This is the copper tubing magnetic loop that I'm testing outside. Since it has a stand, it's easier to set or move around and move stable in wind over the MFJ-933 tuner/wire loop. The 12.5mm (1/2") diameter copper tubing is wrapped in high-voltage rubber tape (60 kV) just in case someone were to touch the loop when it was transmitting! The copper look is 3.03m (10') and in inner, inductively coupled drive loop is 0.606m (2').

Tuning for 30m to 10m is via RG-213 coax stubs (outer jacket and braid removed). I used a Marette connector (wire nut to non-Canadian) threaded into one end of the copper tubing so the stubs can be changed. They just slide into the other end of the tubing and I use an MFJ antenna analyzer to adjust the resonant frequency by adjusting how far the stub slides into the tubing. Since small loops are very shape in tuning, it's often just by millimetres!

The basic design for the loop came from Stephen, WA8LMF, http://wa8lmf.net/ham/30m-magloop-ant.htm, and I made slight changes so it would work multi-band with stubs you can swap in and out. The loop works very well from my WSPR tests. Even at 500mW and 50 percent loop efficiency (20m and 90 percent for 10m), I'm hearing European stations and they are hearing me. At the 200mW level I'm only heard on this side of the Pond. Still remarkable because compared to my outdoor wire antenna 50m Delta loop, the small magnetic loop is producing the same WSPR tx/rx pattern! So, small loops can and do work, if properly designed.

As it's sitting so low to the ground, the loop's orientation doesn't matter as it seems to be omni directional. In the picture, east/west is broadside to the loop. The yellow, collapsible work stand came from an outdoor halogen light stand. The legs can go flat against the ground and a sandbag or some other weight can be used to hold it down in the wind.

73,
Robert, VA3ROM

http://my.tbaytel.net/va3rom

I found this helpful to understand the 10MZ Rubidium Standard..........http://www.ka7oei.com/10meg_rubidium1.html

Hi all

For those of you interested in the Next Generation Beacons project a new software package for the DDS unit has just been released (1.2.0). New features are WSPR-15 among others: http://www.rudius.net/oz2m/ngnb

The Next Generation Beacons platform is open to others and the software can easily be adapted to other modulations and sequences. Furthermore, is the new platform frequency and time locked to GPS. Thus the frequency accuracy is better than 5 mHz.

OZ7IGY is the world's oldest beacon having started in the International Geophysical Year in 1957. From its start on 144 MHz it has ever since been on air continuously and on ever more and more bands. Today OZ7IGY transmits on 28 MHz, 40 MHz, 50 MHz, 70 MHz, 144 MHz, 432 MHz, 1,3 GHz, 2,3 GHz, 3,4 GHz, 5,7 GHz, 10 GHz and 24 GHz.

OZ7IGY Status Page: http://www.rudius.net/oz7igy/

73
Bo, OZ2M

Well, finally got my Flex-1500, VAC and WSPR software working togetther (TX/RX/PTT and CAT). Had to setup the CAT as a Kenwood TS50 to get that to work.

Amazingly, my indoor magnetic loop antenna is doing a very good job for TX/RX with the 4m of #10 wire and MFJ-933. Will have to try the home made 12.5mm 3m copper tubing and coax capacitor tuning stub to see which one performs better. Since both are side by side, it's easy to switch between the two and make fairly comparative tests.

The Flex, itself is very accurate right out of the box (better than my Field) but I'll run the WSPR frequency calibration tests to see if I can get it even tighter.

Regardless, the statistical medium of my TX frequency is always close to the mark, even if some WSPR stations are reporting way above or below my TX frequency (for unknown reasons).

73,
Robert, VA3ROM
http://my.tbaytel.net/va3rom

Paul, VK4ZBV, asked my to put up some info on my use of WSPR on the Mac.

I have tried various compiles of WSPR for the Mac and almost all have had the dreaded memory leak, which causes the running application
to allocate more and more system memory until the available memory is exhausted and the application quits, or it brings down the Mac itself. In additions, I normally
had to use a supporting SDR Program and Soundflower to channel audio to the WSPR applications.

Federico,IW2MVI at subdimensions.com has put up WSPR, JT65-HF and HDSDR for download to your Mac. These applications are supplied as WINE executables.
Simply download them, and run them as if there were native applications. You do have to configure them, and that is the problem. The applications
expect their interface to the computer as if they are running on a Windows PC. So you have to specify COM ports and such. Since the Mac normally does
not think of I/O in terms of COM ports, you need to map the Mac I/O ports to the equivalent of PC COM ports. Not had to do, but if you aren't familiar
with the technique it can seem daunting.

I have attached a PDF that goes though the process using a US Interface Navigator and my radio an Elecraft KX3. If you are running the same hardware as me,
you are all set. But, the technique may be useful for other hardware interfaces and radio.

Hope this is useful. Feel free to contact me if you have a question or I have made some dumb mistake!

73,
Dave
KF7DRU (email on QRZ.com)

Experimenting with an old Wonder Wand Mk 2 (52 inch whip antenna and counterpoise). Results are surprisingly promising with JT65A contacts being made out to 1300 miles using 2 watts. Also running WSPR with the Wonder Wand on various bands.

