DPØGVN WSPR Beacon in Antarctia is operational

On January 15 in the afternoon hours, the multiband receiver of the new permanent WSPR beacon DPØGVN in Antarctica was put into operation. It is active from the German research station "Neumayer III" of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. The installation is part of a scientific project of the Technical University of Munich in cooperation with the University of Bremen and the German Amateur Radio Club (DARC).

The beacon is still under test and will be shut down occasionally for more configuration and optimization
of antennae and software before it can be mounted to the final installation site in a few eeks. Currently,
there are three radio specialists at the research station, all beeing HAM operators and DARC members
(Felix DL5XL, Matthias DH5CW, and Daniel, DL1SU).

The technology used consists of a WSPR multiband receiver based on a Red Pitaya mini computer, it can simultaneously monitor up to eight HAM bands from 160m to 6m and feed several hundred receive reports per hour into the WSPR-Net. Meanwhile, the 5 Watt multiband transmitter has also been commissioned, working into a 5m Procom vertical antenna matched with a network.

The first operating results have positively surprised all project participants. After a few days in service,
DPØGVN has received several tousand beacons spots already. This is due to an extremely quiet location, far
from any human civilization and man-made noise sources. The beacon project in Antarctica was initiated by
two professors, who are also radio amateurs. One is Prof. Dr. med. Ulrich Walter, DG1KIM, scientific astronaut
of the ESA and professor of space technology at the Technical University of Munich. Also involved is the
well-known SDR specialist Prof.Dr. Michael Hartje, DK5HH, from the University of Bremen, who takes care of
the software solutions.

The DARC is closely involved in the project, as the worldwide community of radio amateurs allows a "swarm project" in order to generate the database for systematic scientific evaluation of the propagation paths in polar regions. The devices for this scientific project were buitl by a group of volunteer German radio amateurs.

 

Happy to be heard by this beacon 11,000+KM on 10W from United Kingdom. IO92et M0XMX

 

Even happier my daughter was heard on 0.2W (actually measured as being 172mW) from Wales, using just a field-deployed vertical and WSPRlite by a lake:


2018-01-17 21:42 MW6PYS 14.097156 -26 0 IO73ug 0.2 DP0GVN IB59uh 13787 182
2018-01-17 21:38 MW6PYS 14.097156 -23 0 IO73ug 0.2 DP0GVN IB59uh 13787 182
2018-01-17 21:30 MW6PYS 14.097156 -19 0 IO73ug 0.2 DP0GVN IB59uh 13787 182
2018-01-17 21:26 MW6PYS 14.097157 -19 0 IO73ug 0.2 DP0GVN IB59uh 13787 182
2018-01-16 21:10 MW6PYS 14.097154 -23 0 IO73tj 0.2 DP0GVN IB59uh 13801 182
2018-01-16 21:08 MW6PYS 14.097154 -25 0 IO73tj 0.2 DP0GVN IB59uh 13801 182
2018-01-16 20:40 MW6PYS 14.097154 -29 0 IO73tj 0.2 DP0GVN IB59uh 13801 182

 

Heard their beacon on 10MHz in the early hours of the morning of 18th Jan. No other signals decoded at that time. On the evening of 18th, heard them again and they reported my 5 watt signal again on 10MHz. Antenna is 20m-long wire in horizontal vee, about 1.5m above ground.

Keith G0RQQ
Lincoln

 

Ham not HAM. Ham is not an acronym

 

Nice!

 

Great project. Best wishes and i hope all will run fine.

By the way.....with my additional SWL-call DE6BCX in January 2017 i sent 100 SWL-reports listening to WSPR beacons, one year later in January 2018 only five (!!!) SWL-cards were answered. Not so much, what a pity.

 

I could pick a flea with you here ... in jest.

Holloman Aerospace Medical Centre
... after which 'Ham' the eponymously named US Space Chimp (see Avatar)

 

I was heard on 4oM in the evening earlier this week. Very cool!

 

A "WHAT-o-NYM?!?"

 

From OZ7NV
The last two nights i was heart on 60m. I am running 5Watt in a magnetic loop antenna.

 

Does this beacon have a frequency I can actually tune too or I just look amelessely for a beacon all over hf spectrum?

 

It’s a WSPR Beacon, so you require the WSJT software running on your computer to decode it. With regard to frequencies, they are indicated in the software for each band.

Regards,
Keith G0RQQ

 

Agreed, I do not see where there is a frequency listing ??????