8M ISM - Second test site 12.8 miles distance

As I knew I was off to the radio rally and the high spot I wanted to visit near Sunderland was on the way back home I turned on the 10mW 40MHz ISM IR2030 WSPR beacon to carry out the test later on.

The location is approximately 12.8miles (20.59kms) away as the crow flies the area is a pretty clear with fields and a few farms. It is slightly elevated (140m ASL) but I wasn't at the highest point (150m ASL) due to no places to really park off the main road. 

2nd test site

The map below shows "heywhatthat" profiler layered onto the map and the red areas show what I can see from this spot. The smallier circle at the top of the picture is my QTH about 60metres ASL where I'm using 10mW from the FT-817 and homebrew halo in the loft. The larger circle at the bottom is the remote site at 140metres ASL.

Heywhatsthat profile layered onto map

Google Earth elevation profile

Once I parked up and set the radio equipment up, the first antenna I tried was the 1/4wave antenna with magmount in the centre of the roof as I know this worked before. I still haven't tuned this excatly for 40.680Mhz as I forgot but it's close enough!

1/4wave whip

Waiting and waiting I didn't receive anything at first so called up my son to double check the software on the Raspberry pi was running right, just as my son was going to do a reboot on the Pi I received a decode so I told him to leave the Pi. Now I knew the WSPR beacon was working I sat and waited until I got three reports with the vertical whip.

I was suprised and pleased I could decode the 10mW beacon this far away but looking at the reports I was on the limit of range possible with this sort of power (-26dB). The first decode I put the wrong locator in so the decode at 1238 is still from the same site at IO94GU. With the vertical I could not hear the WSPR tones as at this decode level but thats to be expected.

 

Four spots with 1/4wave vertical

 

After I collected these spots I changed the antenna for the summertime loop. At the rally I picked up a SO-239 magmount and this really came in handy for mounting the loop ontop of the car to keep the antenna fixed without interaction from me holding it. At first the loop ends where slightly off North and South so was off the direction of my QTH. 

Loop mounted ontop of car

To be honest I was expecting the same reports due to the distance, power level at the transmitter and the size of the loop but I was blown away when I got the first report! It made me think is the loop facing the correct way so I done a check on the map and adjusted the loop so was more towards my location. Well that improved the 2nd and 3rd decodes (-12dB to -10dB). A this level I could make out the WSPR tones so a weak CW QSO is possible!

 

Decodes with the loop N-S

As usual the battery icon on the laptop popped up but I wanted to grab just one or two more decodes with the loop ends facing East and West. So I quickly orientated the other way!

The results were still postive with two decodes before the laptop battery gave up! These two reports showed abit of difference (-14dB and -18dB) I did notice as vehicles were driving passed quickly an increase of audible tone on the first decode in this orientation but the second decode there was no vehicle traffic.

Loop ends East and West

 

I've tried to upload a video clip of one decode with the loop onto the blog but exceeded the allowed size so here is picture of the views towards my location.

My QTH is roughtly in the centre of the picture

 

Conclusion is that with this power level and good conditions it may be possible to work further down the UK or even better into Europe. We really need to have a UK amateur allocation, I would say by NOV only to allow for beacons and amateurs who want to conduct tests with power levels of anything upto 25watts.  

If I can find another high spot further away I may give this a try as I still think I can beat my record of 12.8miles with 10mW's : )