Sunday, May 09, 2010

Whispered contacts?

A recent discussion on the WSPRnet website concerns whether one should log WSPR contacts. It was pointed out that normal WSPR "spots" are not contacts. However it appears that some operators consider that if two stations spot each others' signals within a short interval of time then they treat it as a contact and QSL it.

In my opinion WSPR spots, even if they occur both ways within a short time, are not contacts because you have no way of knowing if someone else received your transmission (or what signal report you got) without using the internet. It would be nice if the WSPR protocol provided a way to discover who is hearing your signals without using the internet but it doesn't. I have no issue with QSLing WSPR "spots" as SWL reports. But they are not contacts, and if anyone uses eQSL to send a QSL to me for a WSPR spot it will be rejected as "not in log."

2 comments:

Paul Stam PAØK said...

Hello Julian, I agree with you. I do log new countries or US states in a log just for myself to see where I've been reported with WSPR. It would be wonderful when WSPRnet provide statistics for us. However, it's no qso and I send no qsl cards or accept eQSL by Whisper. 73 Paul

PE4BAS, Bas said...

I occasionally send a WSPR SWL card if someone asks for it. I will only accept SWL cards for the WSPR mode. Like Paul PC4T I only log for myself to see how many DXCC I can reach with my 1 Watt. The results are on my blog. 73, Bas