TNFrank Posted January 14 Posted January 14 It seems I remember seeing something where you can test your radios propagation by sending out a tone to several beacons and view the results on a map. Does anyone know what that was or where to find it? Thanks Quote
WRYZ926 Posted January 14 Posted January 14 https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html is a good website to see where you are getting heard and what you are hearing. Just put your call sing, band and mode in the boxes at the top of the page and then click on the GO button. You can change how often it refreshes. I usually have it set to refresh every 15 minutes. Quote
TNFrank Posted January 15 Author Posted January 15 Doesn't seem to be working. Was there any other sites. Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 15 Posted January 15 23 minutes ago, TNFrank said: Doesn't seem to be working. Was there any other sites. How are you transmitting your call sign? PskReporter and WSPR both require that you send your call sign using a digital mode so it can spot you and report your propagation. WRUU653 1 Quote
TNFrank Posted January 15 Author Posted January 15 I always TX my Call Sign but not digitally. I thought I saw something where you can go on a frequency and ping several beacons to see which ones you hit. Maybe I'm not thinking of what I thought I was thinking about. Quote
Northcutt114 Posted January 15 Posted January 15 37 minutes ago, SteveShannon said: How are you transmitting your call sign? PskReporter and WSPR both require that you send your call sign using a digital mode so it can spot you and report your propagation. Ah hah...that explains that. I kept thinking to myself...what are the odds that ALL of those people are running FT8? It's so they can see themselves on that map. Also, there's a station on Antarctica? I mean, I guess it makes sense, but wow. Any POTA spots down there? Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 15 Posted January 15 13 minutes ago, TNFrank said: I always TX my Call Sign but not digitally. I thought I saw something where you can go on a frequency and ping several beacons to see which ones you hit. Maybe I'm not thinking of what I thought I was thinking about. I looked to see if RBN (reverse beacon network) could be used to report calls in phone mode. It doesn’t seem to. It can do CW though so it’s not strictly digital modes. Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 15 Posted January 15 1 minute ago, Northcutt114 said: Ah hah...that explains that. I kept thinking to myself...what are the odds that ALL of those people are running FT8? It's so they can see themselves on that map. Also, there's a station on Antarctica? I mean, I guess it makes sense, but wow. Any POTA spots down there? I got a spot on Antarctica using WSPR. They aren’t logged like ft8 but they’re still pretty fun to get. It’s amazing how far away 5 watts can travel and how WSPR allows you to see it. WRYZ926 1 Quote
Northcutt114 Posted January 15 Posted January 15 19 minutes ago, SteveShannon said: I got a spot on Antarctica using WSPR. They aren’t logged like ft8 but they’re still pretty fun to get. It’s amazing how far away 5 watts can travel and how WSPR allows you to see it. OK, since you're in the thread. What is "WSPR?" I watched a HRCC Youtube video last night and he was talking about it. I assume it's a digital voice mode? As opposed to FT8 or JS8? He played a recording from it. I was watching the video for the pole and trimming of the EFHW wire aspect but then he was all "Using Whisper, we're going to..." and I'm so stupid, I thought he meant he was going to speak quietly into the radio. ETA: Nevermind, I googled it. Weak Signal Propagation Reporter. The voice call he replayed wasn't from WSPR. He didn't clarify in the video. I can only assume he assumed that his viewers were smart enough to understand the difference. I wasn't. SteveShannon 1 Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 15 Posted January 15 Just now, Northcutt114 said: OK, since you're in the thread. What is "WSPR?" I watched a HRCC Youtube video last night and he was talking about it. I assume it's a digital voice mode? As opposed to FT8 or JS8? He played a recording from it. I was watching the video for the pole and trimming of the EFHW wire aspect but then he was all "Using Whisper, we're going to..." and I'm so stupid, I thought he meant he was going to speak quietly into the radio. Not voice, it’s simply an automated way to map propagation, and it’s programmed into wsjt-x. The acronym stands for Weak Signal Propagation Reporting. It can be configured to use a single band or to hop from band to band periodically. Because it’s a digital mode Technicians can do it on bands they can’t use for phone. If you already use wsjt-x just go to the mode drop down and select it. There are even relatively inexpensive WSPR beacons that you can buy and connect to your antenna and just let run while you do other things. The goal isn’t racking up contacts but rather mapping signals that you hear and stations that hear you. While it’s running you can even look at the propagation map for yourself or someone else on your smartphone. Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 15 Posted January 15 Here’s just a quick map showing a few minutes of WSPR: Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 15 Posted January 15 And here’s a look at the spots in data format. I only received tonight: Quote
tweiss3 Posted January 15 Posted January 15 PSK reporter is awesome, the list of digital modes you can be tracked in is huge. FT8/FT4 is reported very well, some of the other may not be reported in nearly as many places as others. All of these beacons/receivers are voluntary listening, so keep that in mind. You can also try http://websdr.org/ and see if you can actually hear yourself, but that is very limited on locations to "listen". SteveShannon and TNFrank 1 1 Quote
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