WSPR Archives • Page 22 of 37 • AmateurRadio.com

Posts Tagged ‘WSPR’

LHS Episode #097: Sheer Hamshackedness

January 2nd, 2013 |

Welcome once again to the Wonderful World of Linux in the Ham Shack. As indicated in the title, this episode is full of Sheer Hamshackedness. If you’re unsure what that is, we encourage you to pour yourself a nice glass of dark beer or a 100-proof spirit of your choice, put on your headphones and immerse yourself in the pure hedonism that is LHS. And if you believe any of that, we have a large vehicular conveyance over the East River in New York City up for sale as well. Anyway, we talk a little bit about Raspberry Pi computing, APRS, WSPR, Echolink, svxlink, Qtel and a bunch of other stuff in this episode. Hope you enjoy, as always.

73 de The LHS Guys

10m 26 November 2012

November 26th, 2012 |

Author: Juilian G4ILO

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 26 November 2012

What this map doesn’t show is that all the spots are barely visible, -25 to -27dB, so propagation would not be good enough to support a regular communication mode.

10m 24 November 2012

November 24th, 2012 |

Author: Juilian G4ILO

The first day of the CQ WW DX CW contest and propagation on 10m is disappointingly down compared to previous days.

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 24 November 2012

No propagation to USA as you can see.

I have made a handful of contest contacts on 10m but I have been too preoccupied with computer issues to really get into it. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

A WSPR in your ear.

November 23rd, 2012 |

Author: Rob MW0DNK

Like many of us, I am still amazed by the amount of radio spectrum we have to freely play with. Shots are being fired and eyes are being gouged by companies for small slices of precious bandwidth. Multiply our many electric playgrounds by the number of games (or modes) available and the permutations are enough to overload your front end.

I’ve decided to catch up with WSPR, a mode well known to many but new to me. I’m going to give it a go – the difficult way. Julian, G4ILO has an excellent article on the system here.

WSPR stands for Weak Signal Propagation Reporting and is a computer programme that runs your VHF/HF transceiver automatically in order to receive others running the same system. Successful contacts, one or two-way, are reported automatically to a website. It’s like having a worldwide net of propagation beacons for every band available at your fingertips and the results appear quickly after automatic contact confirmation. What a great thing to leave your equipment running overnight or during the day when you’re otherwise occupied!

Screenshot of WSPR.net Map Page

The best thing is that WSPR works below the noise threshold and you can use very low power. I was staggered the other day to see that Tim, G4VXE had hit Australia on 40m with just 1W! One Watt! So I’m going to give it a go with 1W and just an indoor Miracle Whip antenna. I know many QRP CW experts may cracked this one before – but I’m new and excited. I’ll try 40m and work my way up to 2m and see what happens!

I’ll use my FT-817. A CAT lead arrived this week from Hong Kong but it seems I’ll also need an audio interface between the transceiver packet port and computer sound card to make it all work. Another option is to buy an external interface that has a sound card and interfaces to the computer with a USB. It’s not quite going to be a ‘plug and play’ job, I’m afraid to report.

In the meantime, I’ll be satisfying myself to regular chats on 2m with nearby stations on FM, SSB and even DV mode. So many ways of talking – and that’s just on 2m. I'll 'whisper' my progress here as soon as I'm up and running.

10m 23 November 2012

November 23rd, 2012 |

Author: Juilian G4ILO

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 23 November 2012

Propagation on 10m was not as good as yesterday. WSPR traces were fainter as signals were weaker. On the air conditions were not stable and deep QSB affected most QSOs. An hour in the afternoon resulted in these contacts:

2012/11/23	14:29	28.121	BPSK31	KC2VOU	599	539	Jon	Earlville, NY
2012/11/23	14:41	28.122	BPSK31	K2PSD	599	599	Ron	Randolph, New…
2012/11/23	14:49	28.122	BPSK31	KF2GQ	599	599	Robert	Jupiter FL
2012/11/23	14:58	28.122	BPSK31	WA4FLZ	599	589	Shep	Miami FL
2012/11/23	15:21	28.121	BPSK31	N0BIV	599	599	Don	Jefferson Cit…

Gotaways were: CN2OS (Morocco) and HK2LS (Colombia).

10m 22 November 2012

November 22nd, 2012 |

Author: Juilian G4ILO

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 22 November 2012

Really excellent propagation this afternoon to the eastern USA as the WSPR spots show. An hour’s break before afternoon tea resulted in QSOs with 7 new stations. I actually had people calling me after I signed with another station. I like the callsign of the first station…

2012/11/22	14:41	28.123	BPSK31	W2PSK	599	599	Andy	South River, …
2012/11/22	14:53	28.121	BPSK31	KB8ZUN	599	599	Jeffrey	North Ridgevi…
2012/11/22	14:57	28.122	BPSK31	KD4JMV	599	599	Harry	Naples FL
2012/11/22	15:07	28.123	BPSK31	W3SW	599	599	Andy	Binghamton NY
2012/11/22	15:20	28.120	BPSK31	KA3UJE	599	599	Terry	Lykens, PA
2012/11/22	15:26	28.120	BPSK31	WA2VMO	599	579	Bob	Staten Is. NY
2012/11/22	15:36	28.121	BPSK31	KB3CUP	599	599	Elza	Greensboro, PA

WSPRnet issue with Chrome

November 22nd, 2012 |

Author: Juilian G4ILO

Has anyone else noticed that when you open the map page at wsprnet.org in Google Chrome the sliders (the bit you drag to scroll up/down or left/right) are missing from the scroll bars? They still work if you drag on where they ought to be, but as they are invisible it’s a bit confusing.