into the hobby.
Whilst I take no pleasure at all in watching the RSGB die on its feet, die is what it will do, unless it sheds the 'London Wireless Society' attitude that pervades it, and addresses its failure to make radio appealing.
Resting on the laurels of a very modest increase in taking radio exams when all of us had nothing to do over the past few months other than sit indoors and take an interest in something, is not likely to be very productive in the medium-to-long term. Most of those exam-takers will now park themselves as Foundation licence holders, talk CB-type rubbish on 2m for the rest of their lives, and never actually progress thesmelves or radio at all.
As always, I'm very ready to see a step-change in how the RSGB approaches its work and how it aims to improve the lot of the average operator. But I may well be dead before that happens.
Every time I come home from a session at the coast - this time at Llanbadrig (St. Patrick's) Church - I remember (and laugh with derision) the old saying that 'a vertical antenna is just something that radiates equally poorly in all directions'.
Of course, this was always ignorant rubbish. At the coast, a vertical antenna exhibits directionality, because the sea is enhancing signals from its direction, whilst signals from the rear are, in effect, 'attenuated'. Not that a vertical is a poor performer away from the coast, either, you understand.
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| Llanbadrig Church, established 440AD - a location the current Dalai Lama once called "the most peaceful place on Earth". |
In any case, this afternoon brought solid 17m QSOs from as far as Japan (JA4NIJ, -17dB report for me) and Texas (K9MK, -06dB report for me). Not bad for 6W output!
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| 17m vertical at Llanbadrig Church (IO73sk) My son doesn't much like radio! |
As usual, I finished the outing with a brief session of 1W WSPR. Except for OZ7IT, KA7OEI-1 was hearing no station other than mine outside the US. On a power-normalised basis, my signal was 6dB stronger than OZ7IT (my 1W giving -25dB against OZ7IT's equivalent -31dB (-26dB as received.))
As for receiving at the coast, the DX station, AC0MO, at 6907km, was heard at a steady -28dB, but not anywhere else in the world outside the US (and no further within the US than 2146km). Pretty amazing stuff!
Over the coming weeks, I'll be doing a 'real world' review of the much-anticipated IC-705 as they start to roll off the production lines. Appearing first in a leading UK magazine, there will also be reports published on this blog in due course.
I very much see the future of amateur radio, as no doubt does ICOM, in very lightweight, portable equipment. This allows for easy travel with your radio when going on holiday abroad, and for easy, regular transport to a location nearer home that isn't blighted by RFI.
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| Just what many of us want: the upcoming IC-705. |
As digital modes have developed and the use of SSB fallen away sharply, the standard 100W transceiver has started to become something of an anachronism. From home, I rarely use anything above 25-30W from both wire and directional antennas. From the beach, 5-15W is usual, but 5W and below is slowly becoming my regular setting range.
So the advance of digital modes goes very much hand-in-hand with lower power transceivers like the IC-705, whilst yielding home Yagi-beating performance with simple vertical antennas from suitable locations.
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| The future of radio - away from home RFI, and no need for expensive, large antennas. |
I very much feel that the days of fixed, home operating are numbered as the result of the rapid increase in RFI. For sure, I would never again start investing thousands of pounds into home-based radio; the ease with which it can all be rendered useless is too high a risk for that now. That, and the fact that even an expensive tower-and-Yagi system is often outperformed by a wire vertical from a beach or even a freshwater lake location. And you don't need planning permission for a vertical used out in the open!
So, we will see how well the IC-705 fares when put through its paces, out in the salty and sandy open air, where it is (hopefully) designed to operate.
How's your weather been recently? Whilst I had a report from Washington state of temperatures reaching only 12 degrees Celsius, across most of Europe, the temperature has been truly tropical, day and night.
Yesterday, it got so hot that even having all the doors and windows open all day wasn't enough to cool things down. But there was a modest breeze down at the coast itself, where the slightly cooler conditions were a big attraction, despite the likelihood of vast crowds of post-lockdown tourists.
A quick look at propagation showed that the upper HF bands were not very active at all, with 20 and 40m being most alive.
I grabbed by 20m vertical and go-box, and went off to IO73VH, a favourite haunt for working to the east.
Recently, I've been dialling the power down lower than my usual 10-15W level with FT8. This is a result of the typical finding of a 10-14dB enhancement available at the coast, which means using 15W is the equivalent of 150W or more. Rather obviously, for all but the very toughest contact, this is not remotely necessary!
