Command Line Operations

The Wsprry Pi executable, wspr, is controlled by the Linux systemd controller. It will run in the background as soon as your Pi starts up. It is a singleton application by design, meaning only one wspr process may be running. You must stop the daemon if you desire to have some manual control for testing or other reasons. Here are some commands you may use:

sudo systemctl status wspr: Show a status page for the running daemon.
sudo systemctl restart wspr: Restart the daemon and wspr with it.
sudo systemctl stop wspr: Stop the daemon. The daemon will restart again upon reboot.
sudo systemctl start wspr: Start the daemon if it is not running.
sudo systemctl disable wspr: Disable the daemon from restarting on reboot.
sudo systemctl enable wspr: Enable the daemon to start on reboot if it is disabled.

You will control the shutdown button monitor daemon like wspr, substituting shutdown-button for wspr above.

To run wspr from the command line, a complete listing of command line options is available by executing (sudo) /usr/local/bin/wspr -h:

Usage:
  wspr [options] callsign locator tx_pwr_dBm f1 <f2> <f3> ...
    OR
  wspr [options] --test-tone f

Options:
  -h --help
    Print out this help screen.
  -v --version
    Show the Wsprry Pi version.
  -p --ppm ppm
    Known PPM correction to 19.2MHz RPi nominal crystal frequency.
  -s --self-calibration
    Check NTP before every transmission to obtain the PPM error of the
    crystal (default setting.)
  -f --free-running
    Do not use NTP to correct the frequency error of RPi crystal.
  -r --repeat
    Repeatedly and in order, transmit on all the specified command line
    freqs.
  -x --terminate <n>
    Terminate after completing <n> transmissions.
  -o --offset
    Add a random frequency offset to each transmission:
      +/- 80Hz for WSPR
      +/- 8Hz for WSPR-15
  -t --test-tone freq
    Output a test tone at the specified frequency. Only used for
    debugging and verifying calibration.
  -l --led
    Use LED as a transmit indicator (TAPR board).
  -n --no-delay;
    Transmit immediately without waiting for a WSPR TX window. Used for
    testing only.
  -i --ini-file
    Load parameters from an ini file. Supply path and file name.
  -D --daemon-mode
    Run with terse messaging.
  -d --power_level
    Set actual TX power, 0-7.

Frequencies can be specified either as an absolute TX carrier frequency,
or using one of the following bands:

  LF, LF-15, MF, MF-15, 160m, 160m-15, 80m, 60m, 40m, 30m, 20m,
  17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m, 4m, and 2m

If you specify a band, the transmission will happen in the middle of the
WSPR region of the selected band.

The "-15" suffix indicates the WSPR-15 region of the band.

You may create transmission gaps by specifying a TX frequency of 0.

Command Line Entries for Testing

You may transmit a constant tone at a specific frequency for testing. In this example, wspr will send a tone at 780 kHz (780000 Hz):

wspr --test-tone 780e3

Example Usage

Remember that anything that creates a transmission will require you to use sudo.

wspr --help

