Whisper and be heard…
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WSPR, an acronym for ‘Weak Signal Propagation Reporter’ and pronounced ‘whisper’, is a program written by Joe Taylor (K1JT) that allows radio amateurs around the world to conduct real time propagation tests in conjunction with an online spots reporting database. I had previously tried WSPR about 6 months ago but with little success at that time. I decided to try again last night on the FT-950 and was pleased to see it worked perfectly. I can’t be sure but I think the FT-950 has something to do with it - the digital filters really help in pulling out the very weak signals that the software is looking for. |
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WSPR screenshot |
Part of the appeal of WSPR is that you can have it ‘watch’ a particular band for you (although activity is limited outside of the 30m band) to see what propagation there is to various parts of the world, even as you do other things. You can optionally configure the software to transmit to a pseudo-random schedule, to see where in the world your ‘whispers’ are heard. I have uploaded a few screenshots of the software and the online spots database where you can see how this information is presented (Pictures >> Amateur Radio).
If you would like to read more about WSPR there is a very good write-up on Julian Moss’s (G4ILO) website in his article entitled WSPR - Distant Whispers.