WSPR met Ultimate 3

Enige jaren geleden kocht ik een compleet gebouwde Ultimate 3 QRSS/WSPR zender van QRP labs. Dit na een lezing tijdens de DvRA in Apeldoorn.
Op wat interne testjes na heb ik deze WSPR zender niet gebruikt, tot gisteravond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
In de middag had ik bezoek om mij met een klein klusje te helpen en we hadden het over zijn WSPR-experimenten.
Na dit bezoek geïnspireerd geraakt en de Ultimate 3 tevoorschijn gehaald en geïnstalleerd.

Rond 17:30 lokale tijd de WSPR zender aangezet. Met de externe GPS had ik vrij snel een fix. Dit tot 23:30 aan laten staan met de volgende resultaten:

Het enthousiasme werd vergroot toen ik, na eerst wat Europese rapporten, zag dat mijn signaal meerdere keren in de USA is ontvangen.

Vanmorgen om 08:30 WSPR weer aangezet en mijn WSPR signaal is al in de USA gehoord.
Ik ben benieuwd voor de rest van de dag.

TX: Ultimate 3, 200mW
Ant: 2 x 7,5 dipool

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Digitale modes met OpenWebRX

In augustus 2020 zag ik op de VERON website een aankondiging van het programma OpenWebRX.
Met deze software is, in combinatie met o.a. een RTL stick, het mogelijk een  Web SDR te bouwen. Dit op een Raspberry Pi.

Na een jaar met C4FM/Systyem Fusion bezig te zijn geweest wilde ik mij verdiepen in D-Star.
OpenWebRX kan o.a. deze mode ontvangen en besloot dit project op te pakken om een luistermogelijkheid te hebben. Apparatuur is nieuw, maar ook 2de, best prijzig.

Als uitgangspunt heb ik dit artikel genomen en het installeren ging vrij eenvoudig.
Voor dit project heb ik een beschikbare Raspberry Pi4 genomen met een 32Gb geheugenkaart, de RTL dongle had ik ook nog liggen van een eerder project. De PPM in het configuratiebestand moest ik, om goed op frequentie uit te komen, instellen op +74.
Via PuTTY kon ik de terminal mode van deze Raspberry benaderen om de verschillende wijzigingen te maken. Een handleiding laat ik achterwege, deze is via het artikel te vinden.

Inmiddels draait het een week en heb er D-Star mee kunnen beluisteren. Net zoals: APRS,FT8, YSF en DMR. Voor al deze mogelijkheden is er een decoder ingebouwd.
Vanmorgen hoorde ik telemetrie van een FUNcube satelliet. Helaas kon ik dit signaal nog niet decoderen.

Om bezoekers van buiten je netwerk toegang te geven tot de SDR is het noodzakelijk poort 8073 open te zetten. Dit is per router verschillend en ga ik hierom niet verder in detail bespreken.

Binnenkort meer over dit aardige project.

 73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

WSPR op 30M

Begin dit jaar ben ik weer gestart met WSPR. Om te beginnen ga ik de komende weken 30M hiervoor gebruiken, dit op de momenten dat ik thuis ben. Het staat dus  niet 24/7 aan.

Afgelopen  week viel het mij al op dat mijn signaal in de avonduren gehoord werd door het station DP0GVN op Antartica. Ik maakte een klein sprongetje bij deze afstand van ruim 13.000 km.

Gisteravond zag ik dat mijn signaal meerdere keren door dit station werd ontvangen. Erg leuk bij zo weinig vermogen en beperkte antenne.

Afbeelding beter zichtbaar met een klik van de muis

De door mij gebruikte setup:
TX: Yaesu FT-950, 5 Watt
Ant: Dipool voor 30M met open lijn op het balkon, 4 hoog

In het verleden heb ik al veel met WSPR geexperimenteerd. Nu is het de bedoeling om binnenkort op 20M met een qrpp TX uit te gaan zenden.

Wordt vervolgd!

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

WSPR on 6 meter

Almost three weeks long I have been QRV with WSPR on 6 meters. Not the full 24 hours but still fairly frequent.
At the moments I was not at home my system was only listen. At home, I switched on the transmit mode.The overview shows which stations heard my signal and what I heard. To made the list not to long I used the "unique" tick on the website to generate this.

