Although I only heard one station, VE2AHS, from across the Atlantic, I was heard by as many stations in the eastern USA as here in Europe. Why is that? Is PSK31 more popular over here, making QRM levels higher and weaker signals less easy to copy? Although I'm happy to work Europeans, it would be nice to make more Stateside contacts.
Friday, December 11, 2009
20m conditions
I spent an hour after lunch today on 20m PSK31 using the K3, 40W to the attic dipole, and KComm 1.8. I made seven contacts, all European. Despite the presence of a sunspot or two conditions seemed fairly flat. As usual, it was more interesting to see from the PSK Reporter website where my signals were heard rather than what I actually worked.
Although I only heard one station, VE2AHS, from across the Atlantic, I was heard by as many stations in the eastern USA as here in Europe. Why is that? Is PSK31 more popular over here, making QRM levels higher and weaker signals less easy to copy? Although I'm happy to work Europeans, it would be nice to make more Stateside contacts.
Although I only heard one station, VE2AHS, from across the Atlantic, I was heard by as many stations in the eastern USA as here in Europe. Why is that? Is PSK31 more popular over here, making QRM levels higher and weaker signals less easy to copy? Although I'm happy to work Europeans, it would be nice to make more Stateside contacts.
I have been having exactly the same experiences. I seem to get heard State side with no issues, but I am lucky to work someone there. I tend to agree that the weak signals tend to get lost in the QRM, and many times I am trying to work a "weak" station only to have my RX sensitivity squashed by some over driven signal! Sometimes I have been able to use the notch filter to block out those signals, or at least lessen the affect. YMMV.
ReplyDelete73
Hi Julian,
ReplyDeleteI often notice this I am often heard in the states on WSPR on 30 metres, but if I drop onto PSK there are only European stations around. I have worked the states on 30 but they seem few and far between at the moment.
73 de Kevin
Hello Julian, I never succeeded to make a PSK31 or SSB contact with USA. My only stateside QSO's are with 5 watt CW. I think that CW is the best mode for QRP. Have a nice weekend, 73 Paul
ReplyDeleteI have been surprised at the lack of activity since CQ WW CW. Did everyone get worn out? By the time I get home in the evenings, 20 meters has been totally dead, 30 is pretty scarce and 40 hasn't been much better even with low noise levels from my QTH. However, last night I tuned up on 160 and was shocked at the amount of DX activity. Unfortunately, I only have a cloud-warmer on 160.
ReplyDelete73 Ed
Read this blog post the other day..I use DM 780 and for the first time the other day, decided to look at the 'Superbrowser' in more detail. I have previously only used the basic waterfall for logging and making contacts. I automatically upload to pskreporter when I am active on 20m psk but noticed the 'high' upload of incoming stations whilst using the 'superbrowser', I was following progress of a out of Europe station, noted the 'freq' that he was 'txing' on and then looked on the basic waterfall and could not 'see' him yet I saw his European contacts trace with no problems, I waited and returned to the 'superbrowser', he then 'cq'ed' and I managed to work him. I guess either the 'superbrowser' may be more sensitive or I need to go to 'Specsavers', you can have up to 20 incoming 'signals'in progress, I often wondered why I also was being noticed more in the USA than I ever could work.....
ReplyDeleteBobby GM7GAX