Last month I mentioned that I’d bought a new kit, the “Ultimate 2” transmitter from Hans Summers. I hooked it up with a GPS module and it almost worked perfectly. There were a couple of issues with 2.01 of the firmware and I assisted with beta testing the 2.02 firmware. While testing it, I made a suggestion to Hans that perhaps he could produce a version of the firmware which could be used to transmit both WSPR and QRSS within the same ten minute frame. Hans liked this idea and so version 2.02k (for ‘Keith’) was born.
My chip with 2.02k was delivered today and for a few hours this afternoon and evening I’ve been running both WSPR and QRSS within the same ten minute frame. This means that in a ten minute period, first WSPR is sent for two minutes and then the remaining eight minutes are filled up with QRSS. The whole thing repeats every ten minutes.
I configured the kit to transmit using FSKCW with a speed of seven seconds per dit and using two leading spaces to give a roughly equivalent head and tail to my transmission.
Conditions haven’t gone ‘long’ yet and so I’ve only been heard within Europe using WSPR today.
I’ve taken a couple of very nice screen shots from two European QRSS grabbers and here they both are.
This special firmware really opens up the transmitter, now one has the instant gratification of seeing spots via WSPR and then the fun of looking around QRSS grabbers to see where the signal is being received and watching it fade in and out as band conditions change.
If you’re even slightly interested in weak signal propagation testing then I can thoroughly recommend this kit. It’s simple and easy to build and produces great results with both WSPR and QRSS.
I’ve mentioned the kits from Hans Summers many times in the past on my blog and I’d like to reiterate that I am simply a very satisfied customer. I know they read a bit like adverts but I’m just enthusing about a great product, I have no financial involvement with them whatsoever.