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

Real scientific testing of antennas using WSPR

https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/comparing-two-antennas-using-wspr.947135/

 

Thanks Steve -- good addition to the thread, Dave

 

MH370 and WSPR: .....rather far-fetched and silly....
Maybe farfetched, why silly? If you did not study a subject in detail and you do not understand the physics on that subject, why do you declare it silly? Is this ham radio at the frontier of technology or just one-track-mind attitude?

We have the U-turn of MH370 at 17:22 h UTC at a Drift rate of -1 from HS to VK1 and VK3 recorded for years now. Inmarsats pings (below 10) and more than a 100 WSPR signals are the only electromagnetic signals available after all ATC, military radars etc. failed.

We studied HF WSPR signals (primary and secondary) worldwide with emphasis on missions of exploration ship Polarstern to Arctica as well as Antarctica with recorded WSPR signals compared to Flightradar24 and EDS-B data from jets, propeller aircraft, helicopters, military targets, airborne and spaceborne within the ionosphere.

We choose these regions in order to reduce any ambiguities. Inmarsat satellite signals as well as WSPR signals have not been designed for this purpose anyway we are short on anything more appropriate.

Even with WSPR HABs (High Altitude Ballon) such as LU1ESY at 10 mW across the SIO (Southern Indian Ocean) "illuminating" aircraft in a Forward Scattering mode.

From month to month we make good progress to better understand the whole "silly" process and do our best to keep amateur radio at the forefront of technology at the risk that the majority of well established radio amateurs (for decades now) will not be able or willing to follow us as well as risking rejection (for how long?) of K1JT, whom we respect and greatly admire for creating WSPR as our current tool box for doing this kind of work.

73 and all the best to you de DJ4FF

 

The cost is nearly zero. You can transmit WSPR using any SSB transmitter plus a mobile phone to generate the FSK sounds. You don't even need a radio, as you can transmit 3 to 10 dBm WSPR signals from the GPIO pin of a Raspberry Pi run through a low pass filter to your antenna. With a good antenna, 10 dBm of WSPR can occasionally get one some DX spots. No need for 100W, or even 5W or 1W.

 

Best of luck. I hope you prove me wrong, as I have been wrong in the past. But I will be very curious to see how it could be done, and I will view the process highly critically.