[600MRG] WSPR

[Hans Summers]

Hi Frank


> I restarted experimenting with WSPR, mainly to tinker with my new toy, a
> SotaBeams WSPRlite transmitter.  I noticed the DATABASE tabulation for my
> spots, and for other participants' spots power is reported as "watts" and
> some call signs are listed using the once prohibited slant bar "/" symbol,
> e.g., W1ABC/2 or the call sign contains more than 6 alphameric characters
> as in WA1ABC/9.
>

Standard WSPR only sends a 4-character locator, and callsign without pre-
or suffixes. But there is an "extended" mode which sends in TWO
transmissions, the callsign with a pre- or a suffix, and the Maidenhead
Locator subsquare (6-characters precision instead of four). An example is
the Canadian C3 exhibition http://qrp-labs.com/c3 which uses the QRP Labs
Ultimate3S transmitter kit http://qrp-labs.com/ultimate3/u3s and QRP Labs
QLG1 GPS receiver kit http://qrp-labs.com/qlg1 - so it transmits a live
6-char subsquare on every WSPR cycle tracking position supplied by the GPS.

As far as I know WSPRLite doesn't send the extended format WSPR and doesn't
have a GPS interface.


> However, on theWSPRnet.org web site power is entered and displayed in dBm,
> and call signs can not use the "/" symbol and more than 6 alphameric
> characters, ref: the bottom of this web page
> http://wsprnet.org/drupal/downloads


The actual power encoded into the WSPR transmission is expressed in dBm and
is one of 0 3 7 10 13 17 20 23 27 30 33 37 40 43 47 50 53 57 60dBm only.
For some reason in the table on the WSPRnet site they have converted that
to watts for the display.

73 Hans G0UPL
http://qrp-labs.com