Whats a sprog?
A birdie, an internally generated signal.
I added a switch to mine so that I could double the clock speed when fully lucky!
Also used as slang for someones children. But no doubt you can see the etymological similarity.
Jim
I too am impressed with the WSJT-X software and have been trialing JT9 with the home station set up. I will download it to the netbook when I get a chance to see how it performs.The downside is the reduced bandwidth in view compared to JT65HF, but if you are primarily calling CQ rather than going S&P that is of no consequence.
As you seem to have the monopoly on bad weather up in Scotland at the moment, I wonât be including data in next weekâs activations in GM/SS. It will probably be hard enough keeping everything dry.
Iâve done a sufficient number of activations over the years to know that you donât try something new and involved on a summit till you have the bugs worked out at home. Hence playing with the software on to two computers connected back to back. Then tests involving radiios. Then tests from the garden. Then from a summit!
It looks that my incredibly rubbish 7in Win8 tablet will do for this. I bought it a while back for ÂŁ49 merely to play. TBH itâs almost unusable as Win8 is not touch-driven enough and the display in Win desktop mode is too small to read. But cheap tablet finger dibber it will work, certainly useless with gloves or my big garden spade sized hands. Itâs a 1.3GHz Atom Z3735 with 1G ram and 16G flash. I tried to grab a free Win10 update but thereâs not enough flash. Persevering with Win8 is worthwhile as it looks to be OK for just one or two apps like this. The tablet is small and lightweight which is ideal for SOTA.
The WX is not good right now but weâve had it easy. The North and West had the bad stuff, here itâs been blustery and very,very wet. Next Tuesday is looking good for WX but with the rain we have had and what is still to come, expect all rivers to be high and well in spate. Ground is likely to be very waterlogged too.
Mrs. FMF is in the kitchen preparing some wonderful smelling Christmas nosh, Iâve opened a bottle of Bowmore 9yr old special Sherry finished malt (peat & sweetâŚyum!). Sheâs listening to the annual âCarols from Kingsâ on Radio4 and I was watching some Status Quo videos on Youtube with a slight tear in my eye for Rick Parfitt who died earlier today. Meanwhile the wind is gusting and the rain is falling.
Bring your waders when you come up!
Yes, the summits have been chosen accordingly, with a nice track section to start us off. Hopefully back in February for some more âpunishmentâ, so others in that area are already planned.
You certainly know how to up the angst⌠I will have to open my 12 year old Glenfiddich to retaliate, but Iâd rather have what you are having. 
[quote=âMM0FMF, post:86, topic:14294â]
âŚwatching some Status Quo videos on Youtube with a slight tear in my eye for Rick Parfitt who died earlier today.
[/quote]
Yes, thatâs very sad. R.I.P. Rick - you will be missed.
Grrr! And Iâm still on antibiotics! To make it worse, I know that there is at least one bottle with my name on it sitting under the tree! Iâm taking my mind off it by burrowing inside my TS-520S trying to find out why it has lost drive to the PA.
Brian
Howâs that Gerald? Iâve got WSJT-X running right now with the full BW of my cheap-and-cheerful USB souncard in view. Just drag the spectrum window as wide as you like and adjust the Bins/Pixel value if thatâs not enough to see it all.
This is correct. Using the adjustments outlined by Simon, I have set my spectrum/waterfall window to display a bandwidth of 300 Hz to 2600 Hz above the base frequency ⌠pretty much the whole USB passband of my receiver.
By the way, there is a much improved âunofficialâ version of WSJT-X available now. It is called JTDX, and it is capable of decoding signals some 6 dB weaker than the lower limit of the standard WSJT-X. It is also able to decode up to three separate signals on exactly the same frequency (for example 3 simultaneous replies to your CQ call). The built-in digital filtering is phenomenal.
You can read about the features of the JTDX program on the QRZ.com page of UA3DJY. The software and documentation can be downloaded from:
The current version is 17.3.2 and there seem to be frequent updates. It does need a reasonably fast CPU, as it uses multiple decoding passes in the 12 seconds available after each listening period. My Intel 3.1 GHz CPU is more than adequate.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
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There is a bottomless reservoir of DLâs on 60m JT65. I have already worked 40 of them since Friday, and am still nowhere near working them all. 
There is also activity from several ânewâ countries, for example OH, LX, EW, F and many others. The band is beginning to sound like 20m!
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
And with 60m only 15KHz wide (the WRC 15 version) , itâs getting difficult to find a usable frequency.
I havenât bothered too much transmitting yet as I have yet to sort out a resonant antenna here. My only contact so far was using my 40m loop and once I put the analyser on that, I saw it was about 10:1 SWR - so the ACU was most likely absorbing most of the power from the TX (which was turned down in any case).
Plans are forming for a home 60m loop. For portable I could build or modify an existing linked dipole. I see SOTABeams now have a 60m version of the Bandspringer for those with an ATU. But a 60m version of the Band-hopper linked dipole would be nice - hint, hint.
73 Ed.
Which is an excellent reason for us to keep our own âexclusiveâ high power segments. Having a band that if free of bloody DXers screaming CQ is a godsend. Itâs easy to work cross-segment too, especially for SOTA ops using SOTAwatch.
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I think you mean 15 kHz wide, Ed! (5351.5 to 5366.5). 150 kHz would be sheer luxury!
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
Correct Walt - sorry Typo! Iâll correct the earlier text.
Ed.
I WISH it was 150KHz!!
Thanks for the heads-up on WSJT-X. I will have a play and widen the view. I must admit that I expected it to show the full SSB bandwidth as default and was surprised when it gave me just a little over 1kHz.
JTDX sounds interesting. It might help pull more signals out of the noise on 40m. However using both WSJT-X and JT65HF I have managed to decode signals from YV, CO, PY, etc. RI1AND has been a consistent signal, but I have not been able to get my 5 watts back. I rather suspect many people are using significantly more power.
73 Gerald G4OIG
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I worked him with 25 watts. Most people seem to be using that amount of power, but as you say there are a few using significantly more!
Yes, with JTDX I have already had a few completed QSOs on JT65 with incoming signals reading -30 dB. Amazing!
Even more amazing: sometimes a European station answers my CQ at -02 dB, and a DX station also answers on the same frequency at -22 dB. JTDX decodes them both! I just donât know how it achieves that âŚ
73,
Walt
(G3NYY)
73,
Walt
Neg 30dB, thatâs amazing. The best I have seen with WSJT-X is neg 26dB. One thing that happened to me last week was that I received a plus 3dB report for my 5watts into HA. I actually felt guilty of running QRO!
That must have been on JT9. Reports on JT65 donât go higher than -01 dB, no matter how strong you are.
I once received a +10 dB report from an ON4 on JT9. How embarrassing! I wound the power down to less than 1 watt.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
i dont have more than 10w even if I wanted and I have worked Argentina and Brazil
But sometimes gets boring :S
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