The MWRS WebSDR is now online!
After a year-long effort by generous volunteers, all the bits are connected together, a linear power supply has been built and the loop antenna is professionally installed.
A huge thanks to everyone who has helped with this project, it’s great to see it online. Matt VK2RQ, Phil VK2BDF and Horst VK2HL helped out building the Softrock kits, Ben VK2BEN has been assisting closely with the final installation, and Geoff VK2AVR oversaw the project as a whole. This project was financed in principal via the ARNSW 2015 Development Grant and we very much appreciate ARNSW’s financial support of this venture.
Visit it here (this is also linked on the main menu bar on our homepage):
http://websdr.mwrs.org.au:8901/
A capture of the waterfall a couple of days after a prolonged geomagnetic storm shows several stations on 80m and 40m, and a bit of digital activity on 20m. A VK5 was heard calling CQ on 160m just prior to taking the screenshot!
So happy to discover this Australian WebSDR. I’m pondering all of the possibilities
Hi there, checking in on the 15M request to open up more of the 15M band. I was looking for a good WebSDR to monitor the Pacific Maritime Mobile Service Net http://www.pmmsn.net/ Daily on 21.412Mhz 21:00 UTC. Let me know if you think its do-able and there is some interest. There may some cups of coffee in it for your club. -Karl, N7TWP
Hi Karl,
Thanks for reminding me, we did want to move 15m up the band a bit. I’ll have a look at the band plans and see what’s around, hopefully we can change things up a bit more often.
Geoff
Hi Karl,
Better late than never but we have moved the 20m and 15m centre frequencies up the band a fair bit. Have a look and see if you can hear the maritime net
Cheers
Geoff
What a great project! Congratulations to all involved.
Just one question, is it possible with the 15 m band to extend it above the 21,2 mHz where usually most of the activity is taking place?
Similar of course in the 20 m band.
Is it a matter of antenna bandwidth or there’s limitations in the coverage of the SDR? I am an ‘old school’ valve guy from the old days of radio and this, is a new learning experience for me after many years absence from the hobby.
Thanks for the great work and 73’s
Thanks Arthur
It’s not a question of antenna bandwidth (the antenna covers 50kHz to 30MHz). The limitation is sampling rate. Each band can only have 192kHz of bandwidth due to the sound card used to digitise things. I moved 20m up by 60kHz on the weekend, so it still catches digital modes but gets a bit more voice at the top end. 15m can get similar treatment sometime.
Geoff
Hi –
Interested to know if your antenna / and or receiver drops off below around 3560 on 80m? I noticed signal seem stronger higher up the band, peaking around 3600khz
Thanks
Hi Martin,
The antenna is a Wellbrook ALA1530LN and it is specified from 50kHz to 30MHz. The softrock receivers have bandpass filters, I guess it’s possible one of the coils is miswound but I haven’t noticed the effect you described. Will keep an eye on 80m.
Cheers
Geoff
HI MWRS – just spent some time listening on your WebSDR – very impressed !
Later this year I’m planning to get back into amateur radio after a 10+ year absence – will be good to get up to speed with developments like SDR et al.
Cheers .. John (VK2YJJ)
hi – what height is the loop antenna and what are its specs?
Hi Marty, Wellbrook ALA1530LN at about 3-4 metres off the ground in a high location
Thanks for the reply. I am just getting back into amateur radio after a 30 yr break(!!). I am surprised by the minimal activity on 40m and 80m (i mainly listen on your web rx) – Im wondering how the antenna gain at that height compares with a simple dipole cut to frequency? I am in the process of building a mulitband cw transceiver 80/40/20m but now wondering if i’ll get many contacts!! cheers ps thanks for your radio
Of course you’ll get contacts! 80/40/20m are great bands to target at this stage of the sunspot cycle.
