WSPRView for Windows

[VK4ADC]

Leigh

I am using/testing V1.0.0.15 which already has a 'greater than' distance function in it and it puts that line to screen as Black on Lime Green, the distance threshold is a slider control which defaults to 2500KM and currently has a range 2000 to 7000KM - but that can be changed.

It also puts any spots matching my callsign (the /mycall= on the command line) in red or white so that I can easily see any of 'my spots'.
   

   
(with both mycall and DX > 2500KM)

V15 won't be released yet as I am still tinkering with a couple of other functions deep inside.

Doug

[VK4ADC]

Version 1.0.0.15 has been released for download.

It contains the Far Distance highlight feature denoted in the previous post in addition to the mycall highlight option.

I have been running it for some days without noting any bugs so hopefully it is all ok.

[VK2KRR]

Will have a look, thanks Doug.

[VK4ADC]

V1.0.0.16 has been released today to introduce some extra features plus solve a few software issues.

Make sure you read the Latest Release details update on the web site at http://www.vk4adc.com/web/software-proje...or-windows 

This will be the last update until at least the new year.

[VK4ADC]

There will be a new release of WSPRView (V1.0.0.17) early in January - I have a bug that appears only once every few days that I want to solve first.

The new version has a feature that may prove of interest to those who run WSPR beacons themselves.  It allows a download of only 'spots' to match the MyCall detail ( ie with /mycall=VK4ADC on the command line) so that you can assess who is actually reporting your transmissions.  That function adds any new entries to your 'spots' and into the MyCall log file so that you can get a 'total log' even when WSPRView is not running.

That data is all well and good if you can analyse it to make sense of it. Fingers to keyboard again produced some extra software that processes the MySpots data file and provides a breakdown by callsign and band (160M to 70CM only)), unique callsign counts, total counts in the file and spotter grid square and distance values in KM.  You can either browse that on-screen or save the data to a CSV-format summary file to play with further in Ms Excel or similar spreadsheet software.

The extra utility software will be made available at the same time as the V1.0.0.17 is released.

From the start of my summary data file...
Spotter,160M,80M,60M,40M,30M,20M,17M,15M,12M,10M,6M,4M,2M,432,Error,Grid,KM
3D2AG,,,,,,,,,,,4,,,,,RH91fv,2815,
FK1TS,,,,,,,,,,,88,,,,,RG37fr,1488,
KA7OEI-1,,,,,2,,,,,,,,,,,DN31uo,12379,
KPH,,,,,4,,,,,,,,,,,CM88mc,11390,
VK1AAH,,,,,,8,,,,,,,,,,QF44mp,925,
............................

gives..
3D2AG  6M, 4 spots, 2815 KM
FK1TS 6M, 88 spots, 1488 KM
KA7OEI 30M, 2 spots, 12379 KM
KPH  30M, 4 spots, 11390 KM 
VK1AAH 20M, 8 spots, 925 KM
.............................

Screen shot below...

   

Not too shabby for 200mW !!!

Something to look forward to in 2019 ??

[VK4ADC]

V1.0.0.17 of WSPRView is now available for download.
The zip file also contains the WSPRView_Summary executable, to all be placed into the same folder.

Details on the changes in "V17" are on the web page at http://www.vk4adc.com/web/software-proje...or-windows and adjacent to the download link is another link to the WSPRView_Summary option software useage.

The WSPRView_Summary software is of value only to those who are transmitting on WSPR on bands 160M to 70CM as it processes the data file kept-up-to-date of their own transmissions. The /mycall= command line option (introduced in V1.0.0.14) must be used for the WSPRView software (ie in the shortcut to it) for the MyCall option to appear in the Bands menu and for their individual 'spots' data file to be generated. 

The summary details of 'spots' of your transmissions can be viewed on-screen or exported in CSV format, sorted by callsign, individual band, grid square or distance.

For example, my 6900 lines (sized 390KB) Spots data file in callsign order processes down to 95 lines, just 4KB and exports details like..