The greatest distance is CN8LI, he heard me once with 1 watts output, SNR -23.As antenna I still use the 1/4 wave on my balcony.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

WSPR with 50mW

Last week it was a holiday week for me.
I planned a few days to Bolsward (Friesland) and the other days I was in the village of Zuidlaren in JO33IC. On this location I wanted do some wspr experiments, it’s the village where my mother lives.
Mondayevening I switch on my equipment for WSPR, start on 30M. In combination with the attenuator I wanted to transmit with 50mW, but………….
I saw lines on my screen but no decodes. Very strange, I saw a kind of delay in the start on the screen. I was searching on the internet to see if this is a problem in combination with Windows 7, I found nothing. I never had this on my Laptop with XP.
In a Dutch forum I found something about the time synchronisation. I changed this to time.kpn.net .
On this tuesday I made a few cw qso’s, the most on 30M, with different stations in Europe.

During my stay in Friesland, we also visited the city of Harlingen. I toke a photo of the lighthouse in this place. The lighthouse is no longer in use but at a hefty price you can sleep here for a night.On Friday I came back from Bolsward and start up the equipment for WSPR. This time I saw decodes on my screen and stations saw also my transmissions.
Was “time.kpn.net” the solution? I’m not sure but it can be.
Saturday May 21, 14 different stations received my 50mW signals.

Saturdayevening it was time to go home.
It was a good feeling that I solved the problem to work WSPR on my new Laptop with Windows 7. Does anyone else have this experience?

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

WSPR & Homebrew

From Friday night my FT950 was running with WSPR on 40M. Given the results, I think that the conditions are not so good.
My 5 watts signal is heard by 4X1RF several times, a distance of over 3000km. 4X1RF was also my longest distance I received.

In 2 newsletters of the Benelux QRP Club is an article by Albert PA3EKN about an universal cw transmitter. The crystal, some capacitors and inductors are the determining factor for the hamband used.
Albert described this project in newsletter 64 and 96.In the junkbox I found the PCB of this project with the crystal 3.582 MHz, not very useful for QRP. I ordered crystals for different QRP frequencies, including 3.560 MHz, by Genesis Radio in Australia. This past week I have installed. The transmitter works for the first time very close to the desired frequency. With tuning C1, transmit frequency is 3.560 MHz.

To be continued ......









73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

WSPR 17M

When I was on the local meeting last Wednesday someone told me that 17M is in a good shape the last days. Special at the end of the day till late in the evening.
Yesterday I tuned my magnetic-loop for 17M to find out what was possible on this band. On that moment (21:00 UTC) I heard one weak ssb signal but didn't copy the callsign.
When I woke up this morning I saw on my laptop the results.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

WSPR & DXCC (qrp)

On Wednesday I had the whole day WSPR on 10M running. During this time I heard no signals from other WSPR stations. My signal was heard by 2 stations for a period.
PAøO heard my signal over a distance of 172km. What kind of propegation was this?

Every second Wednesday of the month we have a meeting with local radio amateurs in this area. During this evening the QSL manager of R30 is also present.
This time there where some QSL for me to. The card of UA9CSA jumped out for me.
This is a qso I made with my homemade Rockmite with a power of approximately 300mW. The confirmation of this QSO made the confirmed DXCC countries with QRP on 52.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

With 1 watts via WSPR to VK!

Yesterday my WSPR station listen and transmit on 40M. A lot of stations received my signals from 1 watts down to 50mW. VK6BN received my 1 watts more then one period.In the begin of the evening (May 7) I made my first qso on 10M for this season. S58P gave me a 55 with my 5 watts in SSB.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

With 1 watts to VK via WSPR!

Yesterday in the evening I setup my station for WSPR on 30M. Around 19:00 UTC 2 VK stations heard my 1 watts signal, VK2/VK6DI and VK2DAP. Distances around 16500 km.Later in the evening I made 2 CW qso's on 30M. Worked with OM30CAQ and a longer qso with SP7HOV, Zbig in Skierniewice. Both qso's with only 1 watts.

On my laptop I don't have the possibility to make graphics for my Blog. When I'm back home I update the Blog with pictures.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

WSPR on 30M, heard in Australia

Today I was around 16:00 UTC at home and switch on the WSPR program. This means that with an interval of about 12 minutes there is a broadcast of almost 2 minutes.
Almost every broadcast of my signal is heard in Australia. It seems that the propegation is going up.I'm using my FT950 with 5 watts and the magnetic-loop inside my house.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Meeting, KP4AO and WSPR

Yesterday I was at the annual meeting of the SRS/BQC. The program included 2 lectures:


Henk Vrolijk, PA0HPV, told about his visit to Bletchley Park.
Christian Roselaar, PA3FUN, talked about his experiences with various QRP kits. It is fun because I've built myself a Rockmite for 40M.
With all due respect to the real "Old men", I had the idea that I (age 41) was one of the youngest ham's during this meeting.
Photo's made by PA1AT

In the evening via the website Camras I listened to the signals of KP4AO. Too bad that I had no 70cm Yagi.

