WSPR has been something that has interested me for quite some time. Unfortunately, my work / life balance became less than balanced for a bit (it happens – I really love what I do), so I have decided to kick off my new year and dive into getting one of my projects actually completed. I have posted in my ARRL Technical Specialist reports that I had been experimenting with the RadWav SkyPi 40 Meter kit over a year ago and had done very little to get it on the air other than just build it and check it on the bench. Heck, RadWav added more kits since then and I didn’t even know it…..
So, I blew off the dust on this project and finally have a fully working WSPR beacon setup on 40 Meters. The Antenna is a 160 Meter long wire (with 9:1 unun) and output power is 1 watt. So far, Australia has heard and recorded my WSPR station and at this time, is the furthest distance yet… Not too shabby!
The RadWav SkyPi kit is definitely fun and intriguing…. My next iteration of this project will most likely be a self contained solar powered version of this with a much more challenging vertical antenna like a HamStick just for the sake of seeing if it can be done with a “compromise” antenna. We’ll see….
Check out the map here: http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map
RadWav Site: http://www.radwav.com/
