Ultimate 2 QRSS beacon TX

The Ultimate2 QRSS kit

The latest edition of SPRAT, mine arrived yesterday, reminded me that G0XAR and G0UPL have produced a very nice QRP beacon transmitter for weak signal modes including QRSS and WSPR. This unit can run stand-alone without tying up a PC to generate the WSPR message, although a GPS module is needed to get the WSPR time sync. The beacon will work on all HF bands with a suitable low pass filter and do other modes like QRSS too. There is even a version that can do WSPR and QRSS in alternative time slots.

See http://www.hanssummers.com/ultimate2.html . At just £17.50 this is a great value kit for those interested in weak signal beaconing.

Ultimate QRSS/WSPR kit from Hans Summers

Hans Summers G0UPL has just announced a wonderful new kit. Amongst other modes it also supports stand-alone WSPR beaconing when used with a GPS timing reference, without a PC. This was his announcement on the GQRP Yahoo group earlier today:

All,

This is to announce a new standalone QRSS/WSPR kit by Steve G0XAR and Hans G0UPL. The kit supports WSPR, QRSS, DFCW, FSK/CW, CW, Hell (full speed and half-speed), Slow Hell, and customisable FSK patterns. The WSPR encoding is on-chip. It supports the connection of a GPS module for frequency locking, accurate time, and location (for WSPR). Power output is measured at 185mW on the 30m version. We are selling versions for 30/40/80m and perhaps later 20m and 160m. It does not require a PC, it has an LCD and two buttons to control it.

The price is GBP 15.39 (EUR 19 or US $24 approximately) plus shipping.

You can see all the details here: http://www.hanssummers.com/qrsskitmm and order online at http://www.hanssummers.com/shop . We expect to be shipping by 27-29 June.

The kit supports the following modes:

+ QRSS mode (plain on/off keyed slow CW)
+ FSK/CW mode (frequency shift keyed slow CW)
+ DFCW mode (dual frequency CW, dit's and dah's on different frequencies)
+ WSPR mode (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter)
+ Slow-Hellschreiber (frequency shifted slow Hellschreiber)
+ Hellshreiber (full-speed standard Hellschreiber, and half-speed Hellshreiber)
+ CW (plain CW)
+ Customisable FSK patterns

Other features:

+ 24-character LCD + two-button user interface
+ User-programmable (callsign, message, speed, FSK, mode, etc.), settings stored in EEPROM
+ GPS interface, for locking the frequency in slow-speed modes
+ On-chip generation of WSPR encoded message (no PC required)
+ WSPR maidenhead locator can be generated from GPS-derived latitude/longitude
+ Selectable “frame” size, for stacked QRSS reception
+ Plain CW callsign identifier at selectable interval
+ Produces 150mW RF output, or AF output for driving an SSB transceiver
+ Higher output power by additional PA transistor and/or higher PA supply voltage

73 Hans G0UPL and Steve G0XAR