All QSOs are good. This year's QSOs are appreciated as much as last year's.
When I compared the two maps, the difference becomes clear. Both are of the same period, last year at the top, this year at the bottom...
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| 50MHz contacts at GM4FVM 1 October 2024 to 17 November 2024 |
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| 50MHz contacts at GM4FVM 1 October 2025 to 17 November 2025 |
Not much more for me to add really.
73 Jim
GM4FVM
I came across a receipt from GI3KDR (sadly SK) who sold me a new FT707 and microphone on 16 June 1980. It cost £535.90 then. John was the local agent for South Midlands Communications. He kindly knocked the price down to £520.
These were huge sums for me at the time. That would be more than three months salary for me and I had to take out a loan to afford it.
I have also been listing my Yaesu FT-710 Aess for sale second hand and it occurred to me that it is not bad value compared to what I used to spend. I thought I could compare these two fairly basic 100W HF rigs and find out how prices had changed. I would price the FT-710 without the Aess to make it more comparable with the FT-707
There has been 331.6% inflation in the intervening 45 years, according to the Bank of England inflation calculator. The full price was £535.90 so that would now be equivalent to a cost of £2312.83. The FT-710 is currently £899.00.
A rig which is a good mainstream radio for the time now costs £899.00 and not the equivalent of £2312.83 as a similar one did 45 years ago. Or, put another way, the rig I bought in 1980 cost 2.5 times more than a new basic rig might now - adjusted for present value.
I have looked up the price of the FT-707 as it appeared in the Short Wave Magazine of June 1980. This quotes a price of £466 including the mic for the FT-707. This did not include Value Added Tax at 15% - a clever way of suggesting that things were cheaper than they really were. Add 15% for the tax and you come to the price I paid. Advertising prices without the tax was later banned.
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| I found this nice photo of an FT-707 by EI5DD on the internet. |
And then, not only has the price more than halved in real terms, the radios are hardly comparable. The FT-710 is better than the FT-707 in the following ways:-
Touch screen display
Band display including (if you like that type of thing) 3D panoramic view
USB connection to PC for CAT connection
Built in sound card for data modes etc.
Digital audio processing and speech compression
Huge number of filtering options
Built in CW keyer
Dual VFOs
Better PA cooling system
Full coverage of 7MHz, plus 50MHz, 70MHz, and 5MHz
Plus loads of other things like being properly stable frequency-wise etc., etc.
The only real downside I can find is that modern rigs are not really fixable by the amateur. You used to get a circuit diagram showing discrete components ...
Faced with the choice between the ability to fix their rig themselves or buying it for less than half price I guess many of us would prefer the half price deal for a vastly better radio.
I paid £535 for my (new) FT-707 which in today's value is more than 3.5 times what I am selling the pristine (used) FT-710 for, and the FT-710 is a vastly better rig.
We live in inflationary times again - but nothing like the 15% of 1980 or 22% in 1975. Even excluding world tensions and the effect of tariffs (which thankfully do not affect amateurs in the UK much ... yet) and I hear amateurs complaining about the cost of the hobby.
Well, it used to cost far more.
73 Jim
GM4FVM
P.S. in June 1980 an RTTY terminal unit complete with keyboard was £670 (= £2891 today) and that was before you bought a radio to plug it into. An FT101ZD was £661 when you add the tax (= £2853 today) and the FT901ZD was £920 (= £3971 today) - hybrid valve era rigs with few modern features.
At last! Something to attract me back on to the radio. Over the past two days I have been able to work into southern Africa via Trans Equatorial Propagation (TEP). Great to see TEP again. I am still puzzled as to why this is possible but I am happy enough to work it.
I have had a few good contacts over the past six weeks, but mostly on 432MHz and above. 6m has seemed pretty mediocre as is often the case at this time of year. I even took some time off to visit EA6 ...
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| GM4FVM looking thoughtful but thirsty in Cala En Bosc (JM19) in Menorca |
Although tropo conditions looked very good, I did not take a radio to Menorca. At one time I took a radio wherever I went, but these days I have too much other stuff to carry.
Anyway, after returning to IO85, on 20 September at 18:56 I worked ZS6OB and ZS6NK. On 21 September at 17:27 I contacted V51WW, having missed him the previous day at around the same time.
