I have been playing around with the weak-signal propagation mode WSPR for about a year now. Most of my WSPR initial work was in receiving and reporting Spots from WSPR transmitters. Now I wanted to do some HF antenna testing but it was in a rough RF reception environment. So instead of receiving and reporting WSPR packets, I decided to use a WSPR Transmitter and to analyze resulting Spots reported by monitoring Stations. That allows me to see how other stations are receiving my signal, as I change or modify antennas. I think using a single transmitter on my end, and many receivers is better than the alternative for me anyway. It gives me control of the most important signal factors.

Antenna Testing with WSPR

It seems like WSPR is a natural for HF antenna testing and evaluation/comparison. I have heard some say that it is NOT a good vehicle for antenna testing because of the way HF propagation changes and varies over time. It IS true that you could not perform evaluation of a single antenna over many weeks or months without considering this variable. There are some things to keep in mind when using WSPR for testing of antennas:

1. HF Propagation changes, so you must run tests over relatively short periods of time and watch for significant events (like Solar Storms) that could change signal propagation on a Band or Bands.
2. Remember that you do NOT know what is on the receiving end of the link, unless you coordinate with the receiving Station. But there are many stations that are monitoring consistently with fixed antenna configurations.
3. If running tests over several days, test at the same time of day or as close as possible for each run.
4. For best results, find some Stations that appear to always be monitoring, and seem to be able to pickup your signals on a daily basis. There are may out there.
5. If you are using a particular Receive Station and you want to make sure they are using a consistent antenna on some Band, just ask them. Most people using WSPR would be thrilled to hear that you are using their WSPR reports to improve your Station/antennas

Selecting a WSPR Transmitter

You can use most modern HF radios with WSJT-X software as your WSPR transmitter. There are some drawbacks. Many HF Transceivers only go down to 5 watts. While this is acceptable, it is overkill. Most testing on WSPR is done with 10s or hundreds of milliwatts. If you do not use GPS for timing, some other means of time synchronization will be required. For my field testing, I selected a nice portable WSPR Transmitter from Zachtek. There are many transmitters out there to choose from. The one I am using can be found here. A picture is provided below. Help is also readily available on the Zachtek forum, if you run into any trouble.

This unit uses just 5V DC which you can provide from any USB charger. It does REQUIRE GPS and an antenna is provided. GPS is used for both timing ad location calculation, so it is not optional. I have found that placing the included GPS antenna on a ground plane (mine is about 10 X 10 inches) gives me adequate signal, even inside my house with metal-backed roof insulation. The Zachtek Desktop unit can transmit on any HF Band or a combination of Bands. For my current testing, I transmit on 15, 20, and 80 meters during each 10 minute time period.

Observing WSPR reports for your Transmissions

All stations that receive WSPR packets can report their signal reports to a universal database. You can find this database online and have permanent access to all WSPR Spots ever reported. There is also an incredible WSPR front-end by VK7JJ which can be found at WSPR.ROCKS This provides an interface for extracting and sorting of WSPR Spots from the universal database. Here is a screenshot of my WSPR reports after a few hours. I was using 200 mW from the Zachtek Transmitter and the antenna was an 80 meter broadband dipole. Here is a screenshot of the map vies for my transmissions at the WSPR.Rocks Site:

Table-oriented lists are also available at WSPR.ROCKS and they can be easily imported into any spreadsheet or data analysis software.

Initial Results

When I start a WSPR session, I am always shocked at the locations where my low-power WSPR transmissions are being received. This transmitter is well designed for protection even from poorly-matched antennas. Antenna tuners are not really needed unless there is some terribly high-SWR case that is being used.

I have now found several WSPR monitoring stations that can receive my signals on a daily basis. I am just in the process of creating some test scenarios for evaluation. If you like working with HF antennas and you aren’t using WSPR, why not? It takes little of no investment if you already have HF radio equipment. If you give this a try, please let me know how it works out for you. There is much to be learned here!

73,

Tom, KG3V

The 2024 VA QSO Party (VAQP) is over and I would say it was a great success. But there is always room for improvement, and VAQP is no exception. Here are some of my thoughts and some suggestions.

