20160214 WSPR Stand-Alone Beacon

A Request From Richard VK6TT

Recently I became interested in the WSPR protocol. As I learned more

about how it worked I came to understand the brilliance of the man

behind the protocol, Nobel Prize winning physicist Joe Taylor K1JT.

The homepage for WSPR where you can learn a lot more is the WSJT

Homepage

As I played with the protocol I started to see some irony in the

transmission side of the protocol. The PC used to generate the audio

tones used to modulate the 0.1 to 5 watt transmission might itself use

+100W of energy. However, the PC is needed to get the synchronised

timing underlying the protocol. Transmission starts at 1 second into

an even minute. As the clock drifts in time your transmission might

not be decoded by the receiver so it's all been for nothing.

After considerable effort I came up with a low energy solution to

running a WSPR beacon. And that's important to me. The idea of

leaving a PC running to generate a beacon when I'm not in the shack is

just wasteful. And I hate waste.

However, I simply can't manufacture the bare board myself. It is the

most time consuming part of the exercise. So if there is enough

interest I can get boards made commercially. For $40 you get a

complete WSPR beacon generator and a GPS with aerial for time

synchronisation. All you have to do is box it for outdoor

installation, supply power and pipe the audio and PTT control into the

shack.

If you would like more information about a fully functioning WSPR

beacon generator please contact Richard, VK6TT@burden.id.au.