[Lowfer] VE7BDQ on 477 kHz wspr-2 and opera-8

[Garry]

Interesting night last night! I started the evening looking for NDB OR 
on 221 kHz from FL. Wouldn't normally be hard to identify but turns out 
I have a 10 dB noise rise there due to some local qrm. I've searched my 
house for a noisy plug supply to no avail so perhaps it's coming from a 
neighbor. But whatever it is it's on 24/7 and shows up in all 3 of my 
receive setups. I checked back around 0900Z and found NDB NY on 350 kHz 
from BC really pounding in so I began tuning for BC beacons from top 
down. Ended up logging 23 by the time the sun began to show here.

I checked https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html earlier in the evening 
and didn't see VE7BDQ transmitting. But I checked again after 0900Z and 
found it active on 477 kHz I fired up opera1.5.8 with my poorer 
eprobe/sdr-iq setup and the signal was in there immediately, but it 
wasn't opera, it was wspr-2. So I fired up that software too and left 
both run through the night. I uploaded the wspr decodes to the spot 
database. Opera decodes are summarized in the attached text file.

Visually on both the spectrum laboratory and opera waterfalls the wspr 
transmissions generally looked more potent. However, the deep search 
capability of opera helped those decodes extend much longer through the 
night.

-- 
73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL
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13:08 477 VE7BDQ Op8 1499.8 Hz -30 dB Fade: 12%
12:49 477 VE7BDQ Op8 Deep Search -34 dB 1500.0 Hz
12:29 477 VE7BDQ Op8 Deep Search -36 dB 1500.0 Hz
12:09 477 VE7BDQ Op8 Deep Search -34 dB 1500.0 Hz
11:48 477 VE7BDQ Op8 1499.8 Hz -29 dB Fade: 17%
11:29 477 VE7BDQ Op8 Deep Search -36 dB 1499.8 Hz
11:09 477 VE7BDQ Op8 Deep Search -32 dB 1500.0 Hz
10:48 477 VE7BDQ Op8 1500.0 Hz -24 dB Fade: 5%
10:28 477 VE7BDQ Op8 1500.0 Hz -24 dB Fade: 8%
09:48 477 VE7BDQ Op8 1500.0 Hz -26 dB Fade: 38%