[600MRG] Database effort summary + interesting WSPR data

[Larry]

If you are not interested in the database effort horror story, you can 
skip down to the actual data near the bottom of this note.

After nearly a week long effort I had little progress in extracting the 
data I was interested in from the WSPRnet data files. It was clear that 
what is a trivial task in a pro level database (SQL and/or it's 
derivatives and related applications as a for instance) is a formidable 
task using the tools I have available.

Some of the initial problems were solved and documented in earlier 
notes. The problem of counting unique callsigns was still eluding me 
after many hours of effort.

This morning I was able to consult with my good friend Greg, W7MY. Greg 
uses Microsoft products on a daily basis to preform data analysis 
similar to what I wanted to do. After about 30 minutes with Microsoft 
Access and EXCEL 2007, Greg produced the data shown below plus more.

It turns out the Open Office is a poor substitue for the Microsoft 
products. I guess you get what you pay for.

Using the techniques Greg used in Office 2007 was not exactly possible 
in OO but I managed to duplicate part of the results. Perhaps if I spend 
even more time (that I don't really have) I might get the remainder 
working in OO. If I do I will post it so others can share.

In any case, using a spreadsheet is labor intensive and probably not 
worth while doing generic analysis for several reasons. The biggest 
issue is with the data itself. It turns out that there are so many bogus 
spots imbedded in the data that summaries are quite inaccurate! Unless 
someone can figure out how to filter out the bogus stuff, generic 
analysis is pointless. However analysis of individual station spots is 
still worthwhile.

The bad spots include bogus decodes caused by spurious signals as well 
as those band error spots caused by operators who don't realize the 
radio is on 20 meters and the software is set to 630 meters!

I plan to keep poking at the data as I have time and posting any results 
that I think might be interesting to the group.

Here are some stats provided by W7MY that I find interesting. Make of 
them what you will.

Top 25 stations spotted during the month of October and the number of spots:

WG2XXM,71018
WG2XIQ,48117
WH2XGP,34679
DH5RAE,27379
IW4DXW,26409
F5WK,22860
DK7FC,21206
F1AFJ,21050
G3WCB,19727
PA3ABK/2,17456
WG2XJM,16703
DJ0ABR,15026
G3ZJO,13709
F4DTL,13085
DK2DB,13080
WD2XSH/20,13050
WG2XKA,12679
VE7BDQ,12202
WD2XSH/12,11293
G8VDQ,9715
EA3NE,8387
DC0DX,8298
DK6NI,7874
G4KPX,7338
WG2XSV,6163

Top 25 listening stations and the number of spots they posted during the 
month of October:

AC0ZL,16451
G0LRD,13384
W7MY,13221
WD2XSH/20,12711
PA3ABK/2,12364
PE1RKT,11957
WH2XGP,11292
DF8UO/A,11275
PA0RDT,11120
PI4THT,11070
DK7FC,10481
VE7BDQ/1,10394
F1AFJ,10379
F6GEX,10325
G3XKR,9954
KK6EEW,9471
WG2XJM,9235
W5EST,8904
DH5RAE,8840
PA3AJH,8456
WB8ILI,8163
WH2XCR,8115
WD2XSH/17,7581
WG2XIQ,7392
G8LCO,7181


73,

Larry - W7IUV / WH2XGP
DN07dg - central WA
http://w7iuv.com