What a suprise! I heard crowded 6m band for the first time this year. It was 15 UTC when I turned on the radio. The frenquencies was being checked as usual when 50MHz was tuned I stopped there Despite I don’t have antenna for this band, stations were extremly loud and clear. Of course I tried to shout to them using inv V dipole from 80m band and my power 100W coming out from my rig. I made a few contacts on magic with good results. One of these QSOs was recorded and You can watch it.
I hope to see this kind of display as often as it possible
In the end of this story I would like to add that this conditions last for about 2 hours. At 17 UTC – sad moment- everything was disapeared and it went calm and quiet once again.
Today’s bands conditions aren’t so good. Frenquencies got very noisy backgrounds. It is made by unquiet geomagnetic field. The plot which shows us K index is in red colour. That means bad conditions on HF bands. For those who is usualy working on VHF/UHF bands good conditions and possibility to make QSO via Aurora. Simply the radio wave is directed to the aurora by the antennas with gain in one direction and this wave is reflexed from aurora. You can see how it works on one of Youtube films, for instance this one:
It was a good day for digital QSO’s. Firstly I turned on my radio to 21,076MHz. I sent a call message there on JT65A digi mode. One station replayed. It was station from Japan. Unfortunately he did’t have synchronized his computer clock and the succesful QSO couldn’t be made. It means that the propgation on the 15m band was very good today. After that I moved to 14,076MHz and there I sent a short CQ JT65A messages. After few minutes I was given a reply from Japan station. It was JA3CAY. The reports were pretty good. I’ve received -18dB. He was stronger -12dB was sent to him. That also means propagation was good today and it opened on the far east. North America was also very good heard in my location. Day was excelent for QSO’s. Hope to have that kind of conditions more often
Confirmation QSL card
Equipment during QSO: TRX: FT857D PWR: 30W Antenna: Inverted V for 20m, feedpoint 13m over the ground Software: WSJT7
WSPRnet (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network) is very useful tool for those who would like to check the radio waves propagation level. The software was written by Joe Taylor K1JT. This man also made WSJT software which are being used for JT65A digital transmitions.
WSPR software is sending every 8-10 minutes informations about our setup and our location. The digital transmition lasts for two minutes. After that we can enter on the WSPRnet website to see what stations received our signal. The data is presenting as databases (tables and so on) or visual (maps).
Infos about frenquencies:
USB dial (MHz): 0.5024, 1.8366, 3.5926, 5.2872, 7.0386, 10.1387, 14.0956, 18.1046, 21.0946, 24.9246, 28.1246, 50.293, 144.488
When I was looking at the DXCluster I found someone who put the link to this new mode site. It’s ROS. This shortcut has been taken from the author’s name. You can choose between two speed of typing. Here we’ve got 1 baud or 16 baud. Of course the 16 baud mode is faster than 1 baud. But if you want to work with DX or the signals are very weak, it is good to switch on the 1 baud work mode. On the ROS site we can read that 1 baud can decode signals which are extremly weak, it means -35dB S/N signals. 1 baud mode is almost simillar with JT65A. Decoded textes are apeeread on the screen right out of hand, like on PSK, RTTY, OLIVIA modes. There’s one cool feature, reports can be sent via e-mail. If You send Your e-mail adress You can received the reports from all stations which your signal received.
E-mail with reports which was sent to me.
********** Please don’t reply to this email ********************
WU9Q has received your Radio Message sent at: 13:54 UTC
Received Message: ‘ My email is: < miner@dziesiata.com > < miner@dziesiata.com > < miner@dziesiata.com > tnx Aldo for QSO, 73.emW7DGY de SQ8MXR sk’
Operator Info:
Callsign: WU9Q
Name: Bob
E-mail: wu9q@mchsi.com
QTH: Rock Island, IL
Locator: EN41rl
Station: 35 watts to G5RV or 2 el yagi
ROS Version: 1.6.3 Beta
Signal Info:
Symbol Rate: 16 bauds
Frame Acquisition: 17/20
Final Acquisition: 13/16
Frequency Shift: 7.8 Hz
Symbol Errors detected by Viterbi: 8/50
Metric: -10 dB
Vumeter Level: -9 dB
CPU Usage: 20 %
Frenquecies: 3.600USB , 7.053USB, 14.101USB , 28.300USB (all in MHz)
It was very good day for 21MHz. In Europe we could hear many African and American stations. On the 24MHz I observed also openings. There apeared stations from the Russia and Spain. I don’t have good antenna for this band to make a radio contacts with these stations. But on the 15m band I’ve made two good DX QSO. It was Madagaskar, AF – 5R8FL and US station from NJ – WN2T. I heard also station CX5UR and I sent to him my call. I’m not sure if he repond to me. It was very deep QSB. I saw only the last letters after my call to him – it was something XR. I don’t know if it was to me or not. With 30W and inverted V dipole antenna it was increadible to make such a good long path radio contacts.
The mode JT65 was found by me one day ago. It is a very usefull Digital mode. JT65 is for those who want to make QSO on long distances, for those who don’t have special directive antennas. The QSO’s are very short it contains only the callsigns and the begins of WW locators.
Today I made US station with 30W output to my inverted V dipol for 80m band. The distance I achived was about 7620km. So it’s pretty good for the 80m band.
I run digital modes few days ago. For this few days I’ve made a lot of PSK, Olivia QSO’s. It looks like on-line chat. You can write message and it is sent via radio waves. Today I tried something else. It’s SSTV (Slow Scan Television) mode. You can send an image. It’s amazing that image can be sent via the radio waves to your corespondent. I made SSTV QSO on 14,227,00MHz with Sergey (RU4PF) from Russia. I saw his CQ image on my computer’s screen and I replied. My callsign was returned. It’s gave me a lot of fun.
It was raining all the time. Whole day was gray and extremly windy but warm. Nothing connected with winter time. I wanted to try something else. In few minutes after my radio had been switched on I got into RF power setting and I set it on 5W. Then I searched the band for somebody who was calling CQ. First station was IZ7DOK, Italian very good working station. He was 5/9+ with me. I gave a shout and I got return my call. My report sent to me by Marko was 5/9+. Wow, delicious . It was encouraged me to find another station and try once again. The next QSO I made was Spanish station from Barcelona, EA3AHH. Pere was very strong, but I had to repeat my callsign few times. Finally I had a conversation with him with 4/4 report and in the end of radio contact I was even 5/3. That was incredible. I must admit making QSO with less power than I usually use during the radio contact is very fun as well. Anyway it’s a good way to test the propagation and the antenna system.
I run the new mode on my site few days ago. It’s a simple guestbook. The link You can find in the top menu I would be very happy if You put your post there after visiting my homepage.
Despite I don’t have antenna for this band, stations were extremly loud and clear. Of course I tried to shout to them using inv V dipole from 80m band and my power 100W coming out from my rig. I made a few contacts on magic with good results. One of these QSOs was recorded and You can watch it. 
OK1AW
IZ2QGJ/QRP
SM7UFR
DL5CU
RW6BN