Sunday, April 19, 2009

WSPR Double Sideband Success!

Oh, how sweet it is. Today I finally got my WSPR station working. Before departing for Sicily, I installed a diode ring mixer (supplied by Jim, AL7RV) between my MEPT oscillator and my two stage 50 mw power amplifier. I thought I might have enough audio coming out of my sound card to modulate the transmitter, but I soon found out that I needed more AF. Lazy after a week on the road in sunny and snowy Sicily, I reached into the junkbox and pulled out the guts of an old computer speaker amplifier. Some really ugly jerry-rigging ensued. The amp is now sitting near the TX, powered by its own 9V battery. Looks like I'm getting about 25 mw out, but that's from both sidebands. So I'm guessing I'm at around 10 mw.

Following guidance from Gene, W3PM (whose FB SSB rig inspired this effort), I set my oscillator at 10138700. That puts the upper sideband in the middle of the WSPR band.

Here's my first set of reports:



Reported Distance
Date Call
SNR



by
km mi
2009-04-19 18:32 N2CQR
-18



DL0TUH
1353 841
2009-04-19 18:32 N2CQR
-24



PA1GSJ
1343 835
2009-04-19 18:30 N2CQR
-19



DL0TUH
1353 841
2009-04-19 18:26 N2CQR
-22



DL0ODX
977 607
2009-04-19 18:26 N2CQR
-30



G8BKE
1519 944
2009-04-19 18:26 N2CQR
-26



PA1GSJ
1343 835
2009-04-19 18:24 N2CQR
-23



PA1GSJ
1343 835
2009-04-19 14:24 N2CQR
-22



M0WQR
1601 995


Hey, is this a first? Has anyone else run WSPR DSB?

3 comments:

  1. Hi Bill,

    I just saw your blog entry about DSB WSPR and when I switched back to my WPSR screen there was your callsign.

    -21 dB on 10.140216 at 1936 GMT

    It really is another fascinating aspect of the hobby.

    Simon, G0FCU.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good going, Bill.

    I will be looking for your spots.

    I have not done any WSPR Tx yet, but I have started monitoring WSPR (i.e., receive only) and providing "spots" for those that transmit - kind-of-like my QRSS grabber.

    Eldon - WA0UWH

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow 10 mw goes a long way. what kind of antenna do you have for your 30m WSPR/QRSS setup?

    ReplyDelete