WSJT
 

Joe K1JT has developed excellent software for Amateur radio communication.

It supports Meteor Scatter, utilizing very short periods of intense ionization caused by meteors entering the upper atmosphere. These patches of ionization reflect signals back to earth allowing radio stations to hear each other for a short time, (often less than 1 second). This propagation is most often used at VHF, though the effects can be observed up to low UHF

The software also allows for very weak signals to be decoded at a signal strength below that which a human operator can hear. This is particularly effective for EME , (moonbounce), Ionoscatter or troposcatter, where the signals are very weak.

Much more detail is available on the K1JT website

I have now over 1000 QSOs completed with this excellent software!

Recordings and anomalies observed

I have been running regular tests with these modes for over a year. a very small number of 'hard' false decodes have been observed and the occasional wav file that crashes WSJT , but plays ok

Hard false decode (SM3BIU sked) zip file, 6m ionoscatter JT65A with and without audio birdie (2 wav files)722Kb

Wav file that crashes WSJT (SM3BIU sked) zip file, 6m ionoscatter JT65A 384Kb Recorded 5 Feb 05

Wav file that crashes WSJT (SM3BIU sked) zip file, 6m ionoscatter JT65A 404Kb Recorded 14 April 05

Severely distorted (multipath) signals from GD0TEP working ZL the path to GD from here goes through 307 wind turbines, which may be responsible for the multipath effects observed on the signal!

WSPR

I have been running a grabber (sampler) on 500KHz for some time. I have integrated the WSPR sofware to capture the WSPR beacon activity that is becoming popular. The data on beacons received is automatically uploaded to WSPR database at WSPRnet.org

For those interested, the database can be downloaded at http://wsprnet.org/drupal/node/364 though it is possible to be selective in terms of band, spotter and call heard by dowloading data using a small macro embedded in a spreadsheet I have written. This is provided 'as is' with no guarantees or liability taken. You must enable macros to use it.

Version History

V1.6 Initial release

V1.7 updated to work with the changed database URL

V1.8 Jan 2010 updated to fix a bug with the minute index numbering (American style date format was mixing day and month) Added extra filtering macros as requested by a user. These enable filtering of the downloaded data by callsign prefix (first part of call), distance ,full locator or part etc.

V1.9 updated to work with Office 2000, tested with office 2007

V2.1 Update to increase the max number of spots that can be retreived

V3 Update by Carol KP4MD to add analysis sheets (Graphing of various parametrers)

V3.1 URL update and minor fix

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