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Showing posts from March, 2011

The ultimate test is saying it works 100% stable ...

To be 100% sure  if a system works  absolute stable  you just have to provoke it  by saying: this system is working 100% stable... And wait what happens.. I did that yesterday  and today  after weeks  i had to restart WSPR  and reset the   network connection. The time was out of sync  and after reseting the w-lan  interface the WSPR  timer was struck.    For the first time as far i can remember.. This very bold statement  really  wakes up mystic powers in equipment..

Stability of XP USB prolific WSPR N1MM

3 months   Since the end of last year until now  i have a Dell Optiplex GX620  P4 running   with Windows XP -32 (X86)  WSPR is running  24x7   i have had no hangers   no reboots needed. I am using the Prolific chip USB-serial  adapter.   This Prolific is suspected to have errors when using it with N1MM But it never gave an error with WSPR. One time i had an error with N1MM  during the PACC contest. The frequency displayed at the logger was out of control. That was corrected by reset interface  it did not occur again. This same error appeared very often when using W7-64 pro  and  N1MM+ prolific (or any other??)  USB-serial. My conclusion  is  100% stable for WSPR and almost 100% with N1MM The same time I purchased an other  W-LAN router The Eminent Gigalink 300N  to get rid of the Linksys router that is giving RFI on shortwave. I am using the WRT54G V5 with an outdoor antenna. I could not replace the Linksys WRT54G V5    because the 300N standard uses 3 antennas in a spe

WSPR discusion on EHAM And still copy WD2XSH/17 @ 0.495890 MHz

I recently posted my enthusiast article about using   WSPR  when i am not in the shack or even not at home. I got a lot of response some positive reaction even... It seems that WSPR  is not so well known . some HAM's  where afraid that there would be an invasion of QRM of Robot stations when everyone would use this like i do 24/7/365.. And they where wondering how much radio spectrum would be used ... although I just explained 200Hz band-slots... Reading and listening is not as easy as it seems. Although  i explained  briefly  WSPR  is using a very small band slice 200Hz and low power, still  the old packet radio QRM  stories came up. Some HAM  possible did confuse WSPR with other DIGI modes that are not as silent and effective in power and frequency use.  Operating a radio unattended is not allowed in USA at some or all? frequencies.  But it can be controlled remote if necessary. Mainly the pain was about the 7040kHz . QRP operations could be QRM'd..   But how ma

Back from Egypt

I was 2 weeks in Egypt again for  QRL reason. We stayed 50 s-east of Baltim  close to the Mediterranean coast. http://looklex.com/egypt/baltim.htm     Thousands of hand build  dows sailing boats can be seen there. These boats are  unique. The Egyptians are decorating their trucks boats and Tuk tuk's  artistic  xtremely.    This region is the coolest part of Egypt. It can be very cool here  but this time it was nice  15 -20 mostly. Sand beaches  and dunes.   And inland farmer land typical for the Nile delta. This land is almost wetland partly it has some elements in common with our country. But still waste is dumped along roads and canals like 20 years ago. I would say a primary task of the new Egyptian government would be to clean up this.  I fact the people here live very close with nature  as we did hundred years ago. Also we did dump our waste like this. But now we have plastics with long recycle time and plastic junk is covering unused land everwhere. Also in Maroc i h

Just after the weekend some improvement

Monday  28 quite good with 12 VK's  active.    28MHz  Outside EU/USA/VK  the WSPR world is very empty   2 Africa  1 South America  4  Asia.. Yes ... just after the weekend Monday morning the expected  improvement of propagation is there. But with WSPR  there is no difference to Saturday or  Monday morning  this radio mode tricks out the god of propagation... I remember the Magic band also came alive  after the weekend or short before..  I bit logic because the weekend still is shorter   helas. 5/7 x100%  more chance that anything interesting happens during the work week. 160m is very poor.  Last 24 hours   no EU report >1000km!  T30RH  will be extreme difficult to catch at 160 for me. (us here) The days get longer  for the first time i came home in daylight.  .. just when i wrote this i saw VK6ZT reporting G F and me too..  2011-03-07 22:04   PA0O   1.838044   -22   0   JO33hg   5   VK6ZT   OF78sq   13966 so there is more live on 160 then i thought Possibly

