Hello LF,
LAst night GI4DPE and GM4SLV once again tried some QRP reception tests.
Initially signals on the band were good (Gary G4WGT was a nice readable
signal up here) and after initial reports at normal powers I reduced TX
power to :
10W
1W
500mW
250mW
100mW
50mW
At each level down to 100mW Finbar was able to copy some or all of what
I sent and at 50mW he was able to detect snatches of long dashes.
ERP was obviously much below 100mW for all these tests, as my normal TX
power is just sufficient to drive my very short antenna to the current
needed for estimated 100mW ERP.
I returned power to normal but unstability in propagation started, deep
QSB and some QRN, so we forgo the re-run of the previous night's QRPp
from GI. We were able to hold (despite the varying signals) a QSO for
over 1 hour unitl just after midnight localtime. Each of us also called
CQ during the QSO to see if any other stations were interested in
reports etc, but nothing was heard.
I received email confrimation that my signals were heard my Mike G3YPE
in Homfirth, W.Yorks and by Mike G3GMS near Cullercoats in
Northumberland. Obviously both stations had no difficulty hearing
Finbar!
We intend to try again tonight, 11pm local time.
If anyone knows of website where daily records of geomagnetic / solar
data can be retrieve I'd be grateful. I want to start noting the salient
data alongside my notes etc. in case I can spot any correlation between
the signal quality and the various measures of likely propagation
(SFI/A/K/SSN etc)
Regards,
John GM4SLV
|