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| 50MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 20 and 21 September 2025 |
The best DX was to ZS6OB in KG44 at 9513km and even V51WW is 8505km from here.
Now, these contacts are not unusual. Between them, I have worked these three stations 12 times. All of these contacts were after April 2023. Before that I had become accustomed to watching other stations working TEP which never came far enough north for me to reach it. Particularly galling was reading reports of stations elsewhere in the United Kingdom working into southern Africa, the Indian Ocean and South America when nothing had been heard here from those areas.
I have mentioned all this ad nauseam on this site (search this blog for TEP is you don't believe me) but I feel obliged to go at it at great length again today.
So - first part to the puzzle, is the appearance of TEP here since 2023 due to the proximity of the solar maximum? Will TEP disappear again as solar conditions worsen? Or, another possibility, is the fact that more stations are looking for DX on 50MHz simply making this possible? Does gathering together on a single FT8 frequency make a difference?
My ARRL Handbook states that TEP "supports propagation between 5000 and 8000km", but these contacts are further than that. It also states that "stations attempting TE contacts must be nearly equidistant from the geomagnetic equator", providing a handy chart which shows a northern limit of TEP passing through southern England. I am about 600km north of this Northern Limit of TEP.
So the second puzzle is how this happens this far north. The simple answer is "Sporadic E linking into TEP", which would extend the range by one Es hop. One would guess that if there was any Es around I would hear stations within one hop as well as the TEP stations. However, on neither date did I hear any other stations on Es. Maybe the one hop took me to the middle of the Mediterranean Sea where there might not be any stations (though the paths seem to pass near to 9H1 and EA6 after passing over most of Europe). Nor did any stations in those areas seem to be working TEP at the same time. So some other explanation is needed here.
I suspect, with no particular empirical evidence, that the explanation for this is that these were indeed Es linking to TEP paths. However, the link may have occurred at a height above ground level which prevented local stations being involved near the link site. While others call anything occurring above ground level "chordal hop", that is a term I would not apply here. I suspect a good many multi-hop Es contacts involve a path which does not come down to ground level, and TEP may do the same. If you look at the diagrams in books you often find a plot of ionospheric propagation which is not refracted to ground level as ionisation at the time is not strong enough. Also, minor variations in Es layer could result in a refracted signal not reaching ground level. These effects could happen on both the Es and the TEP parts of the path, meaning that no station on the ground below the link would hear the signals.
The third puzzle is the time of year and time of day when I could expect to hear TEP. TEP is reported to be "equinoctal". Whilst the solar Autumnal Equinox is on 21 September and the Vernal one is on 21 March (give or take a day or two for leap years etc), it is the geomagnetic equinox which matters here. This varies with the position on the geomagnetic equator but should still be at the same date each year for any particular path. My other contacts with these stations range for the ZS stations from April, June, September (2), October (2) and November (2). For V51WW the dates are one each in June, July, August and September. These dates do not seem to fit easily int0 the idea of a group around the geomagnetic equinox at any point. My ARRL Handbook states 5 to 10pm, though there is a well known early afternoon peak too. For these stations my contacts are at the following hours of 11 (2), 12 (2), 14, 15 (2), 17 (3) and 18 (2).
Into this well mixed data group goes the further variable of Es linking. If there is Es linking then there has to be Es around at the time. For the recent contacts no Es was observed at the time. A popular band conditions site showed "6m Es - Band Closed". September is a very poor months for Es at GM4FVM.
Basically the text books say that we get Es in the Summer, and TEP in the Spring and Autumn, making linking of the two a bit improbable. Nevertheless, I have the QSOs in the log to show it seems to be happening.
Thus to explain what I see I suspect a combination of weak Es and weak TEP linking well above ground level at some point along the path, possibly over southern Europe. Ironically, if either Es or TEP had been stronger it might never have happened and stations within the "Northern Limit of TEP" would have had a chance instead while I would have had a good path into Italy.
Well, that is what I think. As for definitive evidence of this - I only have the contacts in my log to suggest it. Nevertheless it has happened 12 times so far and I am happy to accept the QSOs.
I look forward to more of this over the coming months, but we just do not know for sure. What about some to South America.
73 Jim
GM4FVM
My last amateur radio contact was on 3 September, over a week ago. Even then, I have not been really active since 28 August, two weeks ago.
