hold of the Soldersmoke podcast, [Bill Meara], contributed this guest post.
WSPR is a new communications protocol written by radio amateur as well as Nobel prize champion [Joe Taylor]. like the extremely sluggish QRSS system explained in a previous post, WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) trades speed for bandwidth as well as enables for the reception of signals that are far below the level of radio noise. WSPR takes “low as well as slow” communications a number of important steps ahead, featuring strong error correction, high reliability, as well as (and this is truly fun part) the automatic uploading (via the net) of reception reports — [Taylor]’s WSPR web page constantly gathers reports as well as creates near real-time Google maps of showing who is hearing who. The WSPR mode is extremely hack-able: [Bill Meara] is running a 20 milliwatt homebrew transmitter from Rome, Italy that features an audio amplifier from a defunct computer speaker pictured below. This contraption just recently crossed the Atlantic as well as was chosen up by the Princeton, new jersey getting station of WSPR’s esteemed creator, [Joe Taylor].