As part of a challenge for 2024, I've decided to see how many QRSS signals I could capture on the 28 MHz band during the year. On the 8th of May, I got a screengrab of the QRSS signal 'HK' which was sent by the IW0HK/B beacon near Rome in Italy.

Usually, nearly all of the QRSS signals on the 10m band are on 28.1246 MHz and the audio of the signals is about 400-500Hz below the WSPR signals. In this case, the IW0HK beacon was on 28.322 MHz.

In the image above, the fuzzy part of the signal is when it was sending the callsign and locator of the beacon in normal morse code. The QRSS 'HK' part is sent after this.

The beacon runs 1-watt into a vertical five-eight wave antenna.

The map above shows the path and the distance was about 1800kms. The signal was almost certainly via Sporadic-E and it's pretty much the ideal distance for that mode of propagation.

In summary... That brings the QRSS tally so far for 2024 up to 20-callsigns & 10 DXCC.

I just put up a Fritzel MFB-13, it was generously donated to me by PD9RD. The MFB-13 is a folded back rotary dipole for 10m/15m/20m. The width is only around 2 x 2.1 meters (so total length around 4.2 meters). It’s got a “double” (10m/15m) trap in both elements, while the element length is not even a quarter wave for 10m it’s a compromise on all bands but I’m hoping the directional effect and the height will compensate for that.

The SWR is very acceptable on all bands. Lowest SWR is a bit low on 10m and 15m but way below better than 1:1.5 on the entire band. I’ve tuned the end rods for 20m to have the lowest SWR in the middle of the band and despite of the two traps acting as loading coild on 20m the SWR is better than 1:2 on the entire band and seems to work fine on 14 MHz as well.

I haven’t put it on a rotator yet, it’s now pointing in NE / SW direction and I’ve let WSPR with 1W band hopping 20/15/10 since yesterday afternoon and, results are not bad at all:

Maybe this afternoon I will turn it in N/S direction to see if the picture looks very different.

73 Pleun

 10m remains very active, this is todays activity at 2 different times.

Around 10:30z:

Around 13:55z:

Further details about FT8CN see my Blog https://g1kqh.blogspot.com/2023/02/ft8cn-new-free-android-app.html