This is my page for other radio ham stuff - ie not related to amateur satellites or space stations. WSPR mode I built the Ultimate 2 and with 150 mW this was the result on 10 MHz: January 5th/6th 2014   Today (28 January 2014) I have reached 2040 kilometres on 21 MHz...  February 11th 2014 A few days ago G1IVG gave me 24 hours' monitoring. I plotted the frequency drift in Hertz over 24 hours as below:
 This means that the Ultimate 2 is wandering through most of the band! I did add a coin onto the top of the metal oscillaor block but that just caused it to give out harmonics, as seen in the audio picture at the rx site. Incidentally the SNR at G1IVG, not far from me, is shown in the nenxt photo below, indicating how noise takes over on his antenna at night.  This is my best dx so far, 5014 kilometres on 150 mW!
 Hellschrieber beacon - August 2012
I built the Etherkit Open Beacon and set it to Hell. It has a specification of 300 mW for a 13.5 volt supply.
Results are very impressive, see below:
and today:   This is not quite as good as my performance on 7MHz in 2011 but is over a longer distance!
Reverse Beacon Network - March 17th 2012
I bought a TenTec Century 22 CW transceiver of mid-1980s vintage for £77.50 and tried it out on the Reverse Beacon network as I am not very literate in CW! It gave 20 watts ouput into a Heathkit ATU leading a WiMo magnetic balun and a 9 metre long wire.
 It shows me getting easily into Northern Germany around mid-day today. I'm hardly drifting in frequency between 1125 and 1216 (I did change frequency before). Also interesting that the various computers recognise my hand-held speed of 13 wpm, 12 wpm was the standard for sending and receiving when I took my exam in 1992. I need to listen more to get my receive speed up again.
Later this afternoon (St Patrick's Day) I worked EI (County Donegal) with the same rig.
QRSS - May 1st 2011
I built a "Hans Summers" QRSS kit for 40 metres, and after blowing out the first PA transistor, replaced it, fitted smoother capacitors to the 7805 regulator and fixed a rudimentary heat sink to the new 2N7000 with a croc clip.
Then I calculated the power output as follows:
I fitted a 50 ohm load across the antenna and ground, then took a small red diode (anode to the rf end) and a capacitor across the cathode of the diode and the ground. I measured 600 mV across the capacitor.
The formula: P = ((.6 +.3) ^2 ) / (2 *50) gave me 8 mW output - this is compatible with the range reported on Hans' website.
I have a 9 metre long wire out of the upstairs shack (the wire ends in a kind of spiral) broadside approximately N-S and a cooper wire going down to earth. I peaked the signal in my receiver (disconnected the main antenna) with a small ATU , then sat back and waited.
And waited.
Eventually after a sunny day, in late afternoon/ early evening I saw my signal appear fading in and out of the online grabber at ON5EX.
 My thanks to Colin G1IVG for supporting this experiment!
3 May 2011
Here's a repeat performance on 7 MHz after a warm afternoon.
 and, by the way, a photo of Saturn, taken through my refractor and Pentax and half a dozen photos stacked in Registax. I think there's a shadow of a moon to the top?
Finally, the QRPp transmitter has reached G6HNU and G6AVK. It looks like one "hop" of100-200 miles is the limit and the directionis broadside to my longwire.
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