AmateurRadio.com

W5OLF WSPR beacon – complete – no PC needed

This WSPR-AXE really is a very impressive little rig, in my case for 10m WSPR.  Because of my current disabled state –  I find all electronics building just about impossible – Jay very kindly sold me a built unit to evaluate. Results in just a few hours of operating have been truly impressive. No PC is needed as long as the push button is pressed at the start of an even minute. Jay says it stays stable for weeks thereafter. I ran mine for 3.5 hours and got masses of decodes. After lunch it has been getting LOTS of spots from the USA. I am sure it will reach Australia soon.

The unit needs about 15 minutes to frequency stabilise and after that it always on, but it randomises the slots within the WSPR transmit window. This means it is unlikely to be “clobbered” by more powerful stations or cause others co-channel issues.

Best DX report (so far) today is FR1GZ (9724km).

10m WSPR – unique spots with the W5OLF beacon today, arranged by distance

If you want to buy one Jay W5OLF may be contacted on [email protected]t .

Bill Harrison, KK4JPT, has announced that Hardened Power Systems has launched an online campaign to fund the rebuilding of their business.

On Halloween, the company suffered a devastating fire resulting in the loss of their manufacturing facility.

Hardened Power Systems manufactures several popular ham radio products including the D-HAP and JuiceBox.

Here is where you come in, we need your financial commitment to begin the process of rebuilding this business. We are determined to remain faithful to our commitment of quality, durability, and cost effectiveness. The process of rebuilding will take time and we are prepared for the journey ahead, but to expedite this process we need your support. In return we will make a promise to compensate you for your gift with limited editions of some of our gear to commemorate this event.

Jay has been working on new versions of his little WSPR beacons. All being well I should receive a 10m 500mW out version in the next few weeks.

Jay is writing the manual(s) and has asked me for my feedback, which I shall, of course, provide. The new version is a single board (again) but transmits continuously, randomising the TX frequency on each TX burst to minimise interference to/from others. It needs several minutes to thermally stabilise but uses the uP to generate everything needed such as the WSPR tones, so no PC is needed. The transmission is started manually on the start of an even minute with a push button. The PA can be separately enabled.

This should be fun. I’ll give more information when it arrives and I get a chance to try it on the air.

Some years ago I went to a BBQ where someone had a wi-fi controlled quadcopter remotely controlled from an iPad. It was very impressive with its on-board cameras for navigation and filming what was happening down below.

I see AE5X has a video showing the inspection of his antennas (from above) using one of these. My antenna farm is trivial by comparison and can be pretty well examined at ground level.

See http://www.ae5x.com/blog/various/youtube-de-ae5x/

Turned the PRC-104 on today while I was out and left it on spotting signals.

I was using a 3 element yagi pointed South during the 6 hour period.

The radio in use was my PRC-104 military manpack using a signalink USB and Acer notebook.

The following screenshots show the stations that were heard at my location in EN58hh, or Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Hanz W1JSB and I hiked to the cabin at Knox Mountain this afternoon. We set up a 20 meter dipole as a vertical and worked London, Ontario on SSB and Guadeloupe on CW.

The first bridge has nearly collapsed. Two out of the four main timbers have fallen into the brook. We took a chance and scampered across the far north end of the bridge which still has some cross-boards attached. We went one-at-a-time and made it safely across. My guess is… the bridge won’t be here in the spring.

We had a grand time hiking to the pond. We hadn’t seen each other since sometime in July. At several spots along the trail, we could see where a bear had scraped up the earth, perhaps in search of food below.

The pond is always a beautiful sight after the darkness of the woods.

We had brought two rigs and one antenna. Hanz had his Norcal Cascade, an SSB rig set up on 20 meters. I had the little DSW by Small Wonders Labs.

We tossed a line over a 40 foot branch on the wild cherry tree behind the cabin and set up the dipole as a vertical. The bottom end was weighed down with a water bottle.

Hanz took the first turn.

There were plenty of stations to choose from. VE3LHU was calling CQ from London, Ontario and had a very strong signal. David answered and gave Hanz a 56. “You’re doing a fine job with 3 watts,” he sent. With that Hanz handed the antenna to me.

I went down toward the bottom of the band and right away heard TO10RR in Guadeloupe calling CQ. He had a hard time copying me on the first call, but came back on the second. We exchanged quick 599s and I considered myself lucky to have made the contact. Right away a large pileup formed. Had I waited, I would have missed the QSO for sure.

By now the shadows were lengthening and we were anxious to get back before dark. We couldn’t have had a better outing… it was 52F, and perfectly pleasant for a great radio adventure and hike.