WSPR, RTTY and a Battle of the Bands.

WSPR is a weak signal beacon mode now very widely used by those with an interest in propagation and assessing antenna performance.

Interfering with beacon frequencies has long been severely frowned-upon, and perhaps one of the worst transgressions that can be committed on the air.  This is because beacons - including WSPR beacon transmissions - are very weak and often generating data for scientific purposes.  Such uses may be propagation, Earth-Sun interactions, and atmospheric processes.

So it is with increasing dismay that I find RTTY, in particular, now daily stamping on and near the WSPR frequency such that beacon transmissions are severely interfered with.

Those who say RTTY shares the same frequencies in a band as WSPR are generally correct.  However, we must remember that band plans are not legally enforceable under the terms of an amateur radio licence, unless those frequencies are specified  (such as spot frequencies at 60m, for example.)

So, RTTY ops can, if the frequency is not in use already, of course, ask "what are we doing wrong?". WSPR ops will respond "beacons operate continuously, the frequency is thus in use, and so you should stay well away from beacon frequencies."   Interfering with a frequency in use can easily be classed a breach of licence conditions, and no decent operator would accept transmitting on a frequency already in use on any other mode.

The problem is exacerbated for WSPR because the transmissions are long, sound continuous, lack any apparent modulation, and may be mistaken for local QRM harmonic lines from TVs and so on.

The situation with WSPR has, without any exaggeration, reached crisis point, more especially during weekend and holiday periods, when less active users switch on, and an increasing volume of contests seem to be taking place.

In other modes' defence, WSPR arrived fairly recently, tried to fit itself in on standardised frequencies when there was no guarantee these would ultimately prove free of QRM, and no doubt is seen by many as a 'pointless' mode.  Ultimately, as we are born to die, all activity is as pointless as any other!

It is in this vein that WSPR users should now be making their voices heard.  In very recent contact with the RSGB, it became apparent that the problem of interference with WSPR transmissions has been raised at committee level.

However, the RSGB shows some worryingly timed-honoured responses to the problem.  A concern raised at the Propagation Committee "was deemed to be an AROS matter." An email to AROS hasn't yielded an answer as yet.

Frankly, making a general and international problem with interference with WSPR beacons an AROS matter is really dumb.  It's clear that the problem can't be resolved - nor do resources exist - to tackle each and every RTTY operator that fails to have proper regard for other band users.

This problem is one that needs all sections of the RSGB and its members to work together.  The Propagation Committe has, in my view, entirely missed the point and acted lazily in failing to realise that its work and interest is directly threatened by interference with WSPR beacons.

One must ask whether anyone at the RSGB - or anywhere else - is really taking the problem seriously.  There may well be a case to change the WSPR frequencies to a more clearly-identified beacon part of the bands, so making any interference clearly unacceptable and actionable, at least for repeat 'offenders'.

Sadly, I've found that comments left on the WSPR chat forum generally leads to a heads-in-sand attitude, typical of the elderly ops who like to comfort themselves of an evening, quipping with their mates, believing all will be OK in the end.  

With ever-increasing pressure on the bands, and a general slip in operating standards, the hobby - and the RSGB in particular - needs to pull its finger out and do that which it claims to do - represent us robustly, and on timescales that aren't geological due to 'protocol' and 'office politics'.

Get on with it, RSGB!