I built a couple of SoftRock RxTx Ensembles when Tony first introduced them in the spring of 2010. The poor things have been setting a lot and not being used very much except for CW QRP during the winter. Last week I discovered that Joe Taylor K1JT was developing a new version of WSPR. WSPR I had used last fall and winter some with my K3. It is a really neat propagation "beacon" tool and I enjoyed playing with it. But, it would tie up the K3, which I use for my VHF/UHF/Microwave IF. Well the new WSPR version (in pre-beta) is written for I/Q SDRs and operates with the SoftRock Ensemble RxTx via USB CAT. This version operates with I/Q signals for input/output instead of audio and is very easy to interface with the SoftRocks.

I have enjoyed running on 40m @ 200mw and 20m @ 100mw. I am just using dipoles on both bands and I hear and am being heard throughout NA as well as Europe. I am also hearing stations as far away as VK land on 40m and was copied and spotted by VK6XT on 20m with my 100mw!

It is pretty neat in that it can be running while I'm at the workbench or busy on VHF and when I wish I can check and see who as decoded my WSPR signal via the Internet. WSPRnet Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network Later versions of WSJT also support the WSPR mode for 2-way communications. Since each short message takes 2 min so send and receive, a QSO takes a fair amount of time. CW or JT65 would be faster. Another consideration is that WSPR uses freq shift keying of just six Hz, so frequency stability is very important. I have problems at 6m and above for example, just too much drift.

 

 Setup for my SoftRock Ensembles and WSPR 2.1 (beta)  

 





  A post on "WSPRnet  Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network" of me being copied.


    Timestamp       Call    MHz     SN  Drift  Grid  Pwr Reporter  RGrid     km    az 
 2010-09-23 23:00  K0AWU 14.097085  -26   0  EN37ed   0.1  VK6XT   OF86td   17016  288



 G4ILO's Excellent description of WSPR Operations


 SoftRock Order Page 


 WSPR Software


 KØAWU Main Page