Removal of WSPR VHF spot frequencies in IARU Region 1

 At the beginning of June 2016 the WSPR VHF spot frequencies in IARU Region 1  where removed from the band plans.

At the time I wrote this response but have only now decided to publish it.

 

I'm new to VHF WSPR and am really enjoying it. I've been on Two for over 30 years and if you'd ask me before I started using WSPR if I could put a signal into JO23 (600Km) with 5 Watts under flat band conditions I would have said noway but with WSPR I can! I'm impressed and would like to find out what more can be done. So I'm not going away yet but I do believe we should take the olive branch offered by the RSGB VHF Manager and on Two, which is where the problem seems to be, all just QSY to DIAL 144.490500MHz.

We should also ask the VHF Managers to re-read their handbook paying particular attention to these passages;

“The basic philosophy behind bandplanning should be:

• to assign frequencies for certain activities in such a way that all current users can practice

the various modes of amateur radio with a minimum of mutual interference, provided they

are using state-of-the-art equipment and communication techniques”.

“Technical investigations by amateurs, be it in the classical field of propagation research or on

modern digital communication techniques etc. are a laudable and legitimate aspect of amateur activity”.

“The definition of the Amateur Service implies that bandplanning should take into account all

aspects of amateur radio – self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations.

Consequently, for any band the bandplan should aim to accommodate for the maximum

number of amateur activities (modes, techniques), both now and in the future.

Clearly there are impossible situations: CCIR ATV cannot be carried out in the 144 MHz

allocation etc”.

WSPR, JT65 and other screen shots

Here are some screen shots that should be largely self explanatory but I'll add more if I think necessary.

1296.500MHz WSPR 

The 220km path on 23cms

WSPR & JT65 at he same time on 30 metres

The relocated GB3USK beacon on 23cms not to strong with me

200 mW heard in Antarctica

A good day on 70MHz

WSPR setup

Here's my WSPR setup.
Two Metres: home brewed hybrid SDR (has IF at 10.7MHz) nine element Tonna.
Four Metres; home brewed SDR loosely based on a design by WB6DHW and a two element HB9CV
 Have the same arrangement on Six but not used it to date.
Can also receive using home brewed TRX with SDR IQ output from 160 to 2.
Antennas are 80 metres from the house with amplifiers and pre-amps in shed below the mast.
Keeping power low has been no small challenge!

Four Metre Screen

Two Metre Spots

WSPR from an alternative address

 I have recently return from a holiday to the South coast of England. I felt it would be great fun to operate WSPR from the holiday cottage that overlooks Start Bay. It is a wonderful location. With fantastic sea views. So I was keen to see what spots I could get.

I took along my old IC 706 but did not have an antenna suitable for HF. I did however have a mobile whip that I could press into service. At least put it on to the car and see how well that would work. I didn't know where it would be possible to install an antenna otherwise. Looking around the cottage I realized that it would be possible to suspend the mobile whip from the guttering.

The antenna hanging from the gutter

So I set about doing this, as you can see from the picture. It was quite close to the cottage and had no ground plane. So I was not sure how well it would work or how or where it would match. But I discovered that it matched quite well around about 10 MHz. So the choice was obvious, I would use the antenna on 30 Metres. I had already reduced the output power from the 706 to just one Watt.  So with one Watt, a tablet and a makeshift antenna I gave 30 Metres a try. To my amazement the first spot came from Australia, the next from North America. Quite something for one watt and a lashed up antenna. I continued to WSPR on 30 Metres for the following two days, but then decided to try 20 Metres and retuned the antenna slightly. I found the results were not as good. Seems as if 30 Metres is a good band, one I have not tried before.

Although it was interesting to see where I could reach on HF I decided that Two Metres would be worth a try as well. But as I did not have an antenna with me for Two I had to set about making a dipole which I did using a plastic coat hanger and some stainless steel rod. Listening around it seem to recieve signals fairly well from the high vantage point overlooking the sea. So I decided to post on the WSPR Facebook page that I was operating from an alternative address  on the South coast of the UK.

I don't know how legal it is to operate / A when you cannot identify yourself to 6 digit QRA locator, as licensing conditions require, so I went to the trouble of putting on the WSPR website that I was actually operating /A thereby letting anybody caring to take the trouble to look up my call that I was operating away from home. I'm not sure, as I said, whether this is legal, but I did it anyway. I think there must be many people who perhaps stretch the licensing conditions a little bit using WSPR, but I don't think that these infringements are anything other than slight twisting of the rules. For example, leaving your station running while you go up top of the garden or are in bed sleeping. I wonder whether strictly speaking this is within licensing conditions. Let's hope OFCOM are happy.

Unfortunately, the results on 2 Metres were disappointing with no spots whatsoever even though a station in north France was beaming my direction. I transmitted  for several days but he heard nothing of me. Power output on 2 Metres was just 10 Watts, antenna was a dipole.

The setup

Some spots......

Some spot on 30 Metres

Continuing to WSPR on 144MHz

I'm continuing to WSPR on 144MHz with some success I think. At this time there is plenty of activity from Holland, so I'm getting spots, unfortunately not often able to spot the PA stations. Although there are quite a few traces on the WSPR waterfall they do not always decode.  Here is an example that shows a relatively strong station with Doppler shift that would not decode. This seems to be a problem with WSPR on Two Metres.  It would be nice to try WSJT-X on tropo as I understand that Doppler would be less of a problem. 

Strong but Doppler shifted signal probably from Holland

 Below is another that failed to decode.

NO decode WSPR 144MHz

So I am sorry if you've spotted me and I have not spotted you but this probably is a two way problem, there is just more activity in Holland, so thank you for that!

WSPR on Two Metres 144 MHz

WSPR on 144MHz has been something that I've played with over the past few days.  Running twenty Watts and a 9 element beam produced the results in the image below.  Although I can't say these distances are DX they pretty good considering the flat tropospheric conditions at the time and the low power.

Listed in distance unique spots only

 The map

If you've spotted me thank you very much.

73

G8TTI

The progress of radio

If I think back to when I first became interested in radio, a  thirteen year old trying to pick up the off shore pop pirates of the sixties, a short run of wire poked into a small tranny radio crackling and popping was about all you could expect. That was over 48 years ago but I remember those days very clearly.

 There was something magical about it, despite the crackling signals, the static, the night time interference. The radio provided the pop music we were after, the weak signals just adding to the romance of it all.
I lived over a hundred miles from the nearest 10kW pop pirate, a cheap transistor radio struggled.
Well it was all a long time ago, things have moved on somewhat.  The pirates went a long time ago.  Medium wave seems so old hat I can't believe anyone listens there today.  FM, DAB, crystal clear reception are the norm and expected.  Internet radio, never a crackle or a pop heard! and thousands of stations to choose from all with no static, no idea of the medium involved just lovely clear interference free music, or whatever you want.

  So what's this got to do with amateur radio?  Not very much but I'm left wondering how we can ever hope people, young people in particular will ever discover the thrill and excitement of radio. They will never have the need to poke a wire into the tranny radio, never hear how the signal changes as night falls, never wonder how they could improve reception, longer aerial, different radio......  Never, in doing, happen across amateur radio.  There's the problem how do people discover this hobby? I know, I know, CB has brought many to amateur radio but do young people use or even know what CB is ? Why would you when you've a mobile phone in your pocket? 
This is a big problem for the hobby, let's hope that something new comes along so people will discover amateur radio in the same way that the pop pirates of the sixties and CB of the early eighties were a boost to the hobby in the UK. It's really hard to think what it might be. Any ideas?