[ARCHIVED THREAD] - WSPR (Page 1 of 5)
Posted: 1/4/2012 5:14:30 AM EDT
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Looks like I'm up and running on WSPR finally Any problems leaving this on and unattended for a little bit? Like if I want to run downstairs.... or to the corner store.... |
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As long as there's a control operator present during transmission, you can transmit.
"present" has a pretty expansive context, I think. The census counts me present when I'm in my zip code  .
Switch to RX works fine. If your rig has an auto time out feature and a panel lock-out, and you're transmitting at 5W or under (as you should be with WSPR), I think you can evaluate the impact this will have on the bands if something goes horriically wrong. |
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Go to the database page at http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/spots
You can put in your call in both slots when you specific the database parameters, and it'll dump all your spots and people who heard you. This is all done outside the program, using a web browser. |
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Quoted: Go to the database page at http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/spots You can put in your call in both slots when you specific the database parameters, and it'll dump all your spots and people who heard you. This is all done outside the program, using a web browser. ahh, thanks I like pretty pictures.... that's why I couldn't find it
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Quoted: No problem. Hit "TX NEXT" on WSPR when you can, we doubled so I can't see if I heard you. I pulled up your spots and they do look really lopsided. What antenna and power level are you using? Normally it's the reverse, people can TX and not hear. 80/40/20/10 dipole - 10w |
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Quoted: OK, you need to adjust your WSPR setup to show TX power 3db lower than you are (you're sending that you're at 20W). What's the indicated SWR on the antenna, and how high is it, and is it out in the open, in an attic, etc? out in the open at ~35' up swr untuned is under 3:1 - I have it tuned to 1.5:1 right now I've got it set at 40db (10w) under station parameters - don't have CAT control for the radio... is there another place to change it also?
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The TX power is fine now, and 40dbm is what you want, so you're set, it's only station parameters
(and the CAT stuff doesn't update TX power anyway, that's always by hand.) So when you're looking at WSPR during TX, you've adjusted power level on the meter to show 10W, correct? In theory that antenna should be a screamer. When you get such a whacked difference between TX and RX that's telling me something is pretty broken, like you've got a lot of loss to resistance or the traps in the dipole are sucking up all the power. You see that with small loops and with verticals with bad grounds, but you shouldn't see that with a dipole. My gut feel is the traps are doing something nasty or you've got water in the feedline or a loose connection. But 10W into a 35' high dipole on 20, you should light up the whole country. on WSPR. |
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no traps, fan dipole haven't had problems getting out before, has good SWR (for where it's tuned) hmmm just TX'd again - we'll see how that went meter on the rig and tuner both show ~10w.... should I output from my computer high and adjust with mic/carrier or should I adjust from the computer end.... for PSK I've always done it from the computer side |
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Quoted: OK, with a fan there should be zero issues. Very strange. Is it direct fed from coax or do you have a balun in there? One more goofy question, how high of a SWR do you get TXing where it's not tuned? What feedline? coax to a 1:1 balun RG-213u -50' /facepalm...... for some reason I have pretty high SWR across the board..... fuck I didn't want to have to look at my antenna again
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High SWR is actually a good thing here. If you had feedline issues you'd have a middle SWR whereever you were tuned.
So it looks like it's just a radiator problem, maybe one of the fan wires is shorted to another, tree branch or something. The coax and balun are good, so I'd say everything sounds solid out to the fan itself. Maybe you got a flock of birds 
Seriously, check the wires and the connection to the balun on both sides, could just be a little corrosion or something's broken. |
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looks like a tuner problem.... I took the tuner out of the equation and my meter gives me good SWR dips with the tuner on there I was getting solid 10:1 + the entire spectrum  let me check the SWR on the WSPR freq and see if I can swing it without a tuner - the dip for 20m is a bit sharp still
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Quoted: Don't forget on WSPR you're running really low power, so a little bit of extra SWR isn't going to burn up the finals. true ok, swapped coax inputs on the tuner - tuned the freq - let me try to get on WSPR again and see how it does could have been something with my coax input
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Quoted: Nothing seen in the 17:46 or 17:48 cycles, but you're listening. Try "TX NEXT" and make sure TX > 0. just TX'd - the guy in TX who's been hearing me all along is the only guy RX'ing me  I'm gonna give it one more go tuned, one not tuned (bypassing the tuner) then I'm going to work... I'll leave it on Rx
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Quoted: OK looks like you TX'd on 17:50 but no one heard you. If you were showing 10W out... next things to look at: 1) is your computer clock set exactly on time? (2-3 seconds count) 2) look at audio levels, make sure ALC isn't kicking in. I have dimension running and have sync'd ALC shouldn't be a problem from the looks of it TXing now....
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Let's get that TX part fixed. And Yeah, 40M is pretty open in the early evening right now,
if you look at the FoF2 map, you can see that we're in prime time. You should be seeing some pretty strong nearby signals (say 200 miles out of so) turning your display orange and white. |
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Quoted: Let's get that TX part fixed. And Yeah, 40M is pretty open in the early evening right now, if you look at the FoF2 map, you can see that we're in prime time. You should be seeing some pretty strong nearby signals (say 200 miles out of so) turning your display orange and white. yep I have some strong ones on the display I'm gonna re sync the time on my computer (just in case) and try hooking back up through my tuner again....
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Does your tuner have a bypass option? I'm just wondering if maybe you've got SWR foldback activating or something,
it's just super strange that you've got a signal magnet on RX and a dummy load on TX. Edit: Since we're getting closer to 0-hour I've turned on my 40M WSPR beacon as well, so far not a lot of cross-country spots happening. |
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Quoted: Does your tuner have a bypass option? I'm just wondering if maybe you've got SWR foldback activating or something, it's just super strange that you've got a signal magnet on RX and a dummy load on TX. it does on bypass my radio reads about a flat 3:1 at any point in the band on tuned, I can't get a good match at all.... |
