Log
of key activities and significant contacts from my residence in
Northam, Western Australia under the call VK6YSF.
Radio
Activity 19 December, 2019, 17:53WST
0953UTC
436.838 MHz
The beacon of LEO satellite CUTE-1
was monitored
at 17:55 local time. The beacon was strong and stable with
the unmistakable Doppler shift
of the beacon signal displayed with Spectrum Lab as CUTE-1 passed over
central Australia. Spectrum Lab indicated that the signal was above
20db
above the noise floor.
CUTE-1 beacon is CW at 50wpm with a power of 100mW.
CUTE-1
passed west of Australia as predicted with
ny2o online satellite tracker. Altitude =
514.56km, Velocity (km/s) = 7.44, Elevation
= 10.1Deg,
A strong signal showing Doppler shift
of the beacon signal displayed with Spectrum Lab as CUTE-1 passed over
central Australia. 17:53:00WST
The
signal remained strong down to the horizon 0.0deg at 17:58:40 WST
Radio
Activity 16 February, 2019 20:06WST (08:06
UTC)
145.800 MHz
The below SSTV images were recorded from the International Space Station
(ISS) at 20:06 local time. The signal was strong and stable at
approximately S9 as the ISS passed Western Australia.
ISS
pass
details are-: Altitude = 410km,
Velocity (km/s) = ?, Elevation = 50Deg, Range = 500km (min)
Video
of Slow Scan Television (SSTV) images received from the
International Space Station
Radio
Activity 12 February 2018 16:00WST (08:00UTC)
7.730
MHz (USB) + 1500Hz signal centre
Reception
of various HF digital mode Radiograms from WRMI, Florida USA
Shortwave
Radiogram experimentation with MFSK32 and with various Olivia modes.
Olivia mode used 8 tones for this transmission, but with various
bandwidths of 2000, 1000, and 500 Hz were trialed.
Visit http://swradiogram.net
for future trials.
Video of HF digital mode Radiograms from
WRMI
SSN (Sun Spot Number): ?
Signal
report: SNR -2 to +10db
Distance:
18260km
Mode:
MFSK32 and with Olivia 8/2000,
8/1000 and 8/500 (USB)
Radio
Activity 23 December 2017 19:55WST (23:55UTC)
7.5331
MHz (USB)
AustralianBureau of Meteorology broadcast of weather FAX for high seas for
Australian coastal areas
from VMW transmitter at Wiluna in Western Australia.
145.800 MHz
The below SSTV image was recorded from the International Space Station
(ISS) at 8:38 local time. The signal was strong and stable at
approximately S8 as the ISS passed over
central Australia.
ISS
pass
details are-: Altitude = 410km,
Velocity (km/s) = ?, Elevation = 20Deg, Range = 996km
Contact was achieved with
Dale KB3FEI,
New Castle, DE USA
I work Dale KB3FEI
Saturday evening / Saturday morning 11:30 to 12:15 UTC with Olivia
16/500. This contact was one of the most satisfying contact I have
had for several reasons. First and foremost I got to work Dale for
the first time and I was very appreciative of Dale's commitment to
the experiment and getting up at 6:30 in the morning. Secondly this
was my first real Olivia contact and second ever Olivia contact;
proving to my satisfaction that the mode is as good as has been
suggested. From my end in Western Australia the band was very noisy
with several Asian station breaking into the channel and at no time
was Dale's signal visible in the waterfall with Olivia indicating
that the Dale's signal was S/N -10dB; this appears a very robust
mode.
Thirdly; this was not an accidental contact, I had arranged with
Dale several days ago on QRZ.com to attempt this contact using
Olivia and I then did some analysis of the path between Western
Australia and the east coast of the United States using WISP. I did
this on 20, 30 and 40m for 24 hour periods and down loaded all the
pings from US stations in the area from the WSPRnet database and
scatter graphed the data with MS Excel. See below. With this
information I scheduled with Dale a contact for 12:00 +/- UTC on
40m. The rest is as they say is history, the band opened and closed
almost precisely as predicted and this for me is a very exciting
outcome and a technique I will develop further.
Lastly; the drama of the contact. I had emailed Dale that I was in
the shack early than expected and was calling CQ, Dale responded
with no print and this went on for near half an hour. I was close to
thanking Dale for the attempt and call it a night when I saw data
fragments in the print and noticed KB3FEI, had I got only this I
would have been happy, however then it broke into a full QSO, again
almost as the WSPR data had predicted.
Dale - KB3FEI was
running 70 watts to a ground mounted vertical antenna.
Video of the
contact with Dale KB3FEI Delaware USA.,
24 hour WSPR data scatter graphed to
establish the best contact time.