VAQP Activity and Contest Notes

There was a great deal of activity on day one – Saturday, and the Bands seemed to be very good for contacts within and outside of VA. The Spotting network was busy with Spots for Mobiles and some of the more “rare” Counties. I was operating from a Fixed, CW+SSB station in Lancaster County (LAN) again this year. Thanks to KX4O for the Spotting network, which has become a critical tool for maximizing score in VAQP.

There seemed to be even more out-of-state and DX activity than last year. I contacted a good number of States (40) and was able to Log a fair number of DX stations as well. OM2VL was very active, as in past years. I worked him several times and he even got me to switch Bands for a couple QSOs. His signal was incredibly strong in LAN. What surprised me was that there was a fairly large number of VA Counties/Cities that I never heard or saw on the Spots list. It seemed like there were more of these missing Counties this year.

I worked the Contest until the Saturday finish bell at midnight, finishing the day with around 600 QSOs. I was hoping to top 1,000 QSOs for the second time (first time was in 2023), so this seemed like a good start. It is always hard for me to get going at 8 AM on Sunday morning, but I managed to get rolling again by about 9. Sunday was pretty good, but not as good as Saturday. Of course the 2nd day is always more of a battle after already logging many stations on Day 1. I ended the Contest with just over 900 QSOs. Not bad, but not a personal best either. Still, I easily broke 200K points, where I would have been happy with 100K points just 2 or 3 years ago. So the trend isn’t bad.

I only had one or two notable operating issues in VAQP this year. One was a large number of DUPES, with some stations wanting to waste time arguing about the fact of our QSO being a Dupe. I try to always just work anything I think is a Dupe and move on. Most operators in and out of the Contest were courteous as is usually the case. I did have one Frequency-policeman move down almost 3 kHz to tell me I was interfering with a “Net.” I guess that group must be using AM Filters, as that would mean they are protecting 6 kHz of Bandwidth for a SSB Net. That seems to be a little greedy to me. My 200-250 watts was not likely causing them any real trouble. To top it off, his signal was not even that strong.

How the Station Performed

I needed a last minute feedline repair to the Vertical antenna on my pier, that was completed just a couple hours before starting time. I usually try to check the antennas on my LAN Antenna Farmette (on less than an acre) in the week or two before VAQP. I discovered that the 80-100 feet of coax was really in bad shape, with signs of water damage to the ground braid on both ends. So this was cut and new connectors installed. The antennas available included:

6BTV vertical, 80 meter broadband dipole, ZS6BKW, 160 meter inverted L

The Ham equipment in the Shack included IC-7600 and FTDX-3000 radios, Elecraft KPA-500 amp for the 7600, and an Elecraft KAT-500 antenna tuner for the Amp. Software was N1MM+ and the station was controlled with my trusty old DX Doubler with the DXDUSB USB interface. It all worked pretty well. I use the vertical on one radio and one of the wire antennas on the other radio. This is necessary to minimize RFI/interacttion because the wire antennas are nearly in parallel. I had little trouble working any stations I could hear and RUNNING went fairly well on both CW and Phone. Of course being Spotted was a huge help when RUNNING.

Summary

The 2024 Va QSO Party was very enjoyable. Band conditions seemed to be good and there was plenty of out-of-State and DX activity. Most of the VA Counties and Cities were represented, but it did seem like a few may have been missing.

After several years of Mobile and Expedition entries, I continued my recent run of Home-Fixed operation. With multiple antennas available, and High power available, it certainly enhances the fun. It was not my best performance but I am happy with the overall score, and my Station worked fairly well.

Some Areas for Improvement

The VA QSO Party has become one of the most popular State QSO parties and I salute the Sterling Park ARC for their efforts to get it to this point. There are some areas that could be improved. One is the complete confusion about the Mobile/Rover/Expedition entry classes. The rules make my head spin. And there is a great deal of confusion on what to Log when working some of these stations. The other thing I have never liked in VAQP is the Multiplier for every DX Entity worked. Don’t get me wrong, I love working DX Stations in VAQP, but this level of DX promotion seems silly to me. This opens up the contest to working anything DX, including those in the Russian DX Contest, that have no idea they are Logging a VAQP QSO. I think that we should discourage QSOs with Stations that are not actively/knowingly participating in VAQP. The final area for improvement is Digital QSOs. There has been much confusion with some of the newer Digital Modes such as FT8. As currently implemented, there is no way to send and receive an actual Serial number. Until this gets resolved, these Contacts should not be permitted in a VAQP Log.