Spotter,160M,80M,60M,40M,30M,20M,17M,15M,12M,10M,6M,4M,2M,432,Error,Grid,KM
3D2AG,,,,,,,,,,,4,,,,,RH91fv,2815,
FK1TS,,,,,,,,,,,89,,,,,RG37fr,1488,
KA7OEI-1,,,,,4,,,,,,,,,,,DN31uo,12379,
KPH,,,,,11,,,,,,,,,,,CM88mc,11390,
VK1AAH,,,,,,18,,,,,,,,,,QF44mp,925,
VK1BF,,,,,,,,,,,5,,,,,QF44,945, 
...................

The image below is with the data as sorted by 30M spots :
   

Hopefully at least some will find it useful.

[VK4ADC]

For those interested and using the WSPRView software, I posted an update to the WSPRView_Summary software on the VK4ADC web site today. 

The main WSPRView ZIP is not being updated unless there is specifically a change to it but the separate ZIP just for the Summary software is affected by this change. Updated WSPRView ZIPs contain ALL of the current release files.

"Builds later than 3 Jan 2019 also have a Band Summaries tickbox below the Open File button that allows the creation of individual band files to make the band-by-band information easier to assimilate.  The software also now shows an 'Open Band Summary' dropdown box  - which you must drop down - to review the extracted summary file in Notepad.  These files are still Comma Separated Format but contain additional spaces to make it easier to compare the columns visually.   

It is interesting to observe the frequency variations even from one callsign over time, signal level changes over time and what time of the day/night that propagation occurs to different areas on different bands.  It also reveals how much the frequency variation for a single time spot from multiple stations appears (i.e. their frequency error)."

[VK7HH]

Thanks for your work on this Doug.

WSPRView has been invaluable. Yesterday it emailed me to an alert of a spot on 2m to VK4. Within 15 mins window I had made contacts on FT8 to VK4 and 2. I may have missed the opening had it not been for the alert.

[VK7HH]

Hi Doug,
Another example of how useful WSPRView is this morning:

I had several alerts indicating that 2m was open on tropo to VK6. It faded by the time I managed to get in contact with 6JR, but even so I would've found out way to late anyway had it not been for WSPRView.

WSPRView Alerts:
2019-01-20 21:22,VK7HH/P,144.490479,-22dBm,VK6JR,2948Km.
2019-01-20 21:18,VK7HH/P,144.490479,-30dBm,VK6JR,2948Km.
2019-01-20 20:44,VK7HH/P,144.490478,-29dBm,VK6JR,2948Km.

Hayden

[VK4ADC]

I have been getting errors (mainly) 10054 and (some) 10060 popping up on my WSPRView screen at least part of today. 
It appears that the html parts of wsprnet.org  are 'down' as far as my IP address is concerned. For how long - don't know !!   

I can ping the domain name but can't browse to it. Have I been locked out by the system there ? 
Don't know and no easy way to find out.

Maybe my software was making too many queries today ?? 
It could be that because I was doing more software changes to WSPRView this morning and restarting it a lot to test for bugs.

That effect will halt further development of V1.0.0.18 until it is all back to normal...

[VK7HH]

I don’t think it’s you Doug.

WSPRNet has been really sluggish here today too, and it’s been happening more frequently of late.

[VK4ADC]

The WSPRNet.org web pages are back this morning and these numbers are quite astounding :

"Spot Count

1,294,073,014 total spots
1,118,021 in the last 24 hours
10,816 in the last hour
"

Over a million spots a day added to a database of over 1.2 billion.  Just the bandwidth required to handle the traffic to add a million spots a day must be growing like crazy then you get the likes of WSPRView users querying it every two minutes and getting their downloads of 400-500KB each time. Server drive space could be running low too given the data accumulation rate.

