17m WSPR 6,7,8 Dec & new one 10m WSPR

Since T5/T61AA was active on 17m last week I decided to find my luck there. Have been WSPRing 3 days but still no spot from T5. It's a hard DXCC nut to crack! Spotted by 31 unique calls from 16 DXCC. Best distance was ZL3DMH 18502km.

Here a map:

The activity brought me 6 new band DXCC on 17m. Not bad at all. But no new DXCC. So this morning I was on 17m again and did read Roger's G3XBM blog about his spot in the Carribian on 10m. A quick look at my list told me FG5LA Guadeloupe was not yet in my list. So I went back to 10m and turned the beam to the west. Unfortenately FG5LA was already gone, no DXCC nr. 76. 

I decided to listen for DX on 10,11 and 12m SSB my all time favorite bands.
Heard a lot of 10m DX including some massive pile-ups. On 11m I had a lot of QRM probabely from PLC homeplug systems in the neigbourhood. But DX was most interesting to hear there including some Pacific and Asia. On 12m I heard EX2V from Kyrghyztan calling without replies so I made a short QSO with him, a new one on 12m. Then I heard ZD7FT Peter from St. Helena. I worked him first call, ZD7FT has now been worked on 17m and 12m.

I had to get Anneli from school then and did put the radio on WSPR 10m hoping for some spot from FG5LA. Happy I was to see a spot at 14:26 UTC, DXCC 76 all band with WSPR 1W. Later I read PC4T Paul has been spotted by him as well.

What's inside a old GPA 27 1/2

I recently discussed some antennas with Hans PE1BVQ. Hans is looking for something he can
use for 21-30 MHz with a antennatuner that can be placed vertically and is doing better as his sloping 3 band endfed. We came across a "original" GPA 27 1/2 that was sold on the internet for a reasonable price. This kind of antenna was the most sold antenna early eighties of last century when CB became legal here. I think the original was made by several compagnies, all looking almost the same. I name HMP and Hygain from what I remember...

Of course we know this antenna now as the populair endfed. A half wave antenne fed with the use of a transformer. For my endfed test back in 2012 I disassembled the transformer and kept it for further investigation. I'm still curious why it is designed like that and on the internet the only thing I could find is that it is a wideband way of adjustment. The transformer wire is insulated and the core is about 0,8mm2 twisted copper wire wind on a 30mm long plastic coil holder with a diameter of 32mm. There are 2 1/4 windings from "earth" to "center" of the PL plug and 7 3/4 windings from "center" PL plug to radiator.

I have no idea what else I could tell about this. I do know a little how they build a endfed and there are several ways to get a 50 Ohm match. But you don't find this type of simple matching often. Though it was commonly used in the old GPAs. Probabely one of my readers with more technical knowledge can tell why this kind of matching transformer was used? How do you get to the amount of windings or is that just a matter of trying? Don't think so as this type of antenna was produced by hundreds! 

10m WSPR 2,4,5 Dec. What are you doing with the spots?

Event: WSPR 10m amateurradio band
Logger: WSPR 2 - R1714
Station: Yaesu FT-817ND, 1W
Antenna: HB9CV pointing south. 
Log converter: DL1HW Adif2Excel2Adif converter, UU0JC logconverter
Log analyzer: HRD V4

Looking back into posts from last year I noticed 1 of my goals for this year was to do some more in WSPR. So I really need to get to it again. PC4T was or has spotted TY/DF8UO recently on 10m. A DXCC I do not have in my list. Besides that I'm still hunting for a spot from T5/T61AA. I ran WSPR at 2,4 and 5 December with my HB9CV pointing south. Both stations I wished for were not active these days and so no new DXCC for my list, still at 75 DXCC. However I did get spots from 6 new band DXCC bringing my 10m total at 49.

TX: 70 unique spots from 24 DXCC

RX: 98 unique spots from 28 DXCC

I was not spotted by 28 stations I received, although this is not exact, there are stations that did copy me and I didn't copy their signal. Still finding people that are using excessive power. 10W on WSPR really is too much! Strange I received some Japanese but they didn't receive me? Checking their power, but they used 1W also. Then I realized the HB9CV was pointing south...

I see a lot of people using WSPR. If you do so and read this, what are you doing with the spotting information?

I know for instance Roger G3XBM is blogging about the results and keeps track on the first and last spot and other interesting things. Bert PA1B is not WSPRing himself too much but analyzes the information for others, he can tell exactly how much power you needed to be actually still heard by a station that logged you.
I use the info to collect all band DXCC with max. power of 1W, similair to the DX hobby. I'm very curious about others? Or are you just looking at the results everyday and then find it amazing that your 5W QRO signal has made it across the pond? Let me know...