PSK Reporter
| PSK Reporter | |
|---|---|
| Type | Automatic reception-report network and map |
| Created by | Philip Gladstone, N1DQ |
| Website | pskreporter.info |
| Cost | Free to use |
| Reports | |
| Sent by | WSJT-X, JTDX, fldigi and other digital-mode programs |
| Most common mode | FT8 |
| Bands | Mainly HF, also MF, VHF and UHF |
| Typical uses | Checking propagation, testing antennas, research |
PSK Reporter is a free website and database that collects automatic reception reports from digital-mode software around the world and shows them on a map. Whenever a station running a program such as WSJT-X or fldigi decodes another station's signal, the software can quietly send a report saying who was heard, on what frequency and mode, how strongly and from where. PSK Reporter gathers those reports, called spots, and lets anyone look up where a particular signal has been received in the last few minutes or hours. It was created, and is still maintained, by Philip Gladstone, N1DQ. The name comes from PSK31, the keyboard mode it first served, but today the great majority of its reports come from FT8.
How it works
PSK Reporter has no receivers of its own. All of its data comes from ordinary hams whose software has reporting switched on. A program that supports it collects the decodes from each receive period and uploads them in batches over the internet, a few minutes apart, along with the receiving station's call sign, grid square and the program in use. Each spot records:
- the transmitting and receiving call signs and their locations,
- the frequency and mode,
- the signal-to-noise ratio, for modes that report it, and
- the time of reception in UTC.
Because a single FT8 receive period can contain dozens of decodes, and thousands of stations report around the clock, the volume is enormous. The service had collected more than 20 billion reports by 2021.
PSK Reporter only works for signals that someone decodes and reports. A station transmitting where nobody is listening, or on a mode no reporting program understands, leaves no trace. For CW, the separate Reverse Beacon Network does a similar job with dedicated skimmer receivers, and WSPR has its own database, WSPRnet.
Using the map
The main page is a world map. A visitor enters a call sign, chooses whether to see stations that call sign heard or stations that heard that call sign, and picks a band, mode and time window. Markers appear for each matching station, colored by band, and clicking one shows the details of the report. Other views show which stations are monitoring each band right now and which receivers have logged the most spots.
The question most operators bring to the map is simple: "Is my signal getting out, and to where?" A few minutes of calling CQ on FT8 followed by a look at the map answers it with far more detail than a handful of signal reports from contacts. It shows, for example, whether a band is open to Europe at the moment or only to the Caribbean, which makes the map a practical tool for choosing a band.
Uses
- Propagation checks. The map shows real paths from the operator's own station, not a forecast.
- Antenna and station tests. Comparing reports before and after a change gives a rough idea of whether a new antenna or feed line helped, though conditions change constantly, so comparisons need care and a lot of data.
- Finding activity. Monitoring lists show which bands have active stations, useful on 6 meters and other bands that open unpredictably.
- Science. Researchers studying the ionosphere and space weather use the archive, for example to measure how the 2017 solar eclipse over the US changed HF propagation. A spotting challenge run by HamSCI, an amateur and professional science collective, is named after Gladstone.
Programs such as GridTracker can display PSK Reporter spots alongside an operator's own decodes, and some logging programs use the data as well.
Taking part
Sending reports helps everyone. In WSJT-X, reporting is a single checkbox on the Reporting tab of the settings; fldigi and most other digital programs have a similar option. Accurate station details matter, since the call sign and grid square entered in the software are what appear on the map. A station that leaves its receiver decoding on a band, even while doing something else, adds useful data on paths that might otherwise go unreported.