WSPR-zero provides the components for a cost-effective and ultra-portable Raspberry Pi Zero solution for transmitting and receiving WSPR signals. The project brings together various community contributions into an easy-to-install package tailored for the Raspberry Pi Zero, although it is also tested on the Raspberry Pi 3 & 4.
Designed for portability and low power requirements, this project is perfectly suited for outdoor activities such as backpacking and traveling.
Enjoy!
-- Greg Lawler, K6FTP
Download the latest version here: wspr-zero.com/downloads
Visit wspr-zero.com for more details.
WSPR (pronounced "whisper") stands for Weak Signal Propagation Reporter. WSPR is a digital radio protocol to transmit low-power shortwave signals globally, testing radio wave propagation by bouncing off the ionosphere.
Each WSPR transmission is 110.6 seconds long. This precise duration allows for a slow data rate that enhances the likelihood of reception under weak signal conditions. The remaining time within the two-minute interval (about 9.4 seconds) is used as a buffer to ensure that transmissions do not overlap and that there is time for transceivers to switch from transmit to receive mode, and vice versa.
Adding to the fun, every WSPR transmission ever sent or received—is logged to a massive database and is available for download, providing a great dataset for budding data analysts!
Fun Fact: Each WSPR transmission contains just 40.5 bytes of data at the impressively low data rate of 1.46 baud!
Close-up view of a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, WSPR-zero Hat and UPS-Lite.
No install script yet - pull the repo and go from there :)
Ensure your Raspberry Pi is up to date and connected to the internet before starting the installation.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install rtl-sdr librtlsdr-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libfftw3-dev
Add IPQoS to sshd_config: If SSH access is painfully slow, run the following command on the Pi
echo "IPQoS 0x00" | sudo tee -a /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Contributions to the WSPR-zero project are welcome! Please refer to the issues tab on GitHub to find tasks that need help or submit your suggestions and contributions via pull requests.
Thanks to all contributors from the ham radio community, especially those who have provided testing, feedback and code improvements.
For more details, visit the official GitHub repository.
Ready to hit the road.
Utility Button to gracefully shut down the Pi if held for 10 seconds or post internal IP info if pressed 5 times.
Utility Button log file showing the two use cases.
Screenshot from wsprnet.org for traffic from a WSPR-zero using a $4 half dipole 30m wire antenna draped on a hedge.
*Render of v2 of the WSPR-zero Hat with RTC header - coming soon.**
WSPR-zero Project by 2024 Greg Lawler. Visit the GitHub repository for more information.