THE GCARC WSPR NETWORK A Club Propagation Research Project — W2MMD · Spring 2026
The GCARC WSPR Network is a club-wide project to build, deploy, and operate a network of low-power HF propagation beacons across our members’ home stations. Each participant builds an inexpensive kit beacon using a TAPR Universal WSPR HAT and a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W. Once on the air, beacons transmit automatically around the clock, uploading propagation data to a global public database that the club analyzes together.
The project is open to all license classes. General licensees are encouraged to use 30 meters. Technician licensees use 10 meters, where current solar conditions are producing outstanding DX. Total hardware cost per station is approximately $73, including the kit, Pi, SD card, power supply, and antenna materials.
What this project gives us:
As more members participate, the network becomes a genuine scientific instrument. We can compare antenna performance between stations objectively, track how HF propagation varies by band, time of day, and season, and use AI-assisted tools to generate automated analysis reports — all while our beacons run unattended.
What’s on this page:
This section of the Skunkworks site collects all technical reference material for the project. Use the links below to navigate to specific topics. (Some sections are still in process.)
Member Q&A — Common questions about the project, hardware, antennas, and data
Technical Reference — WSPR protocol deep dive: frequencies, timeslots, message format, and encoding
Project Description — Full project overview, hardware specifications, software setup, and planned sessions
Band Selection Guide — Frequency table, antenna lengths, and propagation characteristics for all HF bands
Build Guide — Step-by-step kit assembly, bias adjustment, Pi imaging, and WsprryPi configuration
Data and Analysis — How to read your spots on wspr.rocks, interpret SNR and drift, and request AI analysis reports
Questions? Contact WB2MNF at any club meeting or through Discord at #wspr-project. W2MMD · Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club · w2mmd.org
That gives you a clean landing page that introduces the project in a few sentences, explains what’s in the hierarchy below it, and links out to the sub-pages you already have content for. The “What’s on this page” section doubles as your navigation menu — in Elementor you can turn those bold items into actual page links once you’ve created the child pages.