Friday, 11 August 2017

WSPR-X vs. WSJT-X WSPR Mode

WSPR is a mode that has gone from strength to strength recently.  With the advent of WSPRlite, albeit only a transmitter, the mode has now edged into the backpacks of DX-peditions and even scientific explorations.

For quite a while, I've been using WSPR-X, which is an experimental mode.  It does very well, although it does suffer from a persistent tendency, at least on my equipment, to miss a fraction of the signals evident on-screen.

This morning, after much playing around with receive input settings, I decided to have a go at using the WSPR setting available under WSJT-X.

The difference in remarkable!  Whereas WSPR-X might decode a maximum of about eight signals per cycle, WSJT-X reliably pulls out about 15 signals!  That's quite a difference, and vitally important for decoding those tiny WSPRlite transmissions from distant places of only a few mW.

I'm not sure why WSPR-X is so poor at decoding.  It was a release mainly aimed at announcing WSPR-15.  Perhaps WSPR-2 wasn't improved at that point?

I've also found that the derivative software, JTDX, decodes far more transmissions than WSPR-X, broadly in keeping with the rate decoded by WSJT-X.


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