High solar activity

No elevated propagation yet Sun remains  active. I was expecting something this weekend but propagation was flat. One day  8 VK decodes next day 1 only  on 80m. Good that WSPR does not give up like a radio operator would do after   listening to noise 1 day... Again we did  the weekend cycle trip. This time the long tour  118km Dry but  strong cold wind from north. No cold feet this time with the shoe sleeves.  Mean time WSPR  on 10 and 15 so I was active beit  fully automatic but better then being QRT i think. I let the ARRL SSB contest pass. No decodes at .495500     but this time again some setting was wrong again the  RX-ANT  was off  so the loop was not connected.  Looks like we can forget 160 and 600m the WSPR 160m results looks like 144MHz... a bit. Our 500kHz experimental licence was ended 1 January but later for some licences ? it was extended to 1 April.  I never received a notice about it.  I stopped TX-ing  already. Only SWL 500kHz now  my best result was  a 2

80M is the best DX band here

Although the vertical  i use is far from optimal. It is a vertical wire hung down  about 3m in parallel with the main mast.  The top 2m is horizontally sloped away to a tree. I needs slight tuning  with the K3 tuner. I think i can improve it with a side fiber beam  on top to keep it as far as possible from the main mast.  Then it will be a full 1/4 wave vertical again. The best must be a 1/4 wave in the open  field. I do not know how to estimate the performance of this antenna. Comparing  with other WSPR  setups  with small loops only will make it look like a super antenna..   I have good results also in the CW part of 80m.  And bad result in the local PA-beker hence most power must go at low angle ..   2011-03-04 16:22   VK7DIK   3.594043   -26   0   QE28sf   5   PA0O   JO33hg   16731   307   2011-03-04 16:28   VK7DIK   3.594043   -24   0   QE28sf   5   PA0O   JO33hg   16731   307   2011-03-04 18:52   PA0O   3.594145   -23   0   JO33hg   5   VK7DIK   QE28sf   16731   84   2011

Good propagation this weekend?

Now the bands are deep down some days Only 80m gave good DX results with VK7DIK  and  VK6ZT   With the present high solar activity  I expect a period with good propagation. Possible the coming weekend it will be good  since it is always an up and down cycle also with high solar activity. Last 24  hours only  very few  28MHz  EU decodes DK6UG JN49cm  to V53ARC   south DL  and Italy VK DX record 144MHz  2657km! 2011-03-02 18:14 VK6DZ 144.490501 -28 0 OF84ux 10 VK2KRR QF34mr 2657 99 2011-03-02 10:32 VK6DZ 144.490449 -19 -2 OF84ux 10 VK5BC PF95jj 1922 95 2011-03-02 20:50 VK5BC 144.490495 -19 3 PF95jj 20 VK6DZ OF84ux 1922 263  2011-03-02 23:04 VK6DZ 144.490582 -24 0 OF84ux 10 VK5ZK PF94jl 1911 98  2011-03-02 11:14 VK5AKK 144.490521 +1 0 PF94ix 50 VK6DZ OF84ux 1909 264  2011-03-02 11:12 VK6DZ 144.490466 -4 0 OF84ux 10 VK5AKK PF94ix 1909 96 

run your radio as WSPR beacon when not in the shack!

Maybe I am not telling you any news but this WSPR  system is a real  genius system. Easy to set up.  It needs a PC  + internet for time synchronization and logging in the WSPR database. If a Transceiver   already is used for data RTTY / PSK    it is practical ready to be a WSPR beacon. It uses the same audio  CAT connections. WSPR is a full automatic multi band beacon TX and RX system that uses very low power and very small frequency resources.  More information at:   http://wsprnet.org/drupal/ I have always been active in CW  and other  non   PC  related communication. But this WSPR  is just to good and simple  not to be used when your radio station is idle. 1W power would be enough  in a simple GP f.i.  to run a WSPR beacon that will be reported  over the Globe! I  am  running my station as WSPR beacon  when away QRL  or doing something else. I simply do not understand why a lot of DX-rs  do not make use of this GREAT!  beacon system. I get reports from VK ZL on the low bands

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