WSPR unwanted by IARU?
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| Sep 26th 2017, 09:34 | |
LA2RLTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Hi, There has recently been discussions in our national amateur radio society, NRRL, that even if WSPR as such is not illegal with respect to our national administration's rules and regulations its operation is unwanted by IARU, at least in Region 1. The problem is that beacons are not allowed unless they are authorized by the national society and IARU and as WSPR is an automatic mode it is classified as a beacon. That the beacon is operated while a licensed radio amateur is close by is apparently not a sufficient condition for its authorized use. The reason given is that the regulations say that you always have to listen before transmitting to make sure the frequency is clear. As WSPR is an automatic, time synchronized mode this is clearly very difficult to achieve unless you are sitting at a receiver and controlling the transmission 100% and interrupting transmission as soon as anybody tries to use the frequency. As WSPR is such a narrow band signal and with such a low power, most other users of the band will probably not realize the frequency is in use. The short TX periods also will result in other users regarding the frequency as free. My question is if this IARU stand with respect to WSPR is a special thing for Region 1 or if it also applies in the other regions. ARRL seems to be rather enthusiastic about various uses of WSPR and recently there have been several articles about WSPR and WSPR equipment in QST. I am therefore confused about what is going on and what the future of WSPR will be. It has been clearly pointed our here in Norway that any WSPR activity on 7 and 10 MHz is unwanted. 73 de Frode, LA2RL |
| Nov 26th 2017, 12:44 | |
WB1AIJTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
If you don't want to operate WSPR then don't. Those of us that want to operate WSPR will. |
| Dec 23rd 2017, 12:48 | |
WA8NVWTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
I think LA2RL's concern is that WSPR does not inhibit transmitter keyup when a signal is heard on the working frequency. Ignoring for the moment the vagaries of international RF propagation between Norway and the USA, here in the USA the licensed amateur operator of the WSPR station is always supposed to listen first and NOT transmit in a manner that would cause interference to other stations.on the frequency. If the WSPR station can hear the remote station and begins transmitting anyhow, the interference caused to the remote station is considered deliberate and harmful by the FCC. In the spirit of maintaining harmony among the IARU regions worldwide, I suggest that the authors of WSPR should consider modifying their program code to inhibit the local station from transmitting whenever signals from another NON-WSPR station are detected within a 2 second pre-window. I have not yet played with WSPR myself, so I can only speculate that some capability might already have been implemented in a slightly different fashion within the current WSPR software version. |
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