An Evening On JT65

Spent the evening on 20M using JT65 to give the MV5LMY callsign a bit of use before it expires at the end of July.

Put out some CQ calls and received a run of replies which was good. Must be the special call.

Stations worked: RU4PT, EA3GBL, DL2KWA, UT7IX, OH5CX, GM4XAW, RA1ZN, DF3NA, OE6KLG, WA4MIT, JE4CIL and W7VP.

Mainly Europeans except for the stations from Japan and the US at the end of the evening.

My signal was getting out well as shown by the following screen shot from PSKReporter:

 

This was taken just after close down at 21:30 GMT. The MV callsign comes to an end on the 31st July so just a couple more evenings of use.

 

10m Conditions and WSPR

Conditions on 10m have been very poor for some time and for this stage in the sunspot cycle there should be some improvement. Looking back on my logbook for the similar point in the last cycle I was working DX across the world, but not this time.

I run a WSPR beacon when I am at home to monitor 10m and hopefully catch any good conditions, however the following screen capture from http://wsprnet.org/drupal/ is typical of the distances I have been achieving:

 

My WSPR system consists of an IC706 MkIIG running 5W on 10m to a small Inverted L wire antenna.

 

I get the impression that the peak in the current sunspot cycle is not going to be so good.

 

Regarding recent activity, I have been on JT65 on 20m quite a bit over the last few days giving the MV5LMY call sign some activity.

 

Weather Satellite Pictures Keeping Getting Better

Another day of good weather and another day of very good APT weather satellite pictures.

The following is from the 13:05 UTC pass of NOAA 19, again with most of the UK cloud free.

It is a cropped image, however the overall duration of  the pass was again excellent and shows what can be done with a simple loft antenna.

The cloud cover coming off the North Sea onto to east coast is quite a common occurrence. It is interesting to compare what the weather is like at ground level against the satellite picture. There are many really good webcams that enable this to be done very easily. A good set of webcams on the coast of Norfolk are on the Happisburgh Lighthouse. See the following link: http://www.happisburgh.org/webcam

The whole Happisburgh site is worth a read and the village is well worth a visit. Check for the days when the Lighthouse and the Church Tower are open. Views from the top are excellent.

Good Weather At Last !

The weather for the last week has been excellent with high pressure covering much of the country resulting in very warm conditions, reaching 28C and clear skies.

As well as Eumetcast, I still receive APT transmissions from the NOAA satellites and during summer with the sun at a high angle the received pictures are excellent.

The following is the picture as received (with minor contrast enhancement) from NOAA 15 late this afternoon:

Most of the United Kingdom is cloud free and London and Birmingham stand out well as slightly darker than their surroundings.

I receive the polar orbiting NOAA satellites using a Timestep receiver which is almost 20 years old and has been in use almost 24 by 7 for all that time. The antenna is a turnstile cross dipole style of antenna located in the loft of the house which makes the duration of pass and received quality all the more surprising.

The Timestep receiver feeds audio to the computer soundcard and the audio is processed into pictures by the excellent WXtoImg.

MV5LMY RSGB Centenary Callsign

From the 5th July to the 31st July I will be operating the call sign MV5LMY.

The "V" addition to the call sign is to celebrate the RSGB Centenary. See details at the following link:

RSGB Centenary

I have been a member of the RSGB since 1976 and am very please to be celebrating the centenary of the organisation in this way.

I look forward to working you on the air with the MV prefix and will be sending special QSL cards via the bureau.