I got the WSJT-X program running on my notebook. The program includes the WSPR mode, ant that is what I have been running mostly, because it can run unattended.
Bands from 630m to 10m have been tested, mostly on receive only, and the results are encouraging.
- 630m have shown spots from Europe, up to about 2000km.
- one night 40m showed and FY5 many times, and just a few days ago VK6XT came through with more than 10 spots in an evening, one evening my 5W signal was spotted by VK6XT once or twice.
- 80m mostly shows European stations
- then there is 10m. This band has shown low activity in December and January, with some local spots and scattered spots from EA8 and a few sporadic E openings into Europe. Today I have had three surprise spots from VK2KRR until now. It looks like 10m is waking up a bit from the winter doldrums.
Having said that, I have also been listening to beacons on 10m, and the 4X6TU and ZS6DN beacons, as well as 5B5CY are frequent visitors in my receiver. Also some Mediterranean fishing buoys have been heard on a multitude of frequencies on 10.
10m is not dead, as such, it just lacks some dedicated operators.
Almost all this WSPR receiving activity has happened with my old Dressler active antenna, not dedicated resonant antennas. Just shows that the antenna requirements for propagation monitoring are not that big. The active antenna, though not as efficient as a dedicated antenna, works surprisingly well.
WSPR receiving is done here more or less continuously. Transmit activity will require a dedicated transceiver and antenna, so will only be active when I am in and around the house. I am thinking of testing some of the cheap Raspberry Pis to do more WSPRing.
Update 1100Z : I just spotted VK6DZ on 10m.
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