WSPR receive and flea market

Using the same equipment and QTH as last time I now finally tried the WSPR system that I´ve heard a lot about lately. I only run with receive but I hope to be able to transmit sometime soon. Basically WSPR is a narrow digital mode to be used as a beacon. When you receive and decode a WSPR station, which is done automatically in the software, it uploads the spot to a central database and can be tracked by other users.


Here are a few links to get more information about WSPR:

http://wsprnet.org/drupal/

http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wspr.html%20


Here are the 2 most noteworthy catches in terms of power and distance:

G4PEC 30m 0.001W 1060km

RA9CUA 17m 2W 2710km


The complete log can be found here:

WSPR log SA5BKE 20100417



This weekend I also went to some flea markets to look for interesting equipment. I came home with these things:

2 Valve radios that of course included variable capacitors, an old box with big variable resistors, some kind of alarm controller (atleast a box for other project) and an equalizer. Also got some telescopic antennas and cables (twin lead and speaker cable). I didn´t pay much, so I think it was a bargain!

QS1R, WinradHD and Solar Storm

I´ve had the QS1R receiver for about 1,5 years now. It´s a great receiver, one of the most advanced software defined radios that you can get among those aimed for private use. The major reason why I bought it instead of the Perseus is the openness. All code is GPL! The software architecture is really first class, where DSP are done in a server process and the GUI is in another one.

The major drawback with the current state of QS1R software is unfortunately that it lacks spectrum recording, maybe the most important feature for a DX listener. The idea of recording a wide bit of the AM band on top of the hour and then be able to go over every interesting frequency at a later time is something we have got used to. Luckily I can use the QS1R with another software, Winrad orginally developed by Alberto I2PHD, that supports recording. A new version of an alternative version of Winrad called WinradHD was recently released and also a new DLL plugin for QS1R was released also. Now I can record up to 2 MHz wide but I only need  around 1200 kHz (1710 - 530). A lot of HD is needed.

I tried to listen for DX on the morning of 5th of April  with only a mini whip antenna (designed by PA0RDT), see top image. K-index was from 3-7 so no transatlatic DX was noted I thought at first and we are also late in the season, but after a closer look on the files I see that there are some sunrise improvements and around 0400 UTC there are some Latin American stations on the higher portion of the band (1400 - 1600). I´ve not had time to go through them so I can put definite IDs but my guess is that it´s stations from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. I hope to try this receiving setup more during the Spring.

Medium Wave DX-ing

When I rediscovered the radio hobby 4-5 years ago my main interest soon become medium wave DX-ing. It means that I like to try to listen for local AM stations mostly from America. It could be sports, news, music or other kind of stations. In south and central america it become a little more challenging as the language is usually Spanish. One might wonder what´s the fun of that. I think it´s a great hobby in many different ways.

It could be technically challenging both with receivers and antennas. One of the most common medium wave dx antennas is the Beverage antenna . It´s basically a wire that goes horizontally  in the direction of the desired area (North America for example) and is usually put in the trees in the woods, for at least a couple of hundred meters.But you could of course get lucky with simpler antennas. During the Winter I´ve been able to receive some stations even with a portable radio with ferrite antenna.

The American radio stations are spaced 10 kHz apart compared to the Europeans that are 9 kHz apart. You can see the carriers of both European and American stations in the image above.

Another aspect is language and geography. Sometimes you never know where the conditions will take you. In one minute you are in Cuba and then you are in New York, as an example.

The third aspect is hunt and collect. It´s always fun to receive a new station that you have not heard before. You can also send a letter to the station and ask for a confirmation that you heard the station, but that´s something that I don´t do any longer as the stations are usually not interested at all to receive a letter from a geek in Sweden...

I haven´t been listening to the medium wave during the last months (when it´s been very good conditions!) mostly due to that fact that I can´t devote as much time to the hobbies as I want, and the little time that has been there was used to study for the ham radio license.

But you might wonder how  an American AM station sound like when it´s received in Sweden? Here´s some examples of a few stations that are not that uncommon:

680 WRKO Boston MA "This is Boston's talk station AM 6-80 WRKO"

1070 KNX Los Angeles CA "This is KNX 10-70 AM and HD"

1190 WLIB New York NY "Your praise and inspiration station"

QSL

Lennart SE5X, is a friend in the DX listening club that has helped me with different areas of the radio hobby. The plan was to have my first QSO with him, but he came second. So I was very pleased when I received my first ham radio QSL card with the post some days ago from him. Thanks Lennart! 

First QSO

Ok, now it´s done. First QSO completed. I did check in to the local club net a while ago, but today I heard SM5DVP call CQ on the nearby Echolink node SL5ZYT-L on 145.275 kHz that I happened to monitor. I answered and had a nice chat with him. He was in Eskilstuna connected over Internet and I used my newly purchased  Wouxun KG-UVD1P . It´s a nice radio with very good value for money I think. I will buy another battery and BNC connection so I can connect it to some other antenna later on. I want to try out satellite communication. Talking about Echolink I have signed up and validated my call sign. I will try it later on to see if it´s any good.