Monday, April 2, 2012

Using the Reverse Beacon Network to see how well you are being heard

I decided to do a wee bit of QRP (well, almost!) work tonight on 30 metres (10 Mhz), running just 50 watts from my Yaesu FT-1000MP into the home brew inverted V. I just didn't want to run any power. I was "in the mood" for low-ish power so I ran less than barefoot. Within a short time I had some European stations coming back to me, and I worked a few enjoyable QSOs. Then I went to the Reverse Beacon Network website and put my own callsign in the filter and found to my surprise that I was being heard quite well. There were a couple of stations in the United States hearing me too. The best reports were from Sweden and Germany at 33 dB Signal to Noise Ratio and 32 dB SNR. Nice!

You can see the reports from the above screenshot. Also interesting is the fact that I was being heard on 6 metres in Wales a few days ago!
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8 comments:

  1. VE9KK April 3, 2012 at 1:00 AM

    Good evening Anthony, as you know QRP is my forte here at VE3WDM. It's great fun and the Reverse Beacon network sure can fill you with surprise as to how far your signal has gone. I have QSO's all over Europe and as far as Japan and South Africa with as little as 500mW's. Then again last night I was running 5 watts (my QRO) trying to get into South Africa but it was a no go he just could not dig me out.

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  2. HamRadioIrelandApril 3, 2012 at 8:28 PM

    Mike, there is no doubt that real QRP, 5 watts, is a challenge! You win some, you lose some! 50 watts is a bit more tolerable! I like the idea of running low-er power than normal to see what I can get in the log. Anyway there is still a 100 watt limit on 30 metres in EI whereas the limit is 400 watts on other bands.

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  3. HamRadioIrelandApril 3, 2012 at 9:46 PM

    I just put your callsign into the Reverse Beacon Network Mike and got this!:

    K8ND VE3WDM 7018.5 CQ [LoTW] 9 dB 20 wpm 0031z 30 Mar
    WZ7I VE3WDM 7018.5 CQ [LoTW] 18 dB 20 wpm 0031z 30 Mar
    K1TTT VE3WDM 7018.5 CQ [LoTW] 15 dB 20 wpm 0031z 30 Mar
    KQ8M VE3WDM 7018.5 CQ [LoTW] 16 dB 20 wpm 0031z 30 Mar
    K3MM VE3WDM 7018.5 CQ [LoTW] 13 dB 20 wpm 0031z 30 Mar
    W4KKN VE3WDM 7018.5 CQ [LoTW] 11 dB 20 wpm 0031z 30 Mar
    NY3A VE3WDM 7018.5 CQ [LoTW] 18 dB 20 wpm 0031z 30 Mar
    W2MKM VE3WDM 7018.5 CQ [LoTW] 16 dB 21 wpm 0031z 30 Mar

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  4. VE9KK April 12, 2012 at 11:02 AM

    Good to see the old Elecraft K3 is getting out....:)

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  5. EI4DIBApril 15, 2012 at 11:36 AM

    QRP.... sorts out the real men from the QRO'ers!!!

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    Replies
    1. HamRadioIrelandApril 22, 2012 at 11:10 PM

      I have to confess to being QRO for the 9M0L Spratly pile-ups!!

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  6. PedroskiNovember 24, 2012 at 8:37 PM

    Anthony, I've only recently started checking RBN to see where and how strongly my CW CQs are being picked up. Was dead chuffed yesterday to see that my 2.5W on 20m into a 5 metre tall army surplus Racal Clansman mobile whip antenna mounted on a tripod was doing well. Picked up at 16dB by VE2WU.
    TF3Y in Iceland picked up the CQs I made on 30, 20 and 17m.
    It's fascinating to see.

    Pete M3KXZ

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