Our receive loop is a very respectable antenna for what it does – broadband. untuned reception across the whole HF band. When I was testing it indoors at our club it managed to decode a 1 watt WSPR message from Belgium. That’s pretty crazy.
Having said that I think you could do a bit better if you had the space for a dipole and your location is not too RF noisy.
I wonder if your transceiver build could handle some low-bandwidth digital modes via PC interface? WSPR/JT65 are quite popular these days, not exactly conversational but it’s fascinating to see how far a signal can go.
Hi Geoff – thanks for the reply. I got my old sony icf-sw7600 working today with about 30 feet of wire as an end fed antenna – the performance on 40m is very similar to that which i hear on your websdr receiver. On 80m and 20m it is significantly worse. I am in a high noise area for sure and my inner city block of land is not antenna friendly – i can probably put up a better long wire and use an ATU or possibly install a 1/4 wave vertical for 40m on a tin roof at the back of my house. Anyway, your websdr receiver will ve very handy (as will others) for inital testing of my transmitter which will be finished in a couple of weeks (3 watts CW). I havent tried digital modes to be honest but worth investigating
cheers
Dear MWRS
Warm greetings from South Africa, Johannesburg. I was playing around with your WebSDR and thanks for making it available!
However I have a question and hope somebody could clarify it or shed some light on it.
At 1908.06 kHz there is a commercial station, “Talking Lifestyle”. I tracked down their website to http://www.talkinglifestyle.com.au.
Could you explain why a commercial / public radio broadcast is on that frequency? Its not in the traditional MW or FM range?
Is that a form of Digital Radio Broadcast that is used in Australia that uses that frequency?
How does or would Mr average access this station in that frequency range using what equipment?
I don’t know if I am missing something, but commercial radio in this range is something new to me.
Any feedback or clarification would be much appreciated.
All the best
Brad Robertson
Brad
Thank you for reporting! This raised quite a bit of interest at the club. We believe the station is actually transmitting on 954 kHz with a second harmonic on 1908, and our active antenna may be picking it up because of it’s location. We will investigate more.
After investigation we noticed that the antenna had moved after a wild storm few weeks ago. The antenna was re-installed correctly and the “offending” transmissions stopped.
Dear Yves and all at MWRS
Many thanks for your prompt posting, it was super to find a reply on your page this morning.
Its only a pleasure to give any small amount of feedback and I certainly hope its of use to the club and your SDR project.
Following up on my previous observation, and further investigating in that band on your SDR has unearthed a number of other commercial stations. Can I take that these are also what you think to be “second harmonics”?
I look forward to hearing any feedback from your “further investigation” and any clarification on causes would be greatly appreciated.
All the very best,
Brad Robertson
Roodepoort, Johannesburg, South Africa
Your WebSDR setup sounds good over here in Planet Perth. Surprisingly low levels of noise… – (compared to here ! )
Keep up the good work.
Is this SDR also available as an app for Android or iPone?
Hi Tom, there is a mobile site (if you browse it on a mobile there is a red hyperlink that says “it seems you’re using mobile, click here for the mobile site”).
Hello, I heard about the MWARS WebSDR node on the VK2WI broadcast on Sunday night when I was listening to a relay on our 146.975 2m repeater in Newcastle. I was able to log on and hear the VK2WI broadcast via the WebSDR node on 160m, 80m, 40m and 20m. It was a fantastic experience.
I have used a few other Web SDR services in the past but was very interested to read the details on your website about how you constructed the node. Can you tell me who I can contact to find out more details ? I’m currently constructing a Reverse Beacon Network node using CW Skimmer Server which will be solar powered and located in a farm paddock west of Newcastle.
Thanks, Jamie VK2YCJ
Great stuff Gents! Coral Coast Net several VK4’s hears this morning on 40m.
But how to extend for example 20m top waterfall fqcy from 14.195 to say, 14.300?
Hi Chris,
We plan to move the frequency ranges around a bit now and then to give some variety. Thanks for your feedback!