I chose to start at 6W into the vertical. My very first call was from a JA station, who seems to be using a 2-ele Yagi for 14MHz. I then had a further JA QSO, followed by some OH and even a LU station, who was on an inland, not sea heading.
It's easy to become blase about these things, especially on 20m. But no-repeat message QSOs on a very crowded FT8 frequency with JA and LU on a mere 6W is, when you think about it, pretty amazing, even when the sea is 'amplifying' the signal.
What's more, for those willing to accept that they will get this enhancement (and there are idiotic, usually American operators who simply won't), then the future is really bright for using portable rigs like the new Icom 705. This is especially so, given that the domestic environment is now posing an existential threat to fixed, home-based operation. That, and the fact that even a perfect, slightly inland QTH (like mine) is pretty useless in performance, compared to being at the beach.
QSOs when portable are very rewarding, regardless of mode used. After catching a few long-haul DX, I was more than content at the achievement with no more than the power used by an old-fashioned hand torch bulb, and three pieces of wire.
I finished the afternoon, alongside watching stupid people getting trapped by the incoming tide (again!) with a few minutes of WSPR. It's really worth contemplating the reach of 1W, increased to significantly more effective power thanks to the beach, recalling that this was a summer's afternoon, not greyline!
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| Pretty amazing 14MHz performance (TX and RX) for ~10 minutes from the beach. |
As for some specific results, median UK reception of VK3MO at around 16UT was -20dB. My report? +1dB.
In the case of JA5NVN, only a mere two other European stations were hearing him at 16UT. The top-scoring OE9GHV was hearing 4dB weaker than I was, with the DK6UG hearing 9dB weaker.
And finally, in terms of my TX, KL7L heard my 1W at -4dB (16:16UT), with top UK WSPR station, G0CCL, heard at -5dB, but who was using 7dB more power. So my signal was in fact 8dB stronger than G0CCL's signal. More importantly, only two other UK stations were being received by KL7L at the time, who were at -18 and -22dB when adjusted to an equivalent output, giving my signal a +14dB and +18dB advantage over those stations, respectively.
My plans for theis winter and 2021? Keep building on existing success at the coast, and abandon home-based towers, Yagis and all the expense, wind-worry and maintenance they bring. I may even buy a IC705 or the other enticing rig that could be - if it actually makes it to market - the Lab 599 Discovery TX-500. Or maybe the Xiegu X5105. The choice will ultimately be down to frequency stability, because a drifting rig is a no-good rig in these days of digital operation, and should never be allowed to be an issue for modern radio design.
One thing's clear, the 1-10W outputs typically offered by these rigs are perfectly suited, and way more than enough, for effective coastal DX working.
I'm into several days of listening for what have become informally known as 'metallic bursts' by now.
This morning should have been a very good time to detect any bursts - if they are due to meteor scatter as just about everyone asserts - as we are at the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. OK, by around 09:40UT, when I made my audio recording, we are facing away from the debris stream here in the UK. But there should still be an enhanced background rate.
I can tell you that I cannot hear any bursts at all. To persuade the naysayers, here's a generous 5-minute recording (HRD in this case, no time sync), where signals are coming from eastern Europe and out as far as Turkey, generally in line with the PSKreporter map below:
In search of peculiar-sounding 'metallic bursts' on 6m that were heard during midsummer, I've been spending a lot of time on that band past few days, as the Perseids reach their maximum.
I've listened to FT8 and MSK144 on 6m and 2m, and seen a reasonable amount of activity on both bands under meteor scatter.
What I haven't heard - at all - is anything like the bursts heard during June and July. I can hear plenty of typical MS bursts, but these are usually very short, <1s duration, with only the occasional longer burst lasting several seconds.
I don't know what you are hearing if you are active on 6m, but these typical MS bursts do sound qualitatively different to what I was hearing earlier on.
The case remains open, presumed MS, for now...
If there is one indicator of climate change that has become very evident in North Wales over the past few years, it's the increase in thunderstorm activity.
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| Lightning over Anglesey in August - 20 years ago, just before film was abandoned. |
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| Here comes trouble - about an hour away. |
Starting today, about 48 hours of heavy thunderstorms are predicted across the UK, with a good cluster of cells currently making their way towards my QTH.
All rigs disconnected!