Just switched over to Meinberg, DT's are a lot closer now, (most less than 1 second),Meinberg gets my vote! While I am here, have to plug my new (just completed) Mag Loop, working like a champ!

73, John KC4RSN

So far this is working great for WSPR and other digital modes. Had to reboot a few time to get the VSP's to align themselves so WSPR would communicate with the flex.

I've created a GitHub repo for WSPR on lubuntu (a lightweight version of Ubuntu) 12.10 x86_64 at:
https://github.com/jj1bdx/wspr

73
Kenji Rikitake, JJ1BDX (also JO3FUO)

This is my first time experimenting with WSPR, so I still have to do the initial setup and all.
W4JCM

Today I posted an installation file for WSPR-X v0.7 r2960:

http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSPRX_07r2960.exe

Changes from r2948 include the following:

1. An intermittent problem with asserting PTT has been fixed.

2. Frequency reports when the Rx BFO is set to a value other than 1500 Hz have been fixed.

3. Error messages from "rigctl", the utility used for CAT control, are now relayed to the user. Perhaps this will help to isolate why some users have found CAT control not working.

Please report bugs directly to me.

-- 73, Joe, K1JT

Some of you may be interested in trying WSPR-X, a new version of WSPR that includes the slow mode WSPR-15. WSPR-15 uses 15-minute T/R sequences, rather than the standard 2-minute sequences; at MF and LF it is 9 dB more sensitive than WSPR-2, decoding signals as weak as -37 dB in the standard 2500 Hz reference bandwidth. WSPR-15 is not recommended for use at HF: the tone spacing is only 0.183 Hz, less than the Doppler spreading typical of many HF paths. The main intended application for WSPR-15 is for very difficult paths at 137 kHz and the new 472 kHz band. It may be interesting to try on 160 meters, as well. Note that the recommended WSPR-15 sub-band is a 25 Hz slice just above the 200-Hz WSPR-2 sub-band, i.e., 1600-1625 Hz above the standard "dial Frequency". This will be handled automatically if you set up WSPR-X in the normal way.

A brief online User's Guide for WSPR-X is posted at
http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSPR-X_Users_Guide.pdf , and the Windows installation file is posted at
http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSPRX_07r2948.exe .

At present, WSPR-X does not support I/Q audio (for use with direct conversion receivers and transceivers) and does not do “band hopping”. Otherwise most familiar WSPR features are present and working well.

For software enthusiasts: Unlike older versions of WSPR, the user interface of WSPR-X is written in C++ and the Qt programming framework. My expectation is that this shift will make for easier development and program maintenance in the future. At present a click-to-install package is available only for Windows. Source code for WSPR-X is available from the open-source SVN repository at berlios.de. Anonymous checkout of the full WSPR-X source code can be accomplished with the command

svn co svn://svn.berlios.de/wsjt/branches/wsprx

User comments, suggestions, and bug reports will be very welcome!

-- 73, Joe, K1JT

I have placed a self-contained utility that, in one go, will generate a text file for use with PIC assemblers. The utility will generate either conventional callsign/4 digit locator or compound callsign/6 digit locator data. Additional information is at http://www.knology.net/~gmarcus/.

Gene W3PM

This project was updated to include GPS derived frequency calibration and compound callsign/6 digit locator capability. Additional information is at http://www.knology.net/~gmarcus/.

Gene W3PM

2013-01-11 08:22 OH2GSY 28.126077 -22 0 KP30ll 5 VK2KRR QF34mr 14985 84

I had heard VK2KRR regularly before, but this was the 1st time VK2KRR heard me.

Hi all
This morning at 10 m band I`m received this one,
0910 -20 4.4 28.126173 -1 32B/PN7UPE 53
who knows this call and who received??

Hi All !

Since a few days my Locator Suffix is missing in the WSPR Database.
Now it is "JO50", but it should be "JO50cb".

Any idea what has happened ?

73 peter dl6nl

2013-01-13 07:28 KD8GBK 1.838034 -33 0 EN56st 5 F5OIH JN06ci 6384 55
2013-01-13 06:58 K9PAW 1.838189 -25 0 EN61ar 1 F5OIH JN06ci 6685 53
2013-01-13 07:22 K9PAW 1.838189 -23 0 EN61ar 1 F5OIH JN06ci 6685 53
2013-01-13 07:10 K9PAW 1.838189 -23 0 EN61ar 1 F5OIH JN06ci 6685 53
2013-01-13 01:06 K5DNL 1.838069 -30 0 EM15lj 50 F5OIH JN06ci 7742 47
2013-01-13 02:54 K5DNL 1.838069 -27 0 EM15lj 50 F5OIH JN06ci 7742 47
2013-01-13 02:44 K5DNL 1.838069 -28 0 EM15lj 50 F5OIH JN06ci 7742 47
2013-01-13 02:02 K5DNL 1.838068 -28 0 EM15lj 50 F5OIH JN06ci 7742 47
2013-01-13 01:16 K5DNL 1.838069 -30 0 EM15lj 50 F5OIH JN06ci 7742 47

73 de Vincent F5OIH / JN06CI

30 at 04:15UTC still good. Receiving eastern Europe on the east coast of the US