Hi all...
Just curious as to what people think about wspr, and basically do you think its starting to lose some interest...
I just logged in to take a look.....and there was only 2 from AU on 30m, nobody here on 17m which at the time was the second best band to work into Europe..but only about 3 operators around the world....
Is it that people struggle to make heads or tails out of what they are seeing.....ie is the propagation any good for other modes...
I notice there is about 40-50 spotters most times of the day around the world, spotting CW....which would be a better indication of good propagation...maybe ?
John
WSPR interest dying ?
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VK2GOM
Re: WSPR interest dying ?
Hi John, interesting observation.
I have used WSPR extensively in the past, but now use it much less.
Whilst it was fun to see who 'heard' my station overnight in the mornings, they were never actual QSO's, and were almost tempting me with 'look at who you could have worked'.
So now I prefer to actually make the contacts using a QSO data mode.
And as you say, the CW reverse beacon is useful. I can put out a CW CQ, get no reply, then go to the RB network and see I was heard by a CW skimmer thousands of km away
73 - Rob VK2GOM / G0MOH
I have used WSPR extensively in the past, but now use it much less.
Whilst it was fun to see who 'heard' my station overnight in the mornings, they were never actual QSO's, and were almost tempting me with 'look at who you could have worked'.
So now I prefer to actually make the contacts using a QSO data mode.
And as you say, the CW reverse beacon is useful. I can put out a CW CQ, get no reply, then go to the RB network and see I was heard by a CW skimmer thousands of km away
73 - Rob VK2GOM / G0MOH
-
VK2KRR
Re: WSPR interest dying ?
Hi John
I would have to say that WSPR usage has increased, but operation from some VK stations has decreased, but this is a general trend for all aspects in VK as many operators seems to prefer watching TV
they can maybe become accidental TV DXers, im not sure
Firstly this is a image of the WSPR map past 3 hours. I pretty much cant look beyond 3 hours on all bands as the sheer volume of spots will lock my computer up. Keep in mind most of this is VK night time.
BUT! The real statistics are very easy to find from the 'Statistics' tab on the WSPR homepage.
Firstly, this graph is the spots per day, 7 day moving average -
This graph is stations participating per day, 7 day moving average -
So from these two, you can see there is an overall increasing trend, but which also has highs and lows, most probably depending on solar activity and propagation.
Another 2 charts to add but will need to start another message, just a moment.
I would have to say that WSPR usage has increased, but operation from some VK stations has decreased, but this is a general trend for all aspects in VK as many operators seems to prefer watching TV
they can maybe become accidental TV DXers, im not sure Firstly this is a image of the WSPR map past 3 hours. I pretty much cant look beyond 3 hours on all bands as the sheer volume of spots will lock my computer up. Keep in mind most of this is VK night time.
- WSPR past 3 hours
Firstly, this graph is the spots per day, 7 day moving average -
- Spots per day - 7 day moving average
- Stations participating per day
Another 2 charts to add but will need to start another message, just a moment.
-
VK2KRR
Re: WSPR interest dying ?
This is a pie chart of overall spots by band -
This is a pie chart of spots by band, past 14 days -
You can see by these that 30 and 40m band spots have reduced somewhat, and that 20m has taken over half of the total spots. Looks like 17m band is staying quite the same.
- Overall band spots
- Spots by band past 14 days
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VK5PJ
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Re: WSPR interest dying ?
Hi John,
The mode has some merrit but also could do with some flexability built into it so it can deal with doppler and phase distortion commonly found on VHF paths.
Regards,
Peter, vk5pj
Yes I think interest in the mode has waned in VK as there is often no sense of achivement for the effort put in and some times thats what it takes to keep up our interests. I was an early adopter of the mode after hearing a segment about it on a WIA news brodcast some years ago but after running it non stop for quite a while I came to the conclusion that it took up too many resources in the shack. It needed the PC, the internet feed and the rig to all be on 24x7, then I had people telling me I had to "improve my rig" or "your timing was out" and some times in quite nasty wordings in chats and emails so I scaled back my involvement to "rainy days" or when the mood took me.VK2FAK wrote:Hi all...
Just curious as to what people think about wspr, and basically do you think its starting to lose some interest...
John
The mode has some merrit but also could do with some flexability built into it so it can deal with doppler and phase distortion commonly found on VHF paths.
Regards,
Peter, vk5pj
Last edited by VK5PJ on Sun May 13, 2012 9:22 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: WSPR interest dying ?
The bottom line is that you don't actually make a contact with WSPR.
JT65-HF has similar weak signal performance and you get a contact on the log.
WSPR has it's place but for the time I have moved on to JT65-HF.
JT65-HF has similar weak signal performance and you get a contact on the log.
WSPR has it's place but for the time I have moved on to JT65-HF.
Re: WSPR interest dying ?
To me, WSPR is what you use when you are not in the shack. Just set it going and leave it. If in the shack then JT65HF is probably what I would use. Having said that I am on neither after moving QTH, no antenna for HF and sadly no trees to put a dipole up so for the time being, off HF otherwise WSPR would be on.
73 Phil...VK6ADF