Interesting data from the WSPRnet "Stats" page:

The number of WSPR spots per day has roughly doubled since a week ago. The number of reporting stations and the number of unique calls reported have both increased by 60%.

I believe that yesterday (21-Nov-2009) was the first time we've seen more than 100,000 spots in a 24-hour period.

-- Joe, K1JT

Yesterday I started to use the MEPT-beacon, the one Gernot, OE1IFM has build.
Purpose is to provide Gernot input to his wonderful beacon project.
We have long conversations to make it even better.
So far it is TX-ing on 80,40,30,20,17,15,12 and 10 meters with 1 Watt in a horizontal wire of 7 meters.
The antenna is far from ideal and has a bad VSWR.
The results of the first 24 hours: more than 550 spots, no spots on 12m, mostly Europeën stations, some stations from America and later even from Australia.

' 73 from Rotterdam
Peter, PE1DCD

Too bad that a scheduled power outage in the Princeton University Physics Department came the day after WSPR 2.0 was released. But c'mon, guys, the inconvenience lasted only a little over 12 hours.

Everything back to normal now.

-- Joe, K1JT

Hi all, some days ago, and now, here in Spain all Om's are receiving brutal interference between 10.136 to 10.160 Mhz. 30 m Band.
We need your help to determinate who is making this interference.
Please, check it, and report us if you receive this.
Many thanks for your colaboration. All reports are welcome!
Antonio from Madrid, Spain.
EA1CDV
------
Muy buenas a todos, estoy recibiendo desde Madrid una interferencia que barre desde 10.136 a 10.160 Mhz... Es una brutalidad, ya que barre la banda de 30 m.
Pensé que era algo cercano a mi QTH de Madrid, IN80EL, me consta que está siendo recibida en otras partes EA, y más lejanas.
Lo estoy escuchando ahora mismo, pero la semana pasada sucedió otra vez.
¿Alguien sabe lo que es?, Todos los reportes serán bienvenidos.
73 de Antonio EA1CDV

I am not an ARRL official, but in my opinion there is no question about it: WSPR spots, even if they occur both ways between two stations, do not constitute a QSO that is valid for DXCC or other awards.

A minimal QSO involves the exchange of information between operators, with appropriate acknowledgments. These things do not happen with automated WSPR transmissions and receptions.

The WSPR QSO mode (introduced experimentally in WSJT 7) certainly does allow valid QSOs to be made. However, this mode has never become popular -- most ops find it too slow to be much fun -- and it will probably not be retained in future versions of WSJT.

For DX QSOs with very weak signals, JT65A is probably still the best there is.
-- 73, Joe, K1JT

What are the latest rules regarding WSPR exchanges and DXCC qualifying "QSOs"? I hear a rumour that ARRL will accept confirmed WSPR exchanged reports (he hears you and posts a report and you hear him and post a report to the database/by QSL card?) as a valid DXCC exchange. I.e. this is a mutual exchange of reports using, for example, WSPR2 and not necessarily the QSO mode in WSJT.

Is this correct?

Certainly an exchange of details via WSPR contains far more information than a DX contest exchange on HF which IS valid for DXCC.

Don't forget like I did, make sure you give WSPR2 Admin. Rights.

Or it will load up with 30M and not the band you thought it was last on.

I love Vista, it protects my computer, but you always have to set Rights for all programs

you want to run.

Sorry for all the wrong spots today. ( a handful)

A brief addendum to my email of yesterday, announcing that WSPR 2.0 is available at the WSJT web site.

WSPR 2.0 provides easy access to a new online User's Guide, http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSPR_2.0_User.pdf . The User's Guide will be a "living" document -- in other words, it may be updated whenever I have something useful to add.

Today I added material to Appendix B. It now describes a program I've made available that lets anyone generate examples of encoded WSPR messages, down to the level of individual bits and channel symbols. This information will be very useful to programmers who want to implement the WSPR protocol and those wishing to build hardware-level WSPR signal generators, stand-alone beacons, etc.

-- 73, Joe, K1JT

Just been showed this whisper mode by a fellow ham and i must say i have got the bug now,
I think it's a great mode for plotting your antenna (my weakspot has to be into the USA (don't know why as i have a rotable dipole but makes not a lot of difference when i point it over that direction)

Any how the long and the short of it is i can try out different angles with my wire dipoles and see which one is working the best
73 Keith M1VHT

Installed WSPR 2 yesterday. So while I was at it I decided to read the instructions! What perplexes me is the Rx noise indicator. The instructions tell me to try to reduce that to as close to zero as possible using the RF gain and AF input volume to the computer. Neither adjustment makes a blind bit of difference to the Rx noise. It's always -30 Db. Never changes, apart from when in Tx mode of course.

Have I read the instructions wrongly?