Making Waves

Making Waves - Featuring RADWAV SkyPi-40 History & Distance Records

The "Making Waves" column features experts using the Raspberry Pi for amateur radio. M0MBO became one of the first amateurs to build a SkyPi kit. He also held the SkyPi-40 distance record for quite a while. Congratulations!!! There is now a new distance record holder at 18,105 km and several others are closing on this record. Most reports are using wire antennas up 25-40 feet or vertical antennas. Read about the chase below!

W9REB Reaches 18,105km with SkyPi-40 Kit

Sept 1, 2015 - Last night, Bob, W9REB, perused bandconditions.com and discovered 40 meters was open. Immediately, he powered-up his SkyPi-40 kit and smashed the prior SkyPi-40 records by nearly 2,000km.

W9REB's SkyPi-40 kit reached Rick, VK6XT -- a distance of 18,105km. Bob credits Rick's excellent station in Broomehill, which is about 300km SE of Perth, Australia.

The official report: 2015-09-01 11:34UTC, W9REB to VK6XT, SNR = -19dB

W9REB holds the SkyPi-40 distance record once again, from his highly effective station near Augusta, GA. Congratulations to Bob, W9REB, on a most impressive record!

N8AWB's New SkyPi-40 Record = 16,333km

June 10, 2015 - Alex, N8AWB, set a new SkyPi-40 distance record from West Virginia to Australia: 16,333km. N8AWB was received by VK5PJ. Alex's record setting SkyPi-40 is shown in this photo.

N8AWB's station uses an off-center fed dipole that hangs 25 feet above the ground. His station and antenna are highly effective; N8AWB's 1 Watt SkyPi WSPR signal produced a powerful +11dB signal-to-noise ratio 855km away. (This is enough power to complete a solid CW contact as well.) In Australia, N8AWB's signal-to-noise ratio was -22dB, which is still several dB above the WSPR detection threshold. N8AWB topped the amazing previous record. Congratulations!

W9REB Sets an Amazing SkyPi-40 Record

May 30, 2015 - Bob, W9REB, now holds the amazing new SkyPi-40 distance record. Last night Bob finished the kit and started transmitting from his station in Georgia. His signal, which was sent from an end-fed wire antenna, spanned the Pacific Ocean and reached Australia. W9REB reached VK2DDI which is the new SkyPi-40 distance record at 15,133km. Bob also reached ZL1RS at 13,149km and GM4SFW at 6,266km. W9REB's SkyPi-40 transmissions were received on three continents last night: Australia, Europe, and North America. Congratulations to W9REB!

AmateurLogic TV Sets a New SkyPi-40 Record

Apr 14, 2015 - George, W5JDX, built the RadWAV SkyPi-40 In AmateurLogic TV Episode 77. There is a fun time-lapse video where George builds the SkyPi-40.

W5JDX's SkyPi-40 reached all four corners of the continental US. W5JDX also reached DK6UG. This sets a new SkyPi-40 record at 7,929km. George's SkyPi-40 station also reached OZ7IT (7,864km) and PI4THT (7,707km). How impressive! W5JDX is running the SkyPi-40 into an off-center fed wire antenna.

Prior Distance Records

Feb 18, 2015 - Jim, W9JFB, has spanned the Atlantic with a SkyPi-40 Kit. W9JFB now holds the SkyPi-40 distance record at 6,983 kilometers. W9JFB was received by DL8FCL in Germany. The same signal was also heard by ON7KO which was 6,637 kilometers away. A map of the contacts is shown above.

W9JFB's record holding SkyPi-40 is shown on the left. The Raspberry Pi is running with a monitor connected to the HDMI port. The keyboard and mouse are connected to the USB port. Jim's antenna is a Carolina Windom hanging 30 feet in the air from trees. Congratulations!!!

In the Hunt...

If you want to claim the new record, contact RadWAV when you set a record. Good Luck & Good DX!

My First Foray into WSPR, Using the RadWAV SkyPi-40
Malcom, M0MBO

Jan 14, 2015 - As a ham always interested in new challenges that combine computing and amateur radio I have been ‘playing’ with the Raspberry PI since it was first launched here in the UK. To date this has mainly involved PSK-31 reception and using RTL-2832/E4000 dongles as wideband receivers to monitor the bands. Discovering the Skypi-40 product website provided a new adventure into the new (for me) world of WSPR.

Before I built the Sky-pi and to learn a little about the mode, I set up a receiving and spotting station using my TS-870S, 6BTV vertical antenna, SignaLink and the WSPR-2 software downloaded from (http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wspr.html).

Monitoring 7.0386 MHz the software immediately detected many WSPR transmissions and reported the spots, via my internet connection, to WSPRnet (http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/spots). This site provides a graphical map display showing the location of each station received and immediately provides a real ‘community feel’ to the mode.

Construction of the SkyPi-40 was straightforward following the very detailed manual provided by RadWAV. Connecting the SkyPi to my Raspberry PI B+, which has a wi-fi dongle that ‘connects’ the set up to my station PC via putty, and firing up the RadWav supplied radwav_wspr software on the Raspberry, I waited to see what happened.

Monitoring WSPRnet I immediately saw that several stations were receiving my 1W WSPR signal and in the first 20-minutes I counted 12 stations and very soon saw that my signal had reached LA9JO over 2000kms away in the north of Norway.

On this, my very first WSPR TX session, I had registered more than 50 spots on the WSPRnet site – so I’m very impressed with the SkyPi and this incredible mode. Next will be to try out the RTTY capability of the SkyPi.