M0RVB ⁽³⁰⁷⁾

Some interesting distances in the VHF/UHF lift on the 18th and 19th January, all not too bad for loft mounted antennas - a 2m QFH and a 70cm big wheel, running 20W from the TS2000X, FT8. On the 18th I managed three 2m FT8 QSOs with French stations, one 386 miles south from me. Later on I was receivd 502 miles away in Denmark on 70cm FT8 but no QSO. On the 19th came a 2m FT8 QSO with Denmark at 432 miles.

(updated 01/01/25 - added 11 and 12) I managed to receive all of the 12 images in the December 2024 ISS SSTV event. These were received using an indoor QFH and the TS2000X, with MMSSTV on the PC. Here they are in numerical order:

SAQ was received fine here on the 24th December for their Christmas broadcast at 08:00. This was again using the Airspy HF+ Discover and YouLoop in the loft. I had a bit of time to fiddle with settings in SDR# this time, reducign the bandwidth to 100Hz and trying the HF AGC on and off - leaving it on produces better audio but really not much difference between on and off. The signal from SAQ was showing as -100dBFS vs -110dBFS background. Nothing at all received using vlfrx-tools via the UMC204HD + PA0RDT mini whip. That does show the same large peaks above 19kHz but not the one at about 16.5kHz (see above) nor that smaller peak seen at about 21kHz, so no surprise it did not see SAQ. But never mind, it's still useful. The Youtube recording of the event can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CQZmW_vE00

I managed to get the endorsements for all 6 bands from 30m to 10m this time. Not as good as last year but the wire is hopeless on 40m (and below) so I am rather wasting my time trying. I am happy with those 6 bands anyway. Of course it is open until the end of February 2025 so there is still plenty of time, especially as I am considering a new family party game for Christmas: "who can get the antenna support highest up the tree" followed by a relay race with 120 foot of wire.

Here is a quick and dirty comparison between the Behringer UMC204HD + PA0RDT mini whip and the Airspy HF+ Discovery and YouLoop looking at a similar amount of spectrum from 0 up to 96kHz or so. First the UMC204HD: And the Airspy: This was not done in any scientific fashion, it's just to show that the soundcard method works ok but is not as good as the Airspy. No surprises there and this is no criticism of either method. I can see the utility of the soundcard method when coupled with the vlfrx-tools package as all manner of analyses become possible. I have only just started reading about that.