Home
M0PWX's QRSS Basics Page
This Page aims to help others who are new to or Curious about this
strange mode called QRSS
So lets have a look at QRSS and its uses
Like WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter), QRSS is used to study propagation at various frequencies
It is a more fun and visual mode but needs more manual / visual analysis of the results. Unlike WSPR which has sites like WSPRNet.org that WSJT-x report into, QRSS has no real central reporting site to easilly allow you to list where you get, the closest is swarden.com which is a page with over a 100 grabber feeds from grabbers in the US, EU, iceland, going through them to find a signal is a slow and time consuming thing, there are other grabbers around the world, and people like G0FTD have a feed on there where they connect to SDR's around the world for a few hours at a time to watch for QRSS signal where there are no regular grabbers
the main mode is FSKCW, Frequency Shift CW, many also use Slow Hell to write their callsign in the waterfall and finally the fun bit, some even design graphics that are sent in a similar method to slow hell, most stations that transmit QRSS ensure the start of a frame is on a 10 minute interval, this allows frame stacking to resolve weaker signal (see examples below)
Below are a few examples of the main types of Grabs you will see on the sites and there main uses
Type of screen |
Image |
Use |
| 20 Minurte Grab |  |
This is the main image you will see on grabbers it is used to identify the good QRSS signals, and those whiwhich do not start on a 10 minute interval |
| 6/12 grab average stack |
 |
Stacking images tend to negate an noise on images as its random nature will average out, but signals will always appear higher than the background noise so will become more visible Averaged stacks are the main method of reading signals which fade in and out but over the 6 of the 20 minute frames ( you get 12 10 minute interval frames) you should get enough signals to show the complete QRSS ID |
| 6/12 grab Peak stack |
 |
Stacking images tend to negate an noise on images as its random nature will average out, but signals will always appear higher than the background noise so will become more visible Peak stacks are the main method of reading weaker signals stack of the 6 of the 20 minute frames ( you get 12 10 minute interval frames) you should get enough signals to show the complete QRSS ID |
| 24 hour grab summary |  |
this is a useful mode to see how propagation affects reception of the band chosen over a 24 hour period this is the 20m band and you can see currently over night very little is recieved, dawn when this grab was taken is about 7:30am and dusk about 3:30pm and you can see how suddenly signals appear about an hour after dawn, and fade out at dusk or soon after these 24 grabs really do provide a very graphic image of band activity due to changes in propagation |