K3UK, Andy's Whisper Guide:


Andy writes in an email april 9th, 2008:
I received an email elsewhere asking for help in getting WSPR to work.
I decided to share what I wrote as an addition to K1JT's documentation. I did not write a Bozo's Guide (as I did for JT65A) since WSPR is so simple even a Bozo like me can figure it out. Here is my quick guide.

Re: 30m Qrp Dx/WSPR Thanks, since I wrote the Bozo's Guide for K1JT's WSJT software, I thought of writing one for his new WSPT MEPT software but was unable to type for the past two weeks due to an injury. It is fairly simple anyway.

The software has only been out for a few short weeks and the software is in development, version 0.5.0 is the latest and it is the first release with a GUI, earlier versions in mid March were DOS only. 0.6.0 is due out in a few days, some minor improvements and better ability to decode some drifting signals. You can obtain the software from http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/

The quick summary for using the software is as follows.:

1. First , remember it is NOT a QSO mode. It is "manned experimental propagation transmitter". Stations transmit the audio tones at varying times (as determined by the software) for TWO minutes. It is a "slow" mode, so does well in very weak conditions. MANNED is important it is not intended for unattended operations.

2. Make sure your PC clock is sync'd with an Internet time server. If your clock is off by more than 5 seconds or so, other stations my have trouble decoding you.

3. Keep you power low, most are one watt or less, some 5 watts. More than 5 watts can cause too strong a signal and the software sometimes has difficulty decoding very strong signals.

4. In the SETUP/Options area of the software. Enter your callsign, grid square , PTT port, and power in dBMm (example 30 dBM = one watt). Go to http://www.radioing.com/eengineer/rfcalc.html for some dB to watt conversion help. (tnx K2MO).

5. That is all you need to do for set-up , if you have more than one soundcard in your PC, you may need to additionally change the device settings if you want to use the NON-default soundcard.

6. Tune to a known WSPR/MEPT frequency. 30M is the most popular with 10.138,6 the standard listening frequency.

7. In the main WSPR window, enter 10.1386 in the RX box and then choose a TX frequency

8. The TX frequency is the frequency the soundcard will generate the tones. Your RIG should NOT be in split mode. Just keep your VFO on 10.1386 USB. Your TX audio tones should be around 1500 Hz above the RX frequency. The software has a default 30M TX frequency, I suggest you change it so that everyone is NOT transmitting on the same frequency. I use 10.140119 In the following example, you will see what other frequencies people are using ..

080409 0120 4 -16  0.7 10.140163 VE7TIL CN89 30
080409 0120 5 -14 -0.6 10.140198 WA7ADK DN31 18

VE7TIL was received by my rig on 10.149163
WA7ADK was received by my rig on 10.140198

Other slow mode weak signal operators use near by frequencies, WSPR users are asked to make sure that you do not set you transmit settings BELOW 10.140100 since the "visual" MEPT folks use that area.

9. In the main WSPR window you can choose to select the "RX" button just to receive ONLY or you can select 20%, 25%, or 33% T/R option. The T/R option is a ratio of how often your rig transmits in one hour. I usually choose 20%/. The software then listens most of the time but 20% of the hour it will transmit. Sometimes , when you boot up the software it may wait several minutes before it decides to transmit. If you want to force a transmit, choose the TX option. Make sure you turn this option OFF eventually because your rig will transmit for 2 minutes , pause for a few seconds , and then transmit for another two minutes and repeat UNTIL you turn it off! Please note that the software , when it is going to transmit, waits until the top of an even minute. It does NOT transmit every even minute if you choose T/R 20, 25, 33%, but when it does transmit it will wait until the top of an even minute.

10. When you run the software at first, you will see an inactive waterfall. The current version has a waterfall that updates ONLY every two minutes. After your software have run for a few minutes you may see WSPR signals as narrow lines that are HORIZONTAL on the waterfall. The waterfall does not display the signal "live" but a later version may add this capability

