Wednesday 21 November 2012

QRO WSPR ?

Found on the internet:

High power WSPR has caused feedback problems Now turned the wick down to 5 watts. Already been picked up in Germany Lots of noise from switch mode PSUs.

Dear fellow ham,
WSPR stands for Weak Signal Propagation Reporter. It's used with weak signals. With WSPR, you get a long, long way for not very much power. And not very much antenna. String a bit of wire into your garden, set to 500mW and, on say 10 metres at the moment, you will make Australia at the right time of day (morning), and the States in the afternoon.

I hardly ever use more than 1W. I occasionally use 5W because the Long Wire I have won't tune on 160m easily. I use it connected to another rig, which won't go below 5W.

Your Switch mode noise doesn't mean you need to TX with more power. The other end won't see your switch mode PSUs - only theirs. If they're lucky, and they have a low noise floor, then they'll hear your 500mW.

Switch mode noise is a problem for your reception, clearly.

But, serious plea, don't go QRO with WSPR. JT65-HF has, to a certain extent, been spoiled by QRO operators who have discovered that by answering a CQ at high power they can drown out the rest of us. It's disappointing. And it's great to hear the bands when they are quiet and the QRP DX comes back above the noise floor.

Good luck with the noise. And remember, 500mW is plenty.

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