VarAC QSOs & digging up the VCXO AXE WSPR transmitter

 Sorry I'm not posting much lately. I have to admit that most of my available time is spend on practising CW. Am I making progress? Yes, but that is for another post ;-).

I'm spending quite a lot of time in VarAC digimode chat software these days. Some days it is hard to make an actual QSO. Some stations are using it just like they would make their QSOs, in other words: give name, location and report and end with 73 that's it. I prefer real QSOs however. And luckely there are stations that you can chat for shure. Sometimes it is getting really interesting. Sometimes you cannot finish the QSO because the signal is suddenly gone. But overall the software is able to pick out very tiny signals. I even worked someone from NY who used a MLA in his appartment with only 9W.

Yesterday I made a 20m VarAC contact with KM4UDX Don who was using only 20W. Unfortunately not from his FrankenRadio which is really a piece of art. Have you ever see such a cool radio? Don uses a lot of AliExpress gadgets to build his stuff. I hope he doesn't mind I publish his picture here. The FrankenRadio was currently in the hospital for surgery ;-(.

Viewing the voltmeters it reminded me of my VCXO AXE WSPR transmitter which also features an AliExpress voltmeter. Nothing wrong with those by the way. But I showed Don the picture and then I realized I didn't use it for a long time...  I recently replaced the battery of the Gymboss timer and cleaned the timer as wel because it got very sticky because of aging.

So I gave it a try yesterday evening assuming everything was still programmed like it was years ago. Unfortunately I didn't get much reports...

But at least the spots I got were real DX. I let the thing go for the entire night but only 8 spots were made. Something was obviously wrong? And yes it was, the Gymboss timer was totally out of program. It transmitted 1 minute (!) WSPR in 3 minute intervals. No wonder it went wrong. But even so it is remarkable these spots were made anyway...

So, I'm going to give it a try again. With 2 minute transmissions like it should be and an interval of 12 minutes. 99 x 12 minutes will make a cycle of 1188 minutes / 60 = 19,8 hours. I'll use my portable battery as power supply, so when it dies it will be over. Don't know exacly how long it is able to hold it.

The equipent VCXO AXE WSPR transmitter built in 2015. Output 1W, or 990mW like it shows above. It is on 30m WSPR tonight using my doublet inverted-V  experimental halo. Will try to report tomorrow if everything went well. A storm is approaching and can have some effect on the whole experiment, makes it fun anyway.

Update: 21:00 UTC still no spots. I now realize the (new) antennaswitch is not working without power supply. Stupid me. I will have to switch on the shack power supply. 

Update: 21:50 UTC the halo has good SWR on 30m but seems not be radiating as expected. It does not receive anything either. I can't use the inverted-V since the tower is retracted. I now try the magnetic loop inside the shack. If this doesn't work I will have to experiment another day.

Update: 21:58 UTC first spot from PD0OHW, he is 39km from my QTH. Not bad for a MLA inside the house and only 1W output. Hopefully there will be some more spots later.