Shhhh... WSPR

After seeing WSPR pop up a coupld of places recently I decided to set it up.

WSPR (pronounced "whisper") stands for Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, a program that implements transmitting and receiving for a digital soundcard mode called MEPT_JT, an acronym for Manned Experimental Propagation Tests by Joe Taylor, K1JT.

It took me a little fiddling to get it to work right, but It seems to be working. Here are a couple of stations I heard last night:

Date         Call Frequency SNR Drift Grid dBm W by loc km mi
 2008-04-24 10:16   F6IRF   10.140265   -24   -1   JN35au   +36   3.981   W1WRA   FN42ip   5922   3680 
 2008-04-24 10:10   W1BW   10.140229   -10   -1   FN42hl   +20   0.100   W1WRA   FN42ip   19   12 
 2008-04-24 10:08   K1JT   10.140152   -24   -1   FN20qi   +30   1.000   W1WRA   FN42ip   377   234 
 2008-04-24 09:24   CT1BYK   10.140216   -29   -1   IM59pf   +30   1.000   W1WRA   FN42ip   5150   3200 
 2008-04-24 05:48   F9HS   10.140208   -19   1   JN23at   +30   1.000   W1WRA   FN42ip   5882   3655 

Sorry for the format being slightly off. I have been running mostly in RX mode, and will sometimes turn on TX mode for a bit. I think I will let it receive during the day to see what other stations I can hear.

Retro Messaging

So I have been geeking out a bit lately. Here are a couple things I have been doing:

Setup my Macbook to dual boot Mac OS and Ubuntu (a great writeup on the howto can be found here) So far everything is working out pretty well.

I compiled TIN and started reading some radio related newsgroups. While the noise floor is high, there is still some signal in there. My usenet provider also has text articles that go back to 2003 which makes watching old threads, etc interesting.

Rounding out retro messaging, I recently downloaded SyncTerm. SyncTERM is a nice multi-platform BBS terminal program. I have been slowly finding a couple of BBSs to telnet/ssh to. This really brings me back to 1986 with my 1200 baud modem. A couple of BBSs I have been checking out are:

scannerbbs.dyndns.org
bbs.k5jat.com
rrx.ca

If anyone has any other BBS suggestions let me know.

Speaking of BBSs, sometime next weekend I think I will dig out the KPC3+ TNC and see if there are any packet BBSs left in the area. I know APRS is very active in the area, and I know a couple of DX CLusters are still on the air. I wonder what else might still be around.

ARRL LOTW Busy

Looks like people like to use ARRL's Logbook of the World on Saturday mornings.



Screenshot taken at 9:04 am EST.

Radio Status Page

Well I think I am going to try to put a ham website up again. I will probably feature this blog there plus other content. One thing I did do yesterday is update my radio status page - http://www.w1wra.net/radio_status.html . It is kinda neat. When I am on the radio it will refresh every minute showing frequency, operating mode, and if I remember to turn it on an updated picture.

I did not play too much ham radio yesterday but I did make a few interesting contacts - Cayman Islands on 15m, Crete on 20m, and France on 40m. My France contact is really my first 'dx' on 40m. I tend to ham it up during the weekend days so the logs are full of 20m/17m/15m contacts.

I did do some other fun radio stuff yesterday. I went out and got a small 2 shelf shelf, and rearranged the shack a bit. I now have a few of my scanners back online. I still need to get my pcr-1000 back online but the base scanners are in place, and I setup a couple of HTs as well. I also moved my power supply and voltage regulator over to the shelf. Things are getting a bit more organized. Only thing tat is missing now is a new large battery(ies?) for a 12v backup power source. I will have to hitup an upcoming ham radio flea/swapfest soon for one. Perhaps NearFest ?

Finally, I have been slowly practicing to take my extra exam. I have not had too much time to put into it, but I am practice testing in the high 60s/low 70s. I am going to try to put 15-30 minutes a day reviewing material so I can upgrade soon during one of the upcoming hamfests or ve session. Wish me luck.

73 de Bill
W1WRA

Quick Update

Just a quick update.

I have not updated the blog in forever. I have been active on HF lately. Yesetrday I worked a number of stations during the SP and MO QSO party. Also worked some 10 meter DX in Argentina.

I have also been hanging out in ham radio related IRC rooms (hi guys), as well has starting to play with echolink again. One place you will probably find me is the dodropin conference. I hung out there for awhile this evening and they seemed like a good bunch of guys.

73 for now
Bill