Building the Ultimate-3S WSPR kit

I set aside a few hours to build the U3S from QRP kits.

The build went fairly well, the instructions are fairly clear. When I first applied power it was obvious that something was wrong. What I saw on the display was not what I expected to see.

I did some fault finding and came to the conclusion the 20 MHz clock was not functioning. I carefully removed the crystal and replaced it with a temporary 10 MHz crystal.

I then powered the U3S up and I was very pleased to see “Diagnostic mode” displayed on the display.

Tomorrow, I will try and find a suitable replacement crystal. Then hopefully I can set it up to WSPR to the WWW on 10m.

What a relief……

Start of build

This is a problem !!

Problem solved

Mainboard, display (not visible), synthesizer and 10m low pass filter

WSPR - Antenna performance evaluation

I believe WSPR is a great tool to evaluate station/antenna performance.

I used the WSPRnet’s data base and downloaded the 10m WSPR data for all stations decoded by myself and a fellow amateur, Kevin ZS6KMD located some 20 km north of me yesterday.

The graphic below reveals quite a lot of detail: Number of decodes, strength of decodes (min and max).

I was using a simple dipole beaming E/W at 8m agl, I think Kevin also uses a dipole, but I am not sure of the orientation and height agl.

IMHO this is a sure fire way of comparing apples with apples.


Info gleamed from this test:

The band opened and closed at about the same time (Duh...)
I decoded a few more stations than he did, 569 vs. 468.
The strongest signal decoded by me was +2 dB vs. -5 dB by Kevin.
Weakest signal decoded was -32 dB !!
It appears as if my antenna was performing slightly better (between 2 and 13 dB)

I should stop playing and build my Ultimate 3S WSPR beacon.....

WSPR ZS6A vs ZS6KMD 10m decodes

WSPR’ing on 10m

My interest in WSPR has been rekindled. WSPR is a fantastic tool; it is most useful in understanding the behaviour of propagation.

I believe WSPR can be also be used obtain other meaningful data for example: making antenna comparisons, dispelling many of the wild claims made by the antenna designers and manufacturers. At some stage I would like to pursue this aspect of WSPR.

Today I was playing a bit with WSPR on 10m. Initially I was using 5 watts (37 dBW) and that worked very well. I then reduced the transmit power to 1 watt (30 dBW)

The image below clearly shows what can be achieved with 1 watt and a simple dipole at 8m (25 Ft) agl.

Tomorrow I hope to reduce the power to 100 mW (20 dBW)

WSPR combined with the Reverse Beacon Network is simply amazing. The persons behind WSPR program and the Reverse Beacon Network deserve our heartfelt gratitude.

Click on image below for a more detailed view.

WSPR 10m 1 watt (30 dBW)

Special event call – ZS9 MADIBA

No doubt everyone is aware that one of South Africa’s icons has passed away.

ZS9MADIBA is the South African Radio League Special Event Station commemorating the life and recent passing of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, elder statesman and first democratically-elected President of the Republic of South Africa. Affectionately referred to as “Madiba”, he became one of the most recognised leaders in the world and was instrumental in the peaceful transition of South Africa from minority rule to a constitutional democracy. South Africans join the people of the world in mourning his passing and celebrating his legacy.

 Permission to run a special event with the call ZS9MADIBA was obtained and I was one of the lucky ones to use the call today on 10m CW.

The info on QRZ.com is incorrect, for some reason the person managing the call cannot edit the information. The call is legal and in use and will be for a while yet.

I managed to make 308 QSOs, I could have worked many more, but alas the DSP processor between my ears did not perform as needed. It had great difficulty distinguishing between the various callers. The QRM and poor behaviour did not help either.

I guess there is no point in moaning, it won’t change anything.

Sure is fun facing the pile-up, I recon it could become addictive?

JARTS RTTY 2013

My good friend Hal ZS6WB suggested that I should consider taking part in the event. I don’t operate much on HF digital modes and my log is a testament to that fact. My digital DXCC statistics are pretty poor to say the least. Based on this I decided to give the JARTS contest a go.

I am very pleased I followed Hal’s advice.

I managed to make 451 QSOs and I worked 55 DXCC entities in the process.

Since don’t have decent HF antennas I decided to concentrate my efforts to the 10m band. On 10m I use a rigid rotatable dipole up at some 8m agl. This clearly shows how poor the rest of the antenna farm is…….<insert smiley>

As I write this (some 7 hours after the contest) I see I have already have a great number of QSOs confirmed via LoTW including 6 much needed ATNOs on digital modes. I am hoping I might just find enough confirmations on LoTW to reach the 100 required for a ARRL Digital DXCC in the next few days.  My stats show 106 worked, 67 confirmed (still a long way to go).

There were many memorable moments during the contest:

I worked David K2DSL a fellow blogger.

Being called by ATNO’s whilst running: CE, WH6, XE and UP amongst others.

On the down side:

Why do some stations persist on calling when one is trying to work partials calls?

Does “P5ABC ?” not mean anything .

Seemingly the guilty do not understand the meaning of “KN” either.

It seemed sending “P5ABC ? P5ABC ? P5ABC ? de ZS6A KN” meant that it was an invitation for any station to call immediately without even a moment’s pause or hesitation. I understand this is a competition and not a tea party, but do we really need to act in this way?

The scatter graph below is very revealing. It clearly shows the typical age of the amateur population.

There are seemingly very few amateurs younger than 40. Most are between 40 and 80 years old.

The age of zero must be ignored. Issued by XYL’s and YL’s

The age of 99 was given by club stations.

QSOs vs. contestants Age

QSOs vs time