OnAirDecode FT8 and WSPR with OnAir
Weak amateur signals, decoded slot by slot.
What you need#
- A radio that tunes HF (an RTL-SDR in direct sampling, an SDRplay or an Airspy HF+ are common; a HackRF needs an up-converter) and an HF antenna.
- A computer clock that is right: FT8 uses 15-second slots. OnAir can sync the computer clock from GPS or a time station.
Steps#
- Choose FT8 (group Amateur: digital). The dial frequency is 14.074 MHz upper sideband; other entries have their own: FT4 14.080, FT2 14.084, WSPR 14.0956 MHz. The band buttons jump to the usual frequencies of other bands.
- Press Start. OnAir decodes every signal in the 3 kHz passband at once; since 0.2.5 you can also decode every signal in the visible span, not just the tuned one.
- In Decodes every message appears with its SNR; Map places stations by their grids; WSPR has WSPR spots.
- Press Listen to play the audio of the passband.
- Export with Save results... as CSV or an ADIF logbook (call, grid, band, mode, RST / SNR, UTC).
Reporting your spots#
Both are optional and off until you turn them on. Spots are public, so use your own valid amateur radio callsign.
- PSK Reporter (View > Data feeds): sends the stations you decode to pskreporter.info. Reports are batched every 5 minutes and the same station on the same band is sent once per 10 minutes.
- WSPR spots upload to wsprnet.org (0.2.6).
More modes in the same family#
JT65, JT9, Q65, FST4 (and FST4W), MSK144, Olivia, Contestia, MFSK, THOR, DominoEX and Hellschreiber have their own entries in the mode list. See the mode reference.