I have found a new radio under development that is supposed to come out next year some time. It is the SDR-ONE. Looks like it will do everything that I want. The FLEX 1500 is also a contender. Here is the info on the SDR-ONE. I have no connection with this company other than being a satisfied customer with an SDR-IQ.

http://www.sdr-one.com/

I am looking for the "ideal" WSPR QRP transceiver. I think -- for me anyway -- it would be 5 watts or less output, with the ability to calibrate/stabilize its frequency from my GPS-DO (10 MHz). A SoftRock TX-RX would almost fill the bill except for the external reference oscillator input. It looks really attractive due to built-in support from this excellent WSPR software. I would try a SoftRock transceiver but I can't find one anywhere for sale or trade.

My SDR-IQ (as described in a previous post) is my "ideal" receive-only setup for WSPR.

I would appreciate any suggestions or comments. My IC-7600 is definitely an overkill for WSPR.

73

DE K9IQY

Now that I am semi-retired, I have time to do a lot of things that I always wanted to do but was too "busy." This new antenna has taken me a couple of months to complete but I have really enjoyed building it and now using it on 30 meters. It is mounted on a five-foot galvanized pipe that is set in about 100 pounds of concrete - so I don't expect it to blow away in spite of the storms we have sometimes here in Wayne County, Illinois.

Here is the whole description:

DX Engineering 30-Meter Vertical Antenna model DXE-30VE-1 and the DXE-RADP-3 Stainless Steel Radial Plate with 60 #10 AWG copper radials and one 5/8” X 8 ft. copper-clad ground rod at the base. Also have an Alpha Delta model ATT3G50U Transi-Trap™ Surge Protector and a Polomar Engineers model BA-8 1:1 current BALUN installed at the base feed point. The transmission line is 130 ft. of Times Microwave LMR®-400-DB watertight coax cable buried 1 to 2 inches below the ground. The trench is becoming invisible as the grass grows over it. The 60 ground radials are stapled to the surface of my lawn using “landscaping staples” that look like “U” shaped bent pieces of coat hangers about 4 to 5 inches long, but are available — ready to use — at the home supply stores. This antenna is used primarily for WSPR low-power communication on 10.138.700 MHz.

Check out the attached photo.

73 DE K9IQY

I have been involved with many kinds of radio receivers for over fifty years — amateur, military, and commercial. My modified SDR-IQ is a dream come true. When I was a young ham, I dreamed of the day when I might own a receiver that would read out to one kilocycle (before we used the term Hertz). Now I have assembled one that reads out to one Hertz and is stable to within ± 70 µHertz — and thanks to GPS — it will maintain this stability as long as the GPS satellites keep working. The tuning resolution of the SDR-IQ is 0.015 Hz — so its accuracy is about 0.015 Hz with this setup.

I well remember the early receivers that I used. I had to be very careful to not bump the table where the radio was sitting or it would jump completely off frequency. Whatever frequency it indicated was only approximate. It made me nervous to operate near a band edge.

It was nice of the US government to spend billions of dollars just to keep my ham radio on frequency. (HI)

For receive only on WSPR the LO in this (modified SDR) receiver is disciplined and generated by a Trimble Thunderbolt GPS-DO and my PC's internal clock gets corrected once a minute by a separate GPS RX (USB dongle) thus meeting the two main requirements of good WSPR operation, i.e. exact time and frequency accuracy. See: K9IQY GPS-DO.

I have never had this much fun! (with my clothes on)