474.2
kHz WSPR
WSPR signals were detected over two 24 hour monitoring periods from VK3ELV
VK5FG and VK4YB between 9 - 12 March 2017
Call
Grid
Square
RST
Comment
VK3ELV
QF33bq
VIC, AUSTRALIA, Range
2751km. TX = 5W (37dBm)
VK5FG
PF95
SA, AUSTRALIA.
TX = 2.0W (30dBm)
VK4YB
QG62ku
QLD, AUSTRALIA, Range
3523km. TX = 5W (37dBm)
Probing
radio frequency propagation conditions on the 630 Metre Band with
WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter), WSPRnet (Weak Signal
Propagation Reporter Network ) and a PA0RDT designed active antenna.
The PA0RDT compact active wide-band receiving antenna for lower
frequency bands from 10 kHz to approximately 10+MHz.
Video.
Summary of monitoring
activity on the 630 Metre Band with WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation
Reporter), WSPRnet (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network ) and a
PA0RDT designed active antenna from 9 - 15 March 2017
437.465 MHz
The beacon of LEO satellite CubeSat
XI-IV (CO-58) was monitored
at 19:12 local time. The beacon was strong and stable with
the unmistakable Doppler shift
of the beacon signal displayed with Spectrum Lab as CubeSat XI-IV passed over
west of Australia. Spectrum Lab indicated that the signal was above
20db
above the noise floor despite not moving the S meter.
CubeSat XI-IV (CO-58)
beacon is CW at 50wpm with a power of 80mW with a Half wave
dipole
CubeSat
XI-IV passed west of Australia as predicted with
ny2o online satellite tracker. Altitude =
824.99km, Velocity (km/s) = 7.44, Elevation
= 42.4Deg,
A strong signal showing Doppler shift
of the beacon signal displayed with Spectrum Lab as CubeSat XI-IV passed
west of Australia. Note that there seems to be some instability in
the beacon when it starts it's cycle.
Radio
Activity 4 April, 2015, 20:15WST
0015UTC
1.843 MHz
Contact was achieved with Luke VK3HJ, QF22IT,
Benloch, Victoria
Luke
was operating a capacitive hat vertical antenna at 100W
29.600 MHz
FM SIMPLEX 14:15 local standard time two way contact was achieved with the
station shown in the below table. VK6YSF was operating
portable at the Bobakine Nature Reserve 10km west of Northam, Western
Australia.
Call
Name
RST
Comment
ZL2ADR
Andrew
3/8
Deep QSB, Range 5300km.
VK3ZO
Frank
5/9++
No QSB, Range 2670km.
A
number of stations had been worked earlier via the VK3RHF repeater
at Mt Olinda near Melbourne, Victoria. The first trial of the
Portable Tactical HF antenna presented a relatively high SWR at 29MHz
and therefore I kept over's brief and cut short operations. The
site appears ideal for radio portable operations being a very high
hill well above the surrounding terrain and with steep drops to the
East and West of the ridge.
Video.
Portable set up in the Bobakine Nature Reserve. Note the 'S' meter
almost fully pegged at approximately +20 for Frank VK3ZO's signal.
Ham CAP path predictor indicated
that the path was as observer between Preston, Victoria, New Zealand
and
Northam, Western Australia.
29.625 MHz 11:15 local standard time two way contact was achieved with the
station shown in the below table. All stations exhibited solid
signals. Contact was originally established with ZL2BQ
on the VK3RHF 10m repeater located in Melbourne Australia, however
we soon moved to a simples channel when the signals were notes as
being as strong on simplex as via the repeater.
Call
Name
RST
Comment
ZL2BQ
Kieth
5/9
Deep QSB, Range 5300km.
VK3ZGW
Stephen
5/9
Deep QSB, Range 2600km.
Ham CAP path predictor indicated
that the path was as observer between Geelong, Victoria, New Zealand
and
Northam, Western Australia.
Radio
Activity 13 February, 2014 17:13WST (09:13UTC)
145.860 MHz
The beacon of VUSat OSCAR-52 was monitored
at 17:13 +/-10min local time. The beacon was strong and stable with
the unmistakable Doppler shift
of the beacon signal displayed with Spectrum Lab as VUSat OSCAR-52 passed over
central Australia. Spectrum Lab indicated that the signal was approximately
10db
above the noise floor despite hardly moving the S meter.
VUSat OSCAR-52
passing over
central Australia as predicted with Orbitron. Altitude = 635.428km, Velocity (km/s) = 7.534, Elevation
= 7.1Deg, Range = 2 247.76km to Northam Western Australia.
Signal showing doppler shift
of the beacon signal displayed with Spectrum Lab as VUSat OSCAR-52 passed over
central Australia.
