QRSS shows 30m propagation conditions
After reading about Julian’s QRSS activities I decided to put my 30m QRSS beacon back on the air which has had a break for a few months. This morning I checked W4HBK’s grabber and was pleased to see my signal getting into Pensacola, FL (see 10140020Hz in the image above). I then checked his 4 hour scan and saw something interesting, but not too surprising.
The scan clearly shows my 160mW signal stopped reaching Pensacola, from Ontario, at around 00:40am local time (0540 UTC) and then was received again at just before 5am (1000UTC). The closing down of the band in the early hours of the morning is to be expected, but it is nice to see the time and duration of the closing so clearly illustrated.
A few hours later I checked again and the 4 hour scan revealed other QRSS signals joining mine about 2 hours after mine had appeared on W4HBK’s grabber.
The 10 minute grabber screenshot below shows the number of signals being received by W4HBK and how popular QRSS has become, after the release of kits by Hans Summers, G0UPL, and Genesis Radio.
Comparing that to reception in Nova Scotia recorded by Vernon’s, VE1VDM, grabber it can be seen that not all the signals were visible. My trace was clear, but my QRSS station is perhaps the closest to Vernon’s station.
This nicely shows how milliwatt QRSS signals reveal propagation conditions. I was also pleased to see how stable my homebrew QRSS transmitter still is (remember the frequency shift in the keying of my signal is about 6Hz). To help reduce/eliminate thermal drift I have the oscillator surrounded by pieces of polystyrene packing.