Reverse beacons?

[Bill V WA7NWP]

> Per our discussions at Thanksgiving or Saturday breakfast, could you
> elaborate (here on seatcp) the concept of reverse beacons?
>
> Fascinating concept that you could transmit (presumably at low power)
> and then immediately validate how far away you're being heard... and
> how well.

At very low power - one uses WSPR (Weak Signal Propagatrion Research)
too.   It transmits for two minutes(adjustable).   Anybody that heard
you during those two minutes would upload the results to the database
and it's then available as a web page.

 Go to http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/spots

  Set the CALL of the query parameters to WA7NWP and you'll see all
the stations that heard me.

Here's a subset of the data:

 2009-12-01 00:02 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040053 	 -23 	 -1 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 NU8D
	 EM79uh 	 3155 	 93
 2009-12-01 00:02 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040054 	 -17 	 0 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 W6YQ 	
DN84ic 	 1507 	 98
 2009-12-01 00:02 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040058 	 -1 	 -1 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 W7RDP
	 CN87xo 	 11 	 146
 2009-12-01 00:02 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040054 	 -18 	 0 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 KB3VR
	 FM19la 	 3714 	 88
 2009-12-01 00:02 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040053 	 -15 	 0 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 W5CGC
	 EM12kx 	 2656 	 119
 2009-12-01 00:02 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040021 	 -2 	 -1 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 WA6MTZ
	 DM14pw 	 1487 	 160
 2009-11-30 23:42 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040050 	 -24 	 0 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 AA7AE
	 CN87wx 	 32 	 0
 2009-11-30 23:42 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040072 	 -25 	 0 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 N8GCA
	 DM41 	 2032 	 148
 2009-11-30 23:42 	 WA7NWP 	 7.040058 	 -2 	 0 	 CN87wq 	 10 	 W7RDP 	
CN87xo 	 11 	 146

Notice these are on two minute intervals...

Even simpler now then WSPR is the PSKreporter.   Anybody making a call
on PSK31 can go to http://pskreporter.info/   and see who's been
hearing them.   Check the map-display link for a graphic.   This
psk-reporter is now built into the popular PSK31 applications such as
Ham Radio Deluxe or FLDIGI so it's trivial to participate.

We're seeing some real magic of the sound card modes...

73
Bill - WA7NWP

PS.   grayline is real -- this morning, at sunrise, I heard ZL2 (New
Zealand) on 40 meters.  That's always a thrill.