Makers eXperimenters and Operators: 2021

Tuesday, 14 December 2021

2 meters MSK144 (trail and error!) not quite meteor scatter !

Decided to see what all the fuss was about Meteor Shower and MSK144 data mode. I installed WSTJ-X software with the ic9700 set it to work msk144

It started out nothing heard and not moving from there.....

I then got a bit excited and heard a couple of stations, tried to go back and got nothing...

I checked in on psk reporter and was being heard by a few stations in the UK and a couple in France!

***Time to take heed and learn from a local hams friendly email**

Firstly on 40 Watts and an x-50 (white stick) omni...you are not going to work meteor scatter!

you are not going to hear meteor scatter (mostly tropo ducting or airplane scatter if you are lucky)

Next and most importantly, the setting in wstj-x must be set correctly:

In the UK we TX last (leave TX even / first un ticked)

F tol set to 100

RS 1500Hz

Report 0

T/R 30 s (by default this is set to 15 and will break things and upset people!)

Some very top tips from Peter G4URT

1/ Log onto the ON4KST site. This is a free reflector with most of the stations on. You can see who is calling etc and arrange skeds: http://www.on4kst.com/chat/start.php

2/ YouTube is your friend! When I first started there wasn't a great deal of info available - now there is stacks load.

I suggest having a look at the following :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8coTrJOJQE (MS for beginners by Lynn GW8JLY)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBTi2nzYOw0 (RSGB Tonight@8)

3/ Get yourself a beam!

Then my hopes were shattered (I joke I kid!)

*from Peter*

Now I realise why you called me. I suppose you weren't hearing a huge amount of stns on vertical!

(he is) Running 400w to 4 * 9 OWLs with 25db LNAs - I can hear a mouse fart sometimes...

France would have been tropo or Aircraft scatter - and living in Staines?????. Due to the mechanics of MS anything under 500km will normally be tropo. Anything over 2000km either tropo or SpE. However, these are rules of thumb....

So there we go I need to beg borrow or buy a 2 meter beam and use my 200 watt amplifier and see if I can achieve some results. Hopefully more soon

James//

M6FLT charming the stove #CoffeeTime pic.twitter.com/LjhLR4FvWM
— James Preece (M0JFP) (@m0jfp) September 18, 2021

N2TM on the #ic7300 It's proper DX too pic.twitter.com/YCgLdv5beN
— James Preece (M0JFP) (@m0jfp) September 18, 2021

Brazil on 20 meters #mx0mxo pic.twitter.com/ezeMf32im1
— James Preece (M0JFP) (@m0jfp) September 25, 2021

Bob working into Maine USA on 20 #mx0mxo pic.twitter.com/7V6vjO8PUy
— James Preece (M0JFP) (@m0jfp) September 25, 2021

KC9RF on 20 meters #mx0mxo pic.twitter.com/830JGHGxl5
— James Preece (M0JFP) (@m0jfp) September 25, 2021

@ARISS_status a few qso tonight via ISS #mx0mxo pic.twitter.com/r1pAee8v1B
— James Preece (M0JFP) (@m0jfp) September 25, 2021

Great to work you too #mx0mxo portable in Laleham Park just outside Heathrow pic.twitter.com/YYehGHcU5V
— James Preece (M0JFP) (@m0jfp) September 26, 2021