Trials and Errors Issue #48: Guest Article - WSPR, The Mode that Ensures You are Getting Out!

I was struck that there are roughly twice as many transmitters as receivers mentioned in the article, so I looked at some of the WSPR web sites to get a better idea of the distribution of receivers around the world. I'm not certain that I did it right because it looked to me like most of them were in US and Europe. I definitely expected to see more in Asia and perhaps more in Africa. Does anyone with more WSPR chops have a comment?

 

I have used it extensively ever since there was a construction article in QST about 15 years ago. It was a very simple DSB WSPR rig. I have also used RBN and WEB SDR extensively. JT-65, JT-9, and FT-8 in conjunction with PSKreporter have also been extremely useful tools for me.

 

It's a little hard to say without knowing more, but my assumption is that since these antennas are not really that close to one another that it would not be any issue. No guarantees but the Zachtek is well engineered and the output circuit does have a balun which isolates the driver circuit from the antenna as well as converts the impedance to 50 ohms. Running on a different band should be no issue. Let us all know what happens?

 

Hi, remember that these are the "reported" WSPR receivers that are uploading data to WSPRnet.org. There may be more out there that don't upload, but I have no idea why they would not upload.
Even with the less number of receivers it is useful, but I agree I would love to see more receivers than transmitters. In fact, this is an appeal to our readers to consider being a receiving station at times when you are not operating. It would help anyone try to get data on their antennas.

 

Thanks, Marty. I got on the Zachtek forum. Harry says that there shouldn't be any problem transmitting into a non-resonant antenna, as his transmitter is designed to tolerate high, even infinite SWR. However, he says that having the non-resonant antenna tuned to a match will get more reports. Which makes sense, as loss is loss, and a mismatch attenuates the same number of dB regardless of the power level.

Harry advises against transmitting with one's station when the Zachtech is connected to another nearby antenna, even if the station and the Zachtek transmitter are on different bands. He says it might very well burn out the WSPR transmitter. So I won't do that!

 

Excellent article, and much appreciated. I've been interested in WSPR for a bit to study propagation at certain times, and it would be neat to test out my antennas as well. As an avid QRPer low power and weak signals are of interest to me as well. I have been considering purchasing one of the ZachTek transmitters to play around with, but what I may do is pick up a digirig and use a Yaesu FT-818 to run all my digital activity. I imagine It'll be useful to monitor WSPR/digital activity too. I'll be following this thread, and looking forward to part two.

 

Hi Peter, sorry for the delay in response. I have been trying to get ahold of my friend at ZachTek but I guess with the holidays it's tough. My thought is that I wouldn't hesitate. If the ZachTek was a receiver, maybe it could cause some damage by being so close to your station's major antenna. But I have run my WSPR at the same time as my other signals running, without any issues, as I leave it run for 24 hours or more sometimes. Let's see if Marty has any other feedback on this question . . . (sent him a note). Dave, W7DGJ ADDED LATER: HARRY SAYS, Don't do this with your ZachTek!

 

New Year's Resolution: get a WSPR transmitter and a receiver. As one who spends 95% of my time building antennas and only about 5% of the time actually using them, it sounds perfect.
David, K2WPM

 

Thanks to you and Dave for the article! I read about WSPR years ago in QST, but at the time the info just washed over me.

I DL the latest WSJTX software ( I use MSHV which does not support WSPR), and am playing with it using my IC746 turned all the way to QRP levels. I am able to RX stations, but having a hard time finding my stations in the mess of raw data on the WSPR sites, and I could not get PSK reporter to work on WSPR mode.

Oh!, I think I found the tool for me. wspr.live.gui
That gets me a map with the stations that heard me just like PSK Reporter.

 

I am really glad you checked with Harry and that your gut feeling told you there could be an issue. Both Marty and I didn't see an issue with that, but whatever Harry says is Gospel about WSPR. Dave, W7DGJ

 

Hey Claude thanks from both of us for the nice comments. I'm copy editing Marty's text for part two and I hope to get it up on Trials and Errors on Friday of this week. Check back! Dave, W7DGJ

 

Hey Ron, thanks for jumping in and I'm glad you've now got it tweaked! Dave

 

WSPR is interesting to use, I run the Z-tek at 200mw. It provides good band conditions propagation data. I just now turned mine on 40 through 10 meters.

However it still doesn't replace actual Field testing of your antenna.

https://www.k0uo.com/post/rhombic-antenna-testing-in-the-far-field

 

That's very true and asked me how I know.... ..

 

Hi Steve,

I agree. I "field test" my antennas every time I take one out on a POTA. One of my earlier articles here talks about having the ZachTek WSPR transmitter with me on POTA outings, as you can take a hike or a breather from POTA and check out how you are propagating.

Marty has some other great WSPR uses in part two which we are working on now. Should be up this weekend. Dave,W7DGJ