Snapshot of WSPR activity levels on various bands - Fri 2nd July 2021

2nd July 2021: For the last few weeks, I have been monitoring the WSPR frequency on 28.1246 MHz and uploading the reports to the WSPRnet website. I noticed on the 2nd of July that I was ranked 3rd in the world for 10m reception reports on that day.

This certainly isn't due to anything special on my part as I'm just using a simple CB type half-wave vertical. The 3rd place is likely due to my location in the north-west of Europe which means I was probably hearing a lot of European stations on that day and I might have a slight advantage towards North America.

WSPR activity: Looking at the data above, it gives a snapshot into the activity levels for WSPR on the various bands on what was a busy day for Sporadic-E propagation. 

The LF band down around 136 kHz has so little activity that it can be ignored. Perhaps it has more activity in Winter. Likewise for the MF band around 473 kHz.

The 70 MHz (4m) band has so few users that it is probably a waste of time using WSPR.

WSPR activity on 144 MHz (2m) is mostly confined to the SE of Australia and California. The level of activity in Europe is very low.

There is very little activity on the 432 MHz (70cms) and 1296 MHz (23cms) band.

I calculated the average number of stations heard by the five top receiving stations (>10 stns heard) on each band and this is what the chart looks like...

1.8 MHz (160m) / 3.5 MHz (80m) / 5.5 MHz (60m) ...Perhaps there is a lack of activity due to the amount of daylight during the Summer months but only 80m seems to have enough users for it to be meaningful.

7.0 MHz (40m) / 10.1 MHz (30m) / 14.0 MHz (20m) ...These are the only three bands where the level of activity is really high. I'd suggest that these are the bands that have enough users to make antenna tests and comparisons meaningful.

18.1 MHz (17m) / 21 MHz (15m) ...There is probably just enough activity on these bands to make them useful for propagation tests but the level of activity is well below the likes of 20m.

24.9 MHz (12m) ...The level of activity is very low and is probably of little value.

28 MHz (10m) ...From my experience, the level of activity outside of the summer Sporadic-E season is so low that it's pointless. Now during the Summer months however, there is a modest amount of activity but many of the propagation paths go unreported due to a lack of stations in suitable locations. In this respect, FT8 is much better at getting an idea of what the band conditions are like.

50 MHz (6m) ...Most of this activity is in Europe but the number of users is so low as to make it pointless.

In Conclusion: It might be interesting to take a snapshot again in the middle of Winter but for now, the WSPR mode is of limited use on some bands. Even though I monitor the 10m WSPR frequency every day, I can't really say it has any real advantages over say FT8 other than the fact the WSPR reception reports get stored for a longer period as opposed to 24 hours for FT8.

If you are interested in buying one of those small standalone WSPR transmitters for doing antenna tests then I'd suggest you choose one for either 40m, 30m or 20m.

Links...

1) WSPR Rocks website by Phil, VK7JJ