I connected the equipment for WSPR, after a break of almost 2 weeks. First on 30M and 40M now. Propegation is poor.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

WSPR from JO33ic (the village of Zuidlaren)

During the Easter weekend (Saturday April 3 to Monday April 5) I did some WSPR experiments from JO33IC (Zuidlaren) and made a 2 way QRP QSO on 40M.

My station is a Yaesu FT817 with a 10dB attenuator. The antenna I used is a ZEPP for 30M.



On this band I had all the WSPR experiments. This antenna is on the attic and a part outside.
The CW QSO, I made was with Will, GM0HKS. The nice thing about this QSO was that Will worked with a homemade transceiver of Howes. I builded this transceiver about 10 years ago but my transceiver is for 20m. At that time I had several qso's with it. Will has a sidetone in use, he goes for me to find the schematic.

The experiments with WSPR had only played on 30M. I felt that the propagation was not good and was afraid that they didn’t heard my 50mW signal. First I switched to 100mW and it went. Later in the day my 50mW signal was heard. Distances were between 600 and 1200 km.
Saturdayevenening was the longest distance when I saw on the WSPR site that 4X1RF in KM72LS heard my signal for 2 periods. A distance of 3186 km, and this with only 50mW!


73, Tjeerd - PA3GNZ

WSPR (QRPP) heard on several bands

With the attenuator of 10dB my signal is still heard, even though the distances are less.





This weekend I was active on 40/30/20 meters with the output of 500mW. At this moment I am tuned to 40M, see listPicture of activity on 40M.

73, Tjeerd - PA3GNZ

WSPR with 500mW

A good friend of my builded a 10dB attenuator. This means that the 5 watts signal from my Yaesu FT950 decrease to approximately 500mW. Today I started on 20M and a few stations heard my qrpp signal.Drawing made by PA1B

The ideas for creating an attenuator did I found on the webpage of Bert, PA1B.


73, Tjeerd - PA3GNZ

WSPR 20M

The last 24 hours my system is listening on 20M to WSPR signals. When I'm home the system is also transmitting.
At the end of the afternoon and begin of the evening signals from the States en Japan are coming in. In the morning there only a few signals from Europe.

73, Tjeerd - PA3GNZ

WSPR 30M, first time Japan

This afternoon I have build up my station for WSPR to receive and transmit. It's on 30M and after some minutes the data rolled over my the screen.
Pretty soon I noticed that my signal was heard in Australia. One station from Japan reported also my signal. This is the first time that my WSPR signal is heard in Japan.
In the evening I receive not to much cause interference in the reception by TV. Unfortunately my antenna can not be build up outside my apartment.


73, Tjeerd - PA3GNZ

WSPR on 30M, heard by VK's

In the last few days my WSPR signal on 30M was received in VK and ZL.
Today I came earlier at home and set the WSPR software to transmit. After the first period of almost 2 minutes the first results rolled over my screen. As you can see in the overview my signal is heard by 2 stations in Australia for more periods.
Today I set the filter in my FT950 at 850 Hz, this was on 1500Hz before.



73, Tjeerd - PA3GNZ

ZL station heard my WSPR signal on 30M

Yesterday a station from Australia heard my signal, today the distance record is broken.

If I'm not at home my laptop/transceiver is only listen to WSPR signals. Via the internet I saw that I've heard the signal of ZL2FT this afternoon for a few times with nice signals.
When I came home I put the software in the transmit mode to see what happened.
ZL2FT heard my signal 1 period. A new distance record, 18464 km.


73, Tjeerd - PA3GNZ

VK heard my WSPR signal on 30M

After the absence of some days I build up my transceiver and antenna for WSPR receive. After a few minutes, my signal is heard by several stations.
Great was my surprise when I saw that VK2GR in QF56LG reported my signal, a distance of 16602 km. This my longest distance with WSPR until now.

Not bad for 5 watts in a magnetic loop in my apartment.

73, Tjeerd - PA3GNZ