Radio
Activity 08 December, 2013, 22:15WST (14:15UTC)
14.190MHz
Two
way contact was achieved with Craig, VK0JJJ, Mawson
Station, Antarctica. Mac
Robertson Land. Location: 67°36' S 62°52'
Grid square - MC12kj
TIME ZONE UTC
+5:00
Amateur radio station VK0JJJ at Mawson Station consists of a Flex 5000A (SDR) transceiver, Emtron DX-2SP linear amplifier, MFJ - 986 Tuner, Heil PR-781 desk microphone & Heil Pro Set Elite headset and a Terminated sloping triangle
antenna.
Radio
Activity 29 October, 2013, 23:20WST (14:20UTC)
24.909MHz
Two
way contact was achieved with Alex, UT4ZX,
Nikolaev
,
Ukraine
.
Ham
CAP path predictor indicated that the 12m band should be open
between Nikolaev,
Ukraine
and Northam Western
Australia. The contact was achieved using computer generated CW and CW
decoding with FLDigi.
SSN
(Sun Spot Number): 171
Signal
report: 5/3
My
signal was reported: 5/7
Mode:
CW (A2A)
Equipment:
TS-930 at 100W, Radio computer interface.
21:20 local standard time two way contact was achieved with the
station shown in the below table. All stations exhibited solid
signals despite the presents of strong lightning activity. Typical distance was about 3400km
18:30 local standard time two way contact was achieved with the
station shown in the below table. All stations exhibited solid
signals with VK2ASC competing with the S7 ~ 9 noise floor. Typical distance was about 3400km with ZL2BTQ at approximately 5300km.
Contact was achieved with
Willem, ZL3CHE, Fernside, New Zealand.
Ham CAP path predictor indicated that
the path was as observer between Fernside, New
Zealand
and Northam, Western Australia however the band appeared
dead despite Ham CAP indicating that a number of of highly populated
regions should have been active. It was only after calling CQ that
Willem, ZL3CHE responded; perhaps everyone was listening and no one
calling!
3.60 MHz 19:30 local standard time two way contact was achieved with the
station shown in the below table. All stations exhibited solid
signals. Typical distance was about 3400km with ZL4RMF
at approximately 5300km.
Call
Name
RST
Comment
VK4SD
Danny
5/9+
Portable in VK2 with a full length dipole. Very
solid signal
VK3VDL
David
5/9
Good solid signal
VK4FPJP
Peter
5/7
Peter signal was down level with the noise floor,
however still an easy copy.
VK4EU
Wayne
5/9
Good signal
ZL4RMF
Ron
5/9
Potable ZL1 with a vertical and surrounded by
water.
VK2AKA
George
5/9
Called in for a radio check.
Ham CAP path predictor indicated that
while east coast contact on 80m was achievable the ZL1 path should
have been at best very marginal.
7.162 MHz
18:20 local standard time two way contact was achieved with
Jeanne KC2IOV maritime
mobile south west of Tasmania on 7.162MHz. Jeanne is making a solo
around the world attempt and reported that a cold front moving in with
winds picked up.
29.640 MHz 15:20 local standard time two way contact was achieved with
Mark VK3UA Keilor East, Victoria Australia on 29.640MHz (10m band)
via the VK3RHF repeater. Mark was accessing the repeater via the 6m
band link, This represents for me the first 10m band repeater
contact and first interstate 10m FM contact. Report
from VK3UA was that the signal received was readable quality 5
strength 5 with reasonable stability. The band was solidly open for
most of the morning and afternoon.
Ham CAP path predictor indicated
that the path was as observer between Melbourne, Victoria and
Northam, Western Australia.
145.860 MHz
The beacon of VUSat OSCAR-52 was monitored
at 19:18 +/-10min local time. The beacon was very strong and stable
decoding easily with GetCW application. The unmistakable Doppler shift
of the beacon displayed with Spectrum Lab as VUSat OSCAR-52 passed over
Western Australia. Spectrum Lab indicated that the signal was 15+db
above the noise floor despite hardly moving the S meter.
28.120
MHz
Contact was achieved with Tjakko PA1TM, Zaamstad, Netherlands.
Running a IC746 at 50Watts into a dipole
Ham CAP path predictor indicated
that the path was as observer between Zaamstad,
Netherlands. and
Northam, Western Australia. My signal was reported as 5/5
28.41 MHz 16:00 local standard time
two way contact was achieved with
Mark VK3PI Bundoora, Victoria Australia on 28.41MHz (10m band)
SSB.
Contact had been
previously achieved at 12:05WST at lower strength of 5/5 with QSB.
An initial contact was achieved at 10:00WST with a very low signal
strength recorded at 5/1 also with QSB.
Ham CAP path predictor indicated
that the path was as observer between Melbourne, Victoria and
Northam, Western Australia.
See
log
of key activities and significant contacts from my residence in Watsonia, Victoria Australia under the call VK3YSF
from 1979 - 2007. ACTIVITIES
LOG-VK3YSF
![[?IMG]](wspr_40m_20170319A_image18.gif)
