Steve - W8HF
Running WSPR today with a calibrated 1 mW transmission. I’ve made it to London and Luxemburg so far on 15 meters. Amazing that a single milliwatt can cross the pond! Cycling through 20, 17, and 15 meters.
Jan 22, 2023 at 5:41pmWeb
Show threadSteve - W8HFJan 22, 2023

Some additional information on the setup. Running an Optibeam YAGI which is 5.3 dBd on 20 and 17 meters and 6.5 dBd (gain over dipole) on 15 meters. The antenna is pointed at 45 degrees which is towards Europe. All the stateside stuff to the west is off the back of the beam.

So effectively for a receiving station in the heart of the pattern it would be the equivalent of running 4.5 mW of power on 15 meters and 3.4 mW on 20 and 17 meters.

Show threadSteve - W8HFJan 23, 2023

I am done pointing the Yagi towards Europe. Here are the final results with 1mW.

Going to point towards Australia now and see if I get lucky. Longest reception was 4295 miles (6912 km) with Austria OE9GHV. It was an interesting test and I’m tempted now to setup a dedicated WSPR beacon at 200 mW and a vertical.

Show threadON5ZO-OQ5MJan 22, 2023
@W8HF But what antenna?
Show threadSteve - W8HFJan 22, 2023
@on5zo My Yagi as that is all I have there. 3 elements.
Show threadSteve - W8HFJan 22, 2023
@on5zo The Belgium stationed copied me at -21 so a vertical would have worked as well. Still a lot of margin.
Show threadON5ZO-OQ5MJan 22, 2023
@W8HF -21? Is that FT8-lingo?
Show threadk5druJan 22, 2023
@W8HF How'd you get down to 1mW? My 1mW wasn't calibrated as much as estimated. Radio was set to transmit 0.5W and WSPR output adjusted such that radio's TX meter read 20%. That fed directly to a 20dB attenuator for ~0.001W to the antenna
Show threadSteve - W8HFJan 23, 2023
@k5dru I have a calibrated Bird Wattmeter that will measure 1W accurately. I set the IC-705 to 1 Watt using the Bird meter. I then run the IC-705 into a 30 dB Bird attenuator to get down to 1mW.