WSPRLite first impressions - Antenna Performance Analysis System

Edmund M0MNG gives a ‘first impressions’ unscripted review of a new product. The WSPRlite is available from SOTAbeams and is proving very popular.

There is also an example of how you might be able to press an 80 meter dipole into service on 30 meters, and information about potential power supplies and their drawbacks.

The WSPRlite (pronounced whisper-lite) is a low power transmitter that is designed to act as a standalone WSPR beacon on 30m (10 MHz) or 20m (14 MHz). Using a simple computer interface, you program the WSPRlite with your callsign, QTH locator. Once set up, the WSPRlite does not need the computer to operate. Just connect it to a USB power supply (e.g. mobile phone charger), press the “sync” button at the start of any even minute, and off it goes! WSPRlite will make regular transmissions that are automatically received by stations around the world. These stations send their reports to a central website where you can see where your signals are reaching within seconds. Even more fun is to leave your beacon running and monitors its performance using DXplorer on your smartphone or tablet. This is a great way to see how your station is doing when you are at work – or even on holiday!* Take a WSPRlite on your next business trip or cruise and see where it it being heard while you sit at the bar.

What makes our product unique is the ability to compare antennas and location. We use the WSPR data to generate a special metric, DX10. We recalculate your DX10 range (km) every 2 minutes. DX10 is a great system performance indicator! The best HF system will give the longest DX10 ranges. Because you can compare the DX10 ranges for two station in real-time, you can see which one is the best – and by how much. Along with real-time DX10 graphs we calculate a mean and maximum DX10 score for each station – very handy if you make changes to your antennas to see what the changes actually do!

For beam users we generate on-the-fly Great Circle maps that have colour-coded spot locations showing signal to noise ratios. If you are doing a comparison, you can easily see who got the furthest spots and who was strongest!

Hardware

WSPRlite is a self-contained propagation beacon transmitter. Once configured using a special Windows app, WSPRlite only needs a USB power supply to operate (no need to tie up your computer). WSPRlite operates on 160-80-40-30-20m. The unit contains filters for 30 m and 20 m operation. Operation on other bands requires a simple low-pass filter. WSPRlite is a low power device at only 200 mW but because of the clever encoding of the WSPR signal it has the DX capability of a 1 KW SSB transmitter (80 W CW).

Software

The DXplorer website is designed to operate with WSPRlite. DXplorer provides you with antenna performance information and propagation information in a new easy-to-use format. DXplorer has been optimised for use on mobile devices. Each WSPRlite comes with a free 1 year subscription to DXplorer Premium worth £19.95 – allowing access to additional facilities including detailed antenna comparisons.

http://www.sotabeams.co.uk/