Use your PC for WSPR and become a volunteer of investigation projects
Submitted by EA4ETR on Sun, 2013/05/19 - 13:23While WSPR is running you can use part of unused CPU for BOINC projects.
BOINC lets you contribute computing power on your home PC to projects doing research in many scientific areas. Visit this web http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php.
I am contributing with investigations projects as well my PC is decoding WSPR signals.
73, Juan Carlos EA4ETR
WSPRing again...just in time for Dayton
Submitted by W9RAN on Thu, 2013/05/16 - 03:45I started using WSPR a month+ ago, using Guido's fantastic WsprryPi software, but unfortunately sustained a Fried Pi when I transmitted into a nearby antenna, resulting in excessive RF voltage into the Raspberry Pi GPIO pin. Sadder but wiser, I now have a buffered and galvanically isolated interface that seems to be working well, still operating with an estimated 10 milliwatts of power (I'll do an actual measurement when I get home from Dayton). At present, the Pi is on 20 meters using a non-resonant longwire antenna. Due to lack of time, I don't even have a tuner on it! This just proves how effective WSPR is, even under non-optimal conditions. Over 50 spots in just an hour or so, it will be fun to check the database and see how well this jury-rigged setup gets out over the Dayton weekend.
73, Bob W9RAN
Raspberry Pi WSPR 10mW transmitter on 40m
Submitted by VA3PAW on Tue, 2013/05/07 - 01:03Hi All, just wanted to share some details on my setup - it's based on Guido's PE1NNZ and Dan's nice WsprryPi project:
https://github.com/threeme3/WsprryPi
I am using a Raspberry Pi Model A with a 40m band pass filter from http://kitsandparts.com/bpf2.php
connected to a vertical end-fed 31' wire via a 4:1 unun. It's running 24x7 on 40m with 4 minute pauses after every 2 minute transmission.
I haven't tuned the wire antenna for minimum SWR yet so the actual radiated power is currently lesser than 10mW but still enough to get some spots as far as 1,200km away. Once it's tuned, the range is expected to increase.
I'm planning to add a relay board soon interfaced back to RPi in order to switch the band-pass filters. This will allow 40/20/15/10m using just one RPi.
73! Paul VA3PAW
Welcome ARC NR4DL, USCGC Ingham
Submitted by KC4RSN on Mon, 2013/05/06 - 23:36Welcome to new member Bill KK4INP/ARC NR4DL, operating from USCGC Ingham (museum ship) Key West, FL.
Welcome aboard!!
Create a movie of your own WSPR spots
Submitted by DC5BN on Wed, 2013/05/01 - 20:58Hi Reporter,
i wrote a little tool to show your wspr spots from Downloads
into DX Atlas included the sun position
http://www.mydarc.de/dc5bn/index-Dateien/Page725.htm
73 de Schalli, DC5BN
My WSPR setup
Submitted by K0SWL53 on Wed, 2013/05/01 - 14:43I thought that perhaps those who see me logging their signals might like to know more about the setup at my QTH.
Right now I maintain two receivers in continuous operation. My personal interest is in NDB Dxing so the MF band comes closest. On MF I have a selective level meter (Anritsu ML422C) driving two WSPR programs. One is listening in standard WSPR mode and the other in WSPR-X. The WSPR spots are logged as K0SWL53 and the WSPR-X spots as K0SWL53L. So far, no spots on WSPR-X and only two unique on WSPR.
My second receiver is a Softrock Ensemble II RX that I usually keep on 20 meters but sometimes I move to other bands for a few nights. This runs on a separate laptop.
All of the receivers in my shack are using the same antenna which is a 21 foot ground mounted vertical. Because I use it on longwave most of the time, a 100 to 1 impedance transformer sits in the antenna base and connects to the shack with a balanced (twin-lead) transmission line. In the shack, the signal first goes through a homebrew band reject filter for the BCB and then a homebrew 18 db Norton feedback amplifier before being distributed to the receivers. The gain is necessary because the antenna output is very low. Also, my distribution system contributes noise and extra gain is needed to overcome that as well.
I am thinking about putting up a k9AY loop this summer. I have some ideas for improving it on longwave.
My home is located in the northern surburbs of Denver. Unfortunately, this puts me in the middle of lots of BCB stations. The MF WSPR band at my QTH suffers from about 6-8db of excess noise due to IBOC splatter from a BC station at the low end of the AM dial. My SNR reports tend to be lower than most on MF because of this.
2m WSPR Ready
Submitted by JH1GYE on Tue, 2013/04/30 - 06:41I’ll transmit 2m WSPR beaming to south on Saturday. Frequency is 144.490530MHz. Equipment here is FT-736M (Typ5W Max25W, GPS PLL) and 8element beam. Scheduling is possible. Please give me an e-mail. (Call sign+@jarl.com)
Solution to the problem of drift TS480
Submitted by LU8WAG on Sat, 2013/04/27 - 18:58Written in Spanish but it is clear in the photos.
http://lu8wag.blogspot.com.ar/2013/04/deriva-oscilador-kenwood-ts480.html
73 de Armando
wspr-x 0.8, r3058 - bug/overflow maybe ?
Submitted by M0NKA on Sat, 2013/04/27 - 15:56Hi,
Just seen interesting behaviour of the latest wspr-x. After been 24 or more hours online in RX only
mode, a new station comes up, that has misformed probably call in TX mode, so immediately my wspr
instance is no longer visible in the activity/map on the wsprnet.org site and the received spots are
also not submitted. Please check attachments. Hope this helps
73, Chris
Ubuntu 13.04 Python PIL/Pillow bug causes WSPR to stop operating when decoding received signals
Submitted by JO3FUO on Fri, 2013/04/26 - 05:08How to fix:
Replace /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL/ImageDraw.py by the file at
https://github.com/python-imaging/Pillow/blob/1f41e25b4feec620ad32e8b3a9...
Note: do the following after copying the files
- cd /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL/
- chmod 0644 ImageDraw.py
- rm ImageDraw.pyc
See
https://github.com/jj1bdx/wspr/tree/master/FIX-Ubuntu-13.04
about how to fix the bug.
73 de Kenji JJ1BDX (es JO3FUO)
Really Whispering on 40m
Submitted by M0INB on Mon, 2013/04/22 - 09:45Last year, when I started experimenting with WSPR, I was running 5w from a Genesis G40 kit built SDR transceiver. Regular reports were received from around the world from my estimated 4W at the feed point of a home-brewed 1/4wl vertical. This figure is based on an assumption that the ATU impedance matching will account for 20% of the power from the radio.
Daily reports were received from East coast USA stations and VK7 was about a 70% certainty with grey line propagation.
This year I have finally got around to resurrecting a Genesis G59 kit which I bought pre-assembled, not working from another UK amateur.
There have been a number of issues in getting this radio operational, and there are still things to finish, but it is working into the same ATU and antenna combination, but using the same rule of thumb for the ATU losses, the station is now only feeding 8mW to the antenna.
As would be expected, reception reports are fewer, but I feel the lower power gives a better indication of true band conditions. I've not been heard in VK7 yet, but the signal does get heard, occasionally, on the east coast USA, with "ODX" so far being W4AC at 7099km which I think works out at 887,375km/W !!! WSPR net database
I believe the lower power gives a better indication of true band conditions, and at some point I'll get round to experimenting with a dedicated WSPR transmitter / aerial combination so I can complete the G59 and use it as intended - as a HF & 6m multimode transceiver.
There is information on the G59 transceiver at http://www.genesisradio.com.au and of the rebuild and work on mine at My G59 page
HELP ME CAT NOT CHANGE BAND TO ICOM IC-781
Submitted by IZ1OQB on Sun, 2013/04/21 - 00:33Thanks for the answers, I point out this problem I found if I use the tx / rx of the Icom IC-781, the CAT is positioned properly on com2, but when changing band, generates an error .My work the interface as a microHAM - MK2, provided it is used with other programs like HRD and works correctly in all ways.
SET_FREQ: ERROR = REJETCTED COMMAND BY THE RING.
73 de IZ1OQB Mr. PINO
Another VK station on 6m?
Submitted by JH1GYE on Fri, 2013/04/19 - 06:28On 6m WSPR, from Japan is it difficult to see the signal of VK stations except living northern part of VK? We can see VK4TVL's signal everyday at very high level. But we can’t see anyone else. Activity in VK seems to be high. So,I want to know the reason. Is it a geographical problem?
Experimental antenna
Submitted by AD0AR on Tue, 2013/04/16 - 14:02As of April 15, 2013 any propagation data generated by my station reflect the results of my antenna experiments involving elevated counterpoises.
Two instance of WSPR on the same Linux computer?
Submitted by KC6KGE on Sun, 2013/04/14 - 17:32If anyone can give me step by step instructions on setting up two instances of WSPR under Linux
I'd greatly appreciate it I have both Signalink USB sound devices and CAT control working for both rigs.
Now I need to set it up so I have two /.wspr directories in my /home directory somehow and how to start each instance. I think.
Both .wspr directories can't have the same name I am sure.
I need Help.
edit I got help
I set up a second user named wsprtest
From a console
xhost +LOCAL:
then
sudo -s -u wsprtest
then
DISPLAY=:0.0 wspr
I have a second instance of wspr running on openSUSE 12.2 x 64 under KDE in the GUI.
Thanks to Michael Griffith K4WAI for getting me going.
How many bands?
Submitted by W9RAN on Fri, 2013/04/12 - 18:58An open question for the WSPR community:
If you had a dedicated WSPR beacon transmitter, how many bands should it be able to cover automatically? If more than one, should separate antenna connections be provided for each band, or should all bands be available at a single RF output?
Thanks and 73,
Bob W9RAN
2m WSPR from JA
Submitted by JH1GYE on Fri, 2013/04/12 - 00:366m WSPR JA-VK was successful.
Now I'm preparing to work on 2m WSPR.
Is it possible to decode signal from DX stations?
I'm worried about heavy spectrum spreading during the propagation.
10mW Bare Raspberry PI + BPF - 2593 km !
Submitted by RV3APM on Mon, 2013/04/08 - 22:26Thanks Guido PE1NNZ and Dan's,
for nice project WsprryPi
https://github.com/threeme3/WsprryPi
24 hours ago on 40m with GP and 10mW from Bare Raspberry PI/GPIO4 + BPF
My WSPR2 signal received in 1 minute :
2013-04-08 22:08 LA9JO JP99gb 1650km SNR -23
Now tried on 20 m and got reports from Norway, Germany, England, France ....
2E0BMG JO01lv 2397km
F4EFL JN16qh 2593km
I use dual BPF from
http://kitsandparts.com/
Seems more interesting play with WSPR when very small Pout ... not plan any PA for ....
73! Serge
WSPR on a headless Raspberry Pi - frequency hopping HowTo added
Submitted by LX3KR on Sun, 2013/04/07 - 08:18Due to several requests I've added a linux frequency hopping HowTo my previous blog, scroll down to the bottom to the page
73's LX3KR
New 17 Meter Dipole
Submitted by K9RQ on Sat, 2013/04/06 - 16:231/2 watt to my new 17 meter dipole today being heard in both the US and Eu. Still amazed at what very low power can do. Maybe milliwatts should be my next step. Time for an attenuator.