I am not one of those who relentlessly calls CQ on a flat band. I do not weigh my contacts as a measure of success, I view each one as worthy in itself. If I isn't worthy of a QSO then I just remain silent. If people call me then I reply, otherwise I often listen. Lately there has not been much to hear.
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| 50MHz seen on DX Maps at GM4FVM on 11 September 2025 |
Perhaps at times I have been busy with other things, I have not been paying attention or just lazy. But for a lot of the time the VHF DX landscape has been looking like the map above. Nothing of note. At the time all five bands I monitor looked totally blank - 6m, 4m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm. No Es, no TEP, no tropo, no aurora, no ... signals.
Life cannot be a constant VHF opening. Sure I ramble on here about great contacts made, but I only see the ups because I have sat through the downs. If propagation was constant there would be very little to interest me about amateur radio.
So I do not complain. I just note that nothing much is happening. I hope for things to improve.
Last year was much the same in September, but then things improved dramatically. Do I expect that same thing to happen this year? No. Another joy of VHF/UHF propagation is that it almost never repeats itself. Something will be different. Sure if you plot a graph over a year, or a decade, you can see patterns. But does this allow me to predict today or tomorrow? Not a chance.
Frankly I would not want it any other way. Good times come and good times go. You don't miss what you have got till it is gone. Hopefully it will be back soon.
73 Jim
GM4FVM
The result: 590km QSO on 23 cms.
The recipe: IC-9700, 150W, 28el yagi with 1.5m boom, Airscout.
Once again, when I started on 1296MHz I would never have believed this was possible. A 590km microwave contact on a flat band with an antenna just 1.5m long? No chance. And before I started on 1296MHz I doubted if I would work anyone, even in my own square. On 21 August I worked a new one four squares down and three across.
I am pretty sure that this is my longest aircraft scatter contact on 23cm. Sure, I can get further during tropo lifts, but conditions were normal that day. To make things harder, my normal 36 element 3-metre boom antenna has been dismantled while I deal with corrosion damage. So I had gone back to the 28 element WIMO given to me by Neil G4DBN - my first ever 23cm antenna.
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| The WIMO 28 element antenna between 70cm and 4m yagis at GM4FVM |
Click to enlarge images if necessary.
Frankly, I was not confident about reverting to the WIMO antenna. The antenna has 20 elements along the boom and eight at right-angles to the boom as a reflector. It works OK, but being half the boom length of the 36 element brings a 2dB reduction in gain, despite the reflector. However, in the 23cm UKAC on 19 August I worked six stations and that restored my faith in it to some extent.
At 11:17 on 19 August I saw EI3KD calling on 70cm FT8. My beams were still pointing in that direction as I had earlier worked EI4ACB. EI3KD and I then worked on 70cm. Mark sent a message on Tx5 that he was going to 23cm. I followed up to 23cm and I could see strong traces of Mark's signal via aircraft scatter but the Doppler shift was too strong to decode the signal on FT8. I contacted Mark via KST Chat and said that I would like to try Q65 but at that stage I did not have the time to try. I did say though that I would like to try when we had time.
And so it was on 21 August that I saw Mark again on the Microwave section of KST Chat and I asked him if we could try Q65. I think I blundered slightly by suggesting Q65-30C as the whole thing might have gone better on a 15 second period. Anyway, off we went and within 30 seconds of calling EI3KD I decoded Mark calling me.
I was pretty sure that we could complete because of the path as shown on Airscout. There are plenty of planes passing over the Irish Sea along the path of our contact. The problem is that not many are at the right point along the path, shown by the short pink section in Airscout.
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| Screenshot of Airscout along the GM4FVM/EI3KD path on 24 August 2025 |
Only the mid section of the path west of the Isle on Man can be useful for reflections. On the screenshot above (taken today) I can easily see that 19 planes have just crossed or will cross the path, but only one is heading for the pink section and likely to provide us with the reflections we need. So this might take some time and need a few planes.
As Aircraft Scatter paths get longer, the pink part of the path gets shorter, plus other obstructions such as hills get in the way.
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| Screenshot of Airscout along the GM4FVM/EI3KD path on 24 August 2025 |
Another problem is going to be Doppler shift created by the movement of the aircraft across the signal path. Doppler effects rise as the frequency goes up. Quite a few 2m and 70cm contacts on FT8 are put down to Tropo propagation when in fact they are assisted by aircraft scatter. However, the Doppler is often too strong to allow FT8 to work at 23cm. Q65 is ideal in these circumstances as it compensates well for Doppler. I did increase "Max Drift"to 30. Exactly what the "Max Drift" setting does I have no idea as the WSJT-X Guide has not yet been updated to cover it. Suffice to say that in a previous aircraft scatter test it seemed to help so I increased it again this time.
Net result of all this - only a few planes at the right height would complete the contact and Q65 will need to cope with the Doppler.
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| Long pause after the first decode |
Airscout produced hope with small planes and possibles which altered course. Lots of hope but no results. But then, after 19 minutes two planes in opposite directions were due to pass over the right area almost together. Result:-
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| Aircraft scatter QSO complete - even to the 73s. |
The best decode at my end was -13dB which did look rather faint and Doppler shifted. The 73 afterwards was very difficult to see, but Q65 decoded it OK:-
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| Final decodes in Q65 |
So although nearly 600km is almost right at the end of the radius of aircraft scatter QSOs, it did prove practical even with a less than brilliant set-up. I now have 41 squares worked on 23cm. Who would have thought it?
Even if you find all this daunting I would still urge anyone to try 23cm aircraft scatter. There are lots of IC-9700s out there which, like mine initially, have never strayed on to 23cm DX. All you need is a decent antenna and coax. Or, in my case, a simple antenna and some coax I used to use on 432MHz. It is perfectly possible to make good aircraft scatter SSB QSOs during the contests using simple equipment. At other times many QSOs are arranged using KST microwave chat. Airscout helps, but you can just rely on the DX stations to tell you when a plane is approaching the path. Let them use Airscout!
Nothing here implies any greatness from GM4FVM or his equipment, which was largely donated by others. GM4JJJ (sadly SK), G4DBN, and G8SFA each helped me no end. Most local amateurs will help if you ask.
There is still more for me to do on 23cm. It is not the weird place I used to think it was.
Perhaps later I will explain a bit more about Airscout.
73 Jim
GM4FVM
A fellow ham was having problems with the audio stream on data modes after he switched to a new Windows 11 laptop. It emerged eventually that a box marked "Enable audio enhancements" was checked and this was altering (mostly reducing) his audio level. He uses WSJT-X but I expect that the same thing would apply to MSHV and all the rest of digital radio software.
This was in Windows 11 but it may apply to earlier versions of Windows too.
In the end what we needed to do was untick the box, but finding it was a long operation.
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| Untick this box in the Advanced section of the Microphone Properties tab |
What are Audio Enhancements?
Audio enhancements depend on the hardware installed or connected to your PC. Therefore, on my basic gaming computers and laptop they were absent. I found this on a Windows help site :-
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Audio enhancement packages are designed to enhance your specific audio hardware performance and quality.
Available audio enhancements will vary depending on the manufacturer.
Sometimes these audio enhancements can cause problems with audio and sound. If you encounter an audio or sound problem, you can try disabling audio enhancements to see if it may solve the problem.
==================================
So the basic answer is that these enhancements could be anything, and they could alter the audio between your rig and your WSJT-X software in any way you can think of, and probably in some ways you cannot imagine.
The solution is to find the rig's entry in the Microphone Properties tab and turn them off.
The problem here was variable and often very low level audio stream. Solving it turned out to be tricky as I had no idea what I was looking for. My laptop does not have this box so I was at a loss. I took my IC-7300 and my laptop over and compared it with the other setup. His rig worked perfectly with my computer, my rig worked perfectly with his old computer, my rig showed the same problem as his with his new computer. Clearly the problem was in his laptop.
After a lot of pondering, we went through the Sound settings (you find them in Control Panel). Mysteriously, Windows calls the audio input section "Recording" so click that (the output is called "Playback"). Then you click the tab for your rig input, probably "Audio Codec" or "Audio Device". Microphone Properties appears and you click "Advanced".
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| Untick the "Enable audio enhancements" box |
If you are wondering why my example says "Headset Properties" at the top, I just used this illustration to show where the culprit lies. My PCs do not normally show this box and therefore I was totally unaware of its existence. However, I found that by linking my JBL headset, which has a microphone, to the computer via Bluetooth, I could make the box appear. That is why the audio stream is only tape recorder quality; for radio purposes I use DVD quality at 48000 Hz.
So if your existing PC does not have this box you can ignore all this completely. But if you buy a new machine or something is updated or added, you might find that it suddenly appears. And your audio stream level could suddenly take a huge dive.
In any case, I do not like pre-ticked boxes in any circumstances. Windows updates have a habit of including new pre-ticked boxes for features I never requested and don't want. This is just another one.
If a pre-ticked box suddenly signs me up to a credit agreement I never asked for I could probably live with the annoyance. But when pre-ticked boxes affect the audio stream for FT8, well that is just outrageous.
This should be made illegal and the perpetrators locked up.
Or something.
73 Jim
GM4FVM
What, is it over? Well, no, but I have been thinking about what to do when it is. The answer appears to be that I should "do more of the things that I like doing". Such as ... working a ton of stuff on 432MHz.
I suspect that an HF operator might go lower in frequency bands, and I will probably go higher. No great breakthrough involved in that idea, but it would involve readjusting the direction of my efforts and maybe some equipment.
For a couple of weeks I have been dithering about what to do when (if?) the intercontinental DX fades away. Should I switch my emphasis away from 6m and 4m? To what ends? Go back to more EME (moonbounce)? What result am I striving for? What will I end up enjoying most?
And then, without bidding, up popped a tropo opening on 70cm. Wow! I was aware of a high pressure system approaching, but it did not look as if the timing was right for the two 70cm contests in August. The first contest is the RSGB UKAC on 12 August using SSB and CW and I do not often participate in that one. Usually I turn my beam East on the same evening and give away points in the Nordic contest going on at the same time. I usually do quite well across the North Sea, and I work a few stations quite easily. The second contest on 13 August is the 70cm FT8 UKAC.
On 12 August I managed to work PA3CWS at 08:36 but nothing further until DK6JU at 16:02 and DR0X at 17:25. DR0X was a huge signal calling CQ for quite a time but he got very few contacts, which indicated a duct forming over the North Sea. Once the contest started could only I allocate it about 45 minutes due to domestic duties. Between 19:15 and 19:57 I contacted 4 x PA, 4 x OZ and GM8JBJ. Total for the day was 12, not bad for a 70cm operating session.
13 August dawned bright with haze over the North Sea. The air was still and with high pressure it all looked great. Sadly I was to be out of the house for most of the day. Between 06:26 and 08:48 I worked 6 x PA, 4 x DL plus OZ1DGN, F5APQ and G4RQI - a good two hour spell. I was then QRT until 17:56. After that I was busy and could just look in for five minutes at a time. In a series of five separate five minutes spells, 6 x PA, 3 x GM, 5 x OZ, plus DL5EBS, EI3KD and LA6P
This contest work plus a few worked later produced this result:-
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| 432MHz contacts at GM4FVM on 12 and 13 August 2025 |
Total operating time was probably around 4 hours but this is hard to judge given that I was in and out of the shack. It brought a total of 38 QSOs in 8 DXCC including 16 squares. Best DX was to DG0KW in JO64 at 978km, there were nine QSOs over 700km, and nearly all the rest were between 600 and 700km.
After this I went on to 50MHz and worked PY5EW in GG46 at 9940km.
Now this made things very plain to me. I was much happier reaching 38 stations on 70cm than I was working the the far more distant one on 6m. Whether this PY contact will be possible outside this sunspot peak I am not sure because I worked PYs at the bottom of the cycle too (but not that far away). But if 6m DX declines I can still enjoy a blast on 70cm.
I also get some pleasure by doing things like this without a kilowatt linear and a vast stacked array of antennas. Just 150W and 16 elements - modest by 70cm standards.
Everybody will have their own place to go when the DX declines. Top band? Construction projects? Building ships in bottles? Anyway, for me, a good blast on the higher bands when conditions are good is hard to beat.
Conclusion: do what you enjoy and don't fret over what the sunspot cycle has given and then taken away.
I will now reflect on the fact that outside a contest I often struggle to work anyone on 70cm. Lack of activity is a big problem, and also the narrow antenna beamwidths can make life difficult. But being very busy during a contest brings its own joy so I think I will migrate back up the spectrum when there are poorer harvests on the lower bands.
73 Jim
GM4FVM