11. After the software has run for a few minutes you may receive decodes signals, they will be displayed as... 080409 0200 2 -14 1.0 10.140128 KL7QR DM33 30 The above line is date, time decoded, sync, signal to noise ration in dB, DT, received frequency, callsign, grid square, noise level. Please note that this mode is very NARROW, about 6HZ wide. You can find a lot of signals in the 200 Hz wide frequency range that the software monitors. The software has the ability to decode several signals at the same time, I recently decoded FIVE signals at the signals. I started a web page for people to spot each other, it became so popular that is was moved to another server and a database of all spots was created. You can use a small batch file to automate the uploading of your received signals to the database. Go to http://www.wsprnet.org/ for details. This site is now run by W1BW and the coding was done by N8FQ. As I type this, the following stations are connected
Users seen in last 10 minutes:
9V1LF - F4FQM - F6IRF - K1JT - K3UK - K7ZTM - KS7S - LA6TPA - N3TFM - TF3HZ - VE7KPB - W1BW - WD4KPD

and some of the latest in the database are...
Power Reported Distance Date Call Freq SNR Grid dBm Rec by loc km mi
2008-04-09 02:08 K7ZTM 10.140222 -12 DN41ab +27 0.501 K1JT FN20qi 3124KM 1941 Miles
2008-04-09 02:08 WB3ANQ 10.140118 -14 FM19rc +27 0.501 WA7ADK DN31wd 3014 1873
2008-04-09 02:08 K7ZTM 10.140224 -22 DN41ab +27 0.501 WA7ADK DN31wd 16 10
2008-04-09 02:08 K7ZTM 10.140208 -5 DN41ab +27 0.501 W1BW FN42hl 3338 2074
2008-04-09 02:06 W1BW 10.140265 -22 FN42hl +20 0.100 WA7ADK DN31wd 3349 2089

Stations known to be active (mostly 30M) on WSPR are...
Africa
ZS4SS ZS6ANZ
North America AI3W, K0MVJ K0OG K1JT K2MO K2RMM K3SIW K3UK K4CML K4GST K6MBY K7EK K7GRR K7MAC K7PDW K7ZTM K9FH K9XL KA3BPN KB0BFI KC0BMF KC2EE KC2QII KC2RXS KC8YJJ KD2E KD5RYZ KE7ACY KF7CQ KI4MTI KI7JA KL7QR KO5G KS7S KU4PY KU7Z N1EO N2BJW N2JR N3TFM N3TXH N4AU N5UKZ N6KMR N7BCP N8FQ N9ADG N9DSJ N9EGT N9VN NC5O NH7C VA7CAN VE0GKM VE1RBR VE1RG VE1VDM VE2AHS VE2JD VE3CDX VE5MU VE5TLW VE6CPP VE6OG VE7KPB VE7TIL W0KP W0TUP W1BW W1FVB W1TAG W1XT W3NF W4LDE W5KI W6CQZ W6IZU W6OUU W6SZ W7AGJ W7CNK W7EME W7GLF W7IUV W7MY W8ERN W8LIW W9RAY W9RVG W9SE WA3LTB WA3USG WA5DJJ WA6ZKY WA7ADK WA8WDQ WB2JEP WB2YDS WB3ANQ WB5NMZ WB8PMG WB8ROL WB8SKP WB9F WB9IIV WD0M WD4KPD WE2XGR WN1X WU9Q WW7Y
Carribbean :
CO2JA
Asia.
7L4IOU JE5FLM JH3ECA 9V1LF , VR2BT
Europe:
9H1ZZ DF1HK DF2LV DF7ML DG0OPK DG5VO DH8SA DH8WE DJ3IW DK6AJ DK7OM DL1VBN DL2LAU DL3VDL DL4SUN DL5SWB DL8EBW DL9KQ EI9FV F4FQM F5DM F5MFO F6IRF F8RZ G0DJA G0HNW G0NBD G3TXA G3ZJO G4AIU G4DZU G4RGK G4WGT G6AVK GI8HXY HA8AR HB9BRJ I2KBC I2KBD IK1RKU IK4GBU IK7UXY IS0XDA OE1MSB OH2GQC IZ1KXQ LA5VNA LA6TPA M1CBH OH2ZT OH3QN OH5RM OH7JJT ON4LP ON5UQ OP5X OV1A OY3JE OY9RHH OZ1DJJ OZ1IEZ OZ1PIF OZ5AGQ PA0OCD PA0ZN PA1SDB PA5DD RA3AET S56EPX SM0IKR SM6NZV TF3HZ
South America
LU9DO, PR8ZK.
Middle East
YK1AO
Oceania
VK2BOD VK2XGJ VK4BDJ VK7RO VK7TS ZL1ANY ZL1BPU ZL1BT ZL1WN

Andy K3UK
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Last modified 10.04.2008, Peter Frenning