I'm probably not helping either. My WSPR beacon project has been getting significant numbers of spots from all over the globe on 10 and 14 MHz with fewer on 18, 21 and 50 MHz.  Given that it transmits on a different band in every two minute period, that becomes a near-continuous feed of spots with some bands producing many spots and others few and sometimes none ( = no prop or no stations monitoring).  At least in MyCall mode, WSPRView only queries the spots database every 10 minutes so that is a reasonable amount of data in the overall total.

Not much we can do about it other than be patient and use it when available.

PS.  
(1)   The greatest distances noted for my transmissions are from EA8-land, Canary Islands, so that must be close to my antipodes position - while I always thought it was closer to the UK.

(2) The optimal frequencies to work DX on HF would have to be 10 and 14MHz at the moment and I am guessing FT8 on those would be the best target mode (I think only VK has SSB on 10MHz).  Some of the signal reports on 10MHz have been astounding based on a 5W transmitter power into an untuned antenna wire  & ideal for digital comms (eg FT8).  Mornings, afternoons and night - there seems to be propagation to somewhere.

[VK7HH]

Check out the numbers this morning Doug...

Spot Count
1,294,610,681 total spots
1,350,214 in the last 24 hours
59,764 in the last hour

[VK2KRR]

Has been some great 2m WSPR paths detected and monitored over the past week crossing the Great Australian Bight.

I've been utilising WSPRview a lot while near my shack PC, its been great. Am attaching a couple of screen shots.
WSPRview really helps the big paths that you really need to know about, to stand out and be brought to your attention.
When the propagation really gets going, the WSPRnet database can be flooded with spots and WSPRview really helps to show what you really need to see.

   

   

[VK7HH]

Hi Doug,
Fired up WSPRView again for another season ahead.

Just a quick question that I tried finding and I think I understand it this way -

If I select "Far Alerts" does that also take into consideration SNR, or does it ignore it. In other words anything further than x km's will always generate an alert.

On my 6m WSPRView window I have the following set:
Min Kms: 350
Max Kms: 900
Far Alert: 2300
Time: 30
SNR Alert: 0dB

VHF Dist Mode, Alters and Far are ticked.

The goal is to look for strong signals between 350 and 900 for high MUF paths more than 0dB. Will I also get an alert for spots over 2300km if I tick the far alert if the SNR is lower than 0dB?

[VK4ADC]

Hayden

Not an easy question to answer since I haven't worked on that part of the code too much since last January - and my memory about intricate code details like that doesn't exist after that time.   I have worked on many other sections of my software packages in the interim period so the code all intermixes in the brain..  That said, I know I do have at least a few reported issues remaining in that software : out of memory, not responding etc 

I think I put all of the "bells and whistles" in it last summer and have only done minor bug fixes since. I'm not really contemplating further 'bells' as that means going through the 138KB of source code text and trying to figure out why each section is there and what does what.  Not an easy - or quick - task.

I suggest you try checking the results with the settings as you have them set up now, see what alerts are triggered then advise the outcome.

Doug

[VK7HH]

All good Doug.

I answered my own question. The far field still looks at SNR if it's checked to send an alert.

All good I just opened another instance and use it that way.

[VK2KRR]

Hello Doug,

It seems that recently WSPRnet has changed servers and thus it appears that WSPRview is no longer able to retrieve the required data.

Would it be possible for you to do an update to WSPRview so we can keep using it this summer?

I do not have specific information on what information has changed at this point, I guess maybe an IP address change? I may be able to find out what the new address is if thats the issue.

[VK4ADC]

Lee

Yep, I will look at it in the next few days and then update the code on the web site, then let you know here...

Doug

PS - an hour later..
I found that the web site at " http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/activity " now does a redirect where it didn't previously and have solved that - hopefully. 
The WSPRView page's download link still says 1.0.0.17 but the version available there is actually 1.0.0.20.
Try it and see if it fixes your issue. The summary function across all bands now works here so that should fix all...

[VK2KRR]

Hi Doug,

I still use version 17 here and it doesnt seem to be getting the data. Do I need to use version 20?