Drake 2-B Goes Digital with WSPR

7 spots:

Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az
2010-02-06 16:04 DK9MS 10.140210 -11 -1 JO40tm 2 I0/N2CQR JN61fv 983 166
2010-02-06 16:04 PA3BTI 10.140271 -8 0 JO22og 5 I0/N2CQR JN61fv 1276 152
2010-02-06 16:04 DL9DAC 10.140246 -4 0 JO31qi 20 I0/N2CQR JN61fv 1120 158
2010-02-06 16:02 DL6NL 10.140262 -20 2 JO50cb 0.1 I0/N2CQR JN61fv 924 168
2010-02-06 16:00 DF6DBF 10.140279 +1 -1 JO31si 10 I0/N2CQR JN61fv 1116 159
2010-02-06 16:00 M5LMY 10.140248 -14 1 IO91oi 5 I0/N2CQR JN61fv 1455 131
2010-02-06 16:00 DL1EEZ 10.140201 0 0 JO31qi 20 I0/N2CQR JN61fv 1120 158

Query time: 0.002 sec

Until this weekend have been “transmit only” on the WSPR system, running the world’s only homebrew double sideband WSPR rig (please correct me if I’m wrong). I’m also running one of the most low-powered of WSPR stations (20 mW).

I’ve been feeling a bit guilty about my “transmit only” status. I felt like I wasn’t doing my fair share in the WSPR effort. I was sort of a digital free-loader.

So Saturday I decided to do some receiving. I fired up the old Drake 2-B. I ran a lead from the headphone jack of the receiver into the audio in of my old Tecra 8100 (running Linux Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope). Antenna was a pathetic little end-fed wire. The only tricky part was getting the Drake on the precise freq. I just put my WSPR transmitter on 10140200 Hz and then put the bandpass in USB 2.1 kHz. I found the computer clock was off a bit (I had neglected to run the ntp program), but once that was taken care of signals started pouring in. And reports were automatically uploaded to WSPR HQ, and appeared on-line (see above).

I was very pleased to receive DL6NL’s 100 milliwatt signal. OM NL is well known in the QRSS/WSPR world. A picture of one of his more QRO rigs appears above. A shot of his balcony Microvert antenna (the white thing at the end of the dark indicator line) appears below.


2 thoughts on “Drake 2-B Goes Digital with WSPR”

  1. wow! Now you have the World’s first DSB WSPR Transmitter AND the world’s first Drake 2B WSPR receiver!

  2. Hi Bill, Glad to see that 2B is still serving you well. I know mine will always be part of the station. 73 John K5MO

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