G8JNJ

There are so many amateur digital modes these days, it is often very difficult to say what is being used.

It is around the frequencies typically being used for SSTV, and it could be Digital SSTV, but that is just a guess on my part.

The Signal ID Wiki is a good place to start when trying to ID unknown signals.

https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Signal_Identification_Guide

Regards,

Martin

Hi Andy,

I understand the points you are making, but having previously discussed this with Philippe, I think there are some valid concerns, that may discourage other people, in other countries, from operating a KiWi.

If a simple fix, which John has already implemented, can help remove some of these barriers, then surely it is a good thing ?

Some countries are extremely sensitive about some aspects of the radio hobby, and to be honest, if I was living in one, I wouldn't be running a KiWi. It's easy to forget this when living somewhere that is more "relaxed" about such things.

Callsign piracy has always been an issue, and using an alpha-numeric string (or emojis) to identify an individual doesn't mean that they are who they say they are. However, I can understand the problem for the KiWi admin, if someone else decides to use your callsign, and you, the legitimate owner, find out, and then blame the admin for something that he has no control over. This may sound unlikely, but I have experienced similar problems when we had the "Chat" facility enabled on one of our websdr's, which caused so many issues we, (like most other websdr admins) removed it. Any public site, that has the ability for folks to anonymously post comments, no matter how brief in content, will unfortunately be abused.

Andy - "they" already know, who you are and where you are :-)

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ ( or am I )

Hi Glenn,

I have used WSPR Daemon with good results, but unless you have set aside some KiWi channels to allow it to run, it's not really applicable to the average KiWi installation.

Although not calibrated against a known noise reference, the graphs I have obtained using the standard KiWi SNR stats are almost as detailed as the ones I obtained using KiWi Daemon, in therms of indicating propagation changes. But unlike WSPR Daemon, it's a background process and doesn't require additional resources such as a RasPi (scarce at the moment), or consume precicous receive channels in order to work.

In addition I feel that the use of WSPR is beginning to wane somewhat, and FT8 is now taking over the world of Amateur radio. In fact if FT8 had a mechanism for reporting transmitted power and a full 6 digit locator, as does WSPR, I think WSPR would be in further decline for use as a propagation indicator.

With this in mind, it would be nice if the KiWi could support more of the JT/FT modes as an extension, in addition to WSPR, as I believe the libraries are available, but I guess it's not particularly high on the adgenda for John these days.

Regards,

Martin

Sometimes, when used inside a Switched Mode Power supply, the additional choke inductor in the ground (L3 in the circuit) can sometimes be more problematic than useful.

I tend to wire the DC 0v / -ve directly to the mains earth, but depending upon the local configuration, this can also make things worse.

Unfortunately, it's one of those cases where, although it may be good practice to do certain things, you generally have to experiment, in order to find the best solution for your own setup.

Regards,

Martin

Fldigi has a decoder, but I note that there are a number of Linux based parsers and decoders too.

Just a quick selection.

This is an embed external element. It can be deleted using the delete key or the backspace key. To view the full element, press the preview button below.

pymetdecoder

https://pypi.org/project/pymetdecoder/

Python module to decode/encode met reports e.g. SYNOPs

This is an embed external element. It can be deleted using the delete key or the backspace key. To view the full element, press the preview button below.

GitHub - soandsoSwEn/synop: Synop (AAXX/BBXX) weather report decoder

https://github.com/soandsoSwEn/synop

Synop (AAXX/BBXX) weather report decoder. Contribute to soandsoSwEn/synop development by creating an account on GitHub.

Regards,

Martin

Hi Philippe,

I'd agree with John that it doesn't make sense to list KiWi's that folks can't openly use.

But I do understand your reservations, and some countries are definitely more restrictive than others.

Short range local VHF / UHF communications are certainly more problematic from a legal perspective than HF communications, which generally tend to completely ignore geopolitical boundaries

Maybe it would be worthwhile emailing some of the other KiWi admin / operators in France, to see if they have the same concerns as yourself ?

Regards,

Martin

A bit more information for those interested in Wave Radars, cut an pasted links from discussions on other sites.

CODAR and WERA (now Helzel) are very similar systems, and I think that folks tend to call all of them CODAR, a bit like some brand names becoming used for all products of a certain type regardless of the actual manufacturer.

There are plenty of WERA systems operating, but maybe not in the USA, even so the chances are you will have heard one, but thought it was CODAR.

https://helzel.com/

List of USA radars including manufacturer.

https://hfrnet.ucsd.edu/sitediag/stationList.php

You can also use this map.

https://cordc.ucsd.edu/projects/hfrnet/

Select station placemarks in the overlay menu to show them on the map.

If you click on each map pin it will give you more data, including the operating frequency.

Alternatively, there is this list, but it takes a very long time to load.

https://hfrnet.ucsd.edu/sitediag/stationList.php

WERA have a range of products, some of which have slightly different characteristics.

The European ones are listed in a table at the end of this document

https://eurogoos.eu/download/eu-hfradar-inventory-2016/?wpdmdl=9972&refresh=63f157c239dcf1676761026

An interactive on-line map of the current European sites can be found here.

https://eurogoos.eu/high-frequency-radar-task-team/

Regards,

Martin

They are Wave Radars, and sweep across the frequency range at a rate of approx 4Hz (250mS).

The ones you are hearing are most likely located at the Hook of Holland and Dyfamed in France, but there are likely to be other sources as it is a common frequency.

My KiWi's have most of the European ones marked with DX tags.

http://wessex.zapto.org:8073

http://websdr.uk:8060

Regards,

Martin

Hi John,

I think you have most of the common modes already covered, perhaps with the exception of ROS.

I agree about the lack of RSID. It is becoming increasingly difficult to identify some digital modes that are being used on the amateur bands. New ones seem to po up all of the time, and unless you are part of the "clique" that use them, up to date information regarding operational frequencies and specific modes, seems to be very hard to find.

Outside of the amateur bands

Winlink and Sailmail seem to be the only others that spring to mind and they use a mixture of Packet, Pactor, ARDOP and VARA, most of which is proprietary

https://www.winlink.org/RMSChannels

Regards,

Martin