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Sunday, February 7, 2010

Drake 2-B Goes Digital with WSPR

7 spots:
TimestampCallMHzSNRDriftGridPwrReporterRGridkmaz
 2010-02-06 16:04  DK9MS  10.140210  -11  -1  JO40tm  2  I0/N2CQR  JN61fv  983  166 
 2010-02-06 16:04  PA3BTI  10.140271  -8  0  JO22og  5  I0/N2CQR  JN61fv  1276  152 
 2010-02-06 16:04  DL9DAC  10.140246  -4  0  JO31qi  20  I0/N2CQR  JN61fv  1120  158 
 2010-02-06 16:02  DL6NL  10.140262  -20  2  JO50cb  0.1  I0/N2CQR  JN61fv  924  168 
 2010-02-06 16:00  DF6DBF  10.140279  +1  -1  JO31si  10  I0/N2CQR  JN61fv  1116  159 
 2010-02-06 16:00  M5LMY  10.140248  -14  1  IO91oi  5  I0/N2CQR  JN61fv  1455  131 
 2010-02-06 16:00  DL1EEZ  10.140201  0  0  JO31qi  20  I0/N2CQR  JN61fv  1120  158 
Query time: 0.002 sec

 Until this weekend  have been "transmit only" on the WSPR system, running the world's only homebrew double sideband WSPR rig (please correct me if I'm wrong).  I'm also running one of the most low-powered of WSPR stations (20 mW). 

I've been feeling a bit guilty about my "transmit only" status.  I felt like I wasn't doing my fair share in the WSPR effort.  I was sort of a digital free-loader. 

So Saturday I decided to do some receiving.  I fired up the old Drake 2-B.  I ran a lead from the headphone jack of the receiver into the audio in of my old Tecra 8100 (running Linux Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope). Antenna was a pathetic little end-fed wire.  The only tricky part was getting the Drake on the precise freq.  I just put my WSPR transmitter on 10140200 Hz and then put the bandpass in USB 2.1 kHz.  I found the computer clock was off a bit (I had neglected to run the ntp program), but once that was taken care of signals started pouring in.  And reports were automatically uploaded to WSPR HQ, and appeared on-line (see above).
I was very pleased to receive DL6NL's 100 milliwatt signal.  OM NL is well known in the QRSS/WSPR world.  A picture of one of his more QRO rigs appears above.  A shot of his balcony Microvert antenna (the white thing at the end of the dark indicator line) appears below.  

2 comments:

  1. wow!

    Now you have the World's first DSB WSPR Transmitter AND the world's first Drake 2B WSPR receiver!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Bill, Glad to see that 2B is still serving you well. I know mine will always be part of the station. 73 John K5MO

    ReplyDelete

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