siglent-sdg-wspr

Proof of concept for transmitting WSPR with a Siglent Function / Arbitrary Waveform Generator. Tested with Siglent SDG-1032X. Channel 2 is the FM source for channel 1.

Inspired by http://www.arrl.org/files/file/QEX_Next_Issue/May-June2019/Steber.pdf

My HF 0 dBm (1 mW) signal into an endfed sloper antenna was heard a few hundred to 1500 km away!

Note: You'll probably need an amateur radio license to transmit on HF! Also check your output for harmonics and use an LPF if necessary.

Usage

Generate the arbitrary gate waveform

• Generate a WSPR message with WSPRMSG.exe, remove everything except the comma seperated values.
• Save file as WSPRMSG.txt in this directory.
• Run main.py, it will write a wspr.csv file.
• Optional: rename this file to something useful, for example wspr0dBm.csv.
• wspr0dBm.csv becomes waveform 'wspr0dBm' in the SDG.
• Load wspr0dBm.csv into EasyWaveX and upload it to the generator:

Connect the instrument

• Connect an HF antenna to channel 1.
• Connect channel 2 to the aux input on the back of the instrument.
• Connect a 10 MHz reference. This results in a stable signal.

Run the sdg-wspr.sh script

• Install lxi-tools (Ubuntu): snap install lxi-tools
• Find your device: lxi discover
• Get the waveform name: lxi scpi -a <IP address> "STL? USER"
• Edit at least the variables below in sdg-wsrp.sh
  • address: SDG IP address
  • freq: frequency in Herz.
  • ampl: amplitude in Vpp.
  • wave: waveform name.
• Run sdg-wspr.sh