I use the beacons as a propagation tool. Recently there have been many days when I can hear very few and no strong beacon signals on any band. On days like these you will be hard pressed to work dx on any band at any power. However from time to time at QRO you can make some surprising contacts. One I was pleased with lately was Singapore on 80m at sunset. That contact could not have been made at QRP. Interestingly enough the view of 10 years ago that when the HF bands are at their worst due to an inactive sun, 160m-40m will be at their best. This certainly seemed to be true a number of cycles back, but not in the last two cycles.
During good propagation conditions it is possible to work good DX on 160m with 100W or somewhat less, but if you look at the leaders on the band they are nearly all QRO. I tend to park my QRP gear when the cycle goes sour and to use it a lot in better parts of a decent cycle. Nothing like the thrill of a long haul DX contact with QRP, but you may want to haul out a bigger rig or amp on many days till the sun starts being more active. Bob W2WG -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 4:07 PM To: Darwin, Keith Cc: Elecraft Discussion List Subject: Re: [Elecraft] QRP viability during solar cycle min? Keith, If you want to hear how strong signals from a 100, 10 , 1 or 0.1 watt transmitter can be in real time, take a listen to the International Beacon Project stations on 20m through 10m. These beacons are located across the world, and transmit in sequence on each band. When it is a particular beacon's turn to transmit, it sends its call in CW followed by four long dashes - one at 100w followed by one at 10w, one at 1w and lastly one at 0.1mW. Then the next beacon does the same. Each beacon is given 10 seconds transmission time. The transmitters operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and somewhere I have the details of their antennas which I think are all omnidirectional verticals. Their frequencies are 14100, 18110, 21150, 24930 and 28200 kHz , and these beacons are a very useful 'tool' for catching band openings especially on 12m and 10m at this point in the solar cycle. It is surprising how often 10m is open even now but no ham signals are heard because everybody is listening, or is elsewhere. It is my belief that in working DX a very important thing is a good calling technique. A continental friend of mine runs 100mW, works DX on 40m, and it is a treat to hear him drop in his call whilst the mob catches its breath. 73, Geoff GM4ESD Keith, KD1E, wrote on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 5:19 PM K1 or K2. Hmmm, the debate continues. But wait, we're approaching a sunspot min. My antennas are pretty limited. I have a 28 foot vertical (fed with a tuner near the base) for 40 thru 15 and a dipole at 25 feet but that is about it. No towers, no high wires, no yagis. How limiting will 5 or 10 watts (even with that Elecraft Mojo) be under current conditions? Are we entering into conditions where QRP with simple antennas will become rather frustrating? Is it K2/100 time? - Keith KD1E - _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
