Ham Radio 101: What is WSPR?

I am really curious what the future of Ham radio looks like. I have several times in my life tried to explore this hobby but mostly was turned off from it by the fact that it didn’t seem to offer much compared to what I could do on the internet aside from using public spectrum. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is cool and I see the use case for emergency response situations. But the idea of the community just never struck the cord with me how other communities have (mostly old white dudes, it seems).<p>Am I wrong? Is there a place for hams in the world where you can more quickly and reliably reach anyone from anywhere across the internet?

I’m licensed in both the United States and Ireland. As a software engineer and electronics hobbyist, I find so many interesting things in ham radio circles. And if you’ve never experimented with RF stuff, you are missing out on a lot of fun. WSPR is one of many experimental modes worth trying. Home built and simple software defined radios like the ATmega-based <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dl2man.de&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dl2man.de&#x2F;</a> (tr)uSDX put HF radio bands in your pocket for under $75. I’ve used digital modes on that radio to reach people on their computers 3000 miles away on 5 watts.<p>Give it a try and I think you’ll find it’s a lot of fun.

I have two WSPR beacons running, one in Sunnyvale CA and the other in Binyamina-Giv&#x27;at Ada, Israel. Both are running 200 mw into EFHW antennas just 6 meters off the ground. I can routinly pick up the signals between the two sites.<p>I get signal reports everwhere from a US military base at the South Pole, Australia, and throughout Europe and Asia.<p>The transmitters are homemade, a Rapsperry Pi Pico, and a small external circuit of a Si5355, a couple of MOSFETS and a lowpass filter -- maybe $30 in parts.<p>It&#x27;s fascinating how the amount of electrons needed to light up a few LEDs can be heard around the world when modulated correctly.

We don&#x27;t have cell service in areas I mountain bike so I carry a ham&#x2F;gmrs radio and leave one with my wife. Helpful if I get a flat in the woods and need her to come pick me up.

I recently bought an RTL-SDR. I&#x27;ve had so much fun with it so far and learned so much, which was my goal. I designed my own antenna in Fusion 360 and built it. I&#x27;m currently developing my own SDR application with a custom spectrum display etc. So far I can demodulate AM&#x2F;FM&#x2F;SSB and I&#x27;m trying to get into decoding digital modes as well.<p>There is so much to learn and enjoy even without transmitting. I like to listen in on air traffic control and download weather satellite images.

&gt;&quot;WSPR transmits and receives but does not support normal types of on-the-air conversation. It sends and receives specially coded, beacon-like transmissions which<p><i>establish whether particular propagation paths are open</i>.<p>Transmissions convey a callsign, station location, and power level using a compressed data format with strong forward error correction (FEC) and narrow-band, four-tone frequency-shift-keying (FSK).&quot;<p>[...]<p>&gt;&quot;If you’ve wondered if a [ham radio, more broadly rf] band is open, WSPR can tell you.&quot;<p>WSPR sounds somewhat analogous to &#x27;ping&#x27; or perhaps &#x27;traceroute&#x27; -- but for HAM radio (or more broadly, radio, rf) signal propagation paths...<p>Related:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vkradioamateurs.org&#x2F;introduction-to-wspr&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vkradioamateurs.org&#x2F;introduction-to-wspr&#x2F;</a><p>&gt;&quot;The program can decode [weak] signals with S&#x2F;N as low as −34 dB in a 2500 Hz bandwidth.&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sigidwiki.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;WSPR" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sigidwiki.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;WSPR</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;WSPR_(amateur_radio_software)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;WSPR_(amateur_radio_software)</a><p>&gt;&quot;Stations with internet access can automatically upload their reception reports to a central database called WSPRnet, which includes a mapping facility.&quot;:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wsprnet.org&#x2F;drupal&#x2F;wsprnet&#x2F;map" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wsprnet.org&#x2F;drupal&#x2F;wsprnet&#x2F;map</a>

A friend and I were recently talking about working toward our General licenses! He put me on <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hamstudy.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hamstudy.org</a> and I already have a Baofeng UV-5R. I&#x27;ve used it to access some weather radio here in North Carolina.<p>I&#x27;m not sure about the community aspect, either, but I definitely can see the disaster preparedness value, especially after Helene&#x27;s devastation.

As someone that just passed their general class this week, this post is very timely.

I remember reading about some guy claims using past wspr database ?timing? anomalies to find mh370 flight path (i.e a plane crossing line of communication causes measurable disturbance) though people have debunked it

Ham feels a little like the internet did in the 90s.