[Lowfer] Lowfer WSPR

[John Andrews]

Just a brief comment on WSPR at LF...

I'm not impressed with the 2200 meter WSPR performance from WD2XES. I 
had originally thought it might be the Loran lines, but with most of 
those gone, things haven't really improved. That leaves a good 
possibility that the AC-related squigglies we see at 1750 and 2200 
meters might be the culprit. They are not an issue at 600 meters and 
down, and WSPR does very well in that range.

Watching the intermittent copy of Dex's WSPR signal at 137.46 kHz last 
week, it was obvious that the decoder was having trouble, as the 
reported frequency kept jumping around. This was true with the R75 noise 
blanker on or off.

Jay had consistent stable copy of Dex's signal, however, and that's 
probably a testimony to the noise reduction work he has done. I don't 
think this is a simple signal to noise ratio issue, however. The nature 
of the noise seems to be important. In my case, the AC-related stuff has 
gotten worse in recent years, and is not coming from my QTH, so the 
possibilities of getting rid of it are limited on my 1/3 acre lot.

So those who think that WSPR may work miracles at 1750 meters may be 
disappointed. As Dex pointed out yesterday, WOLF would still seem to be 
the leader for text-based modes, as it allows build up of copy over many 
minutes, assuming good transmitter and receiver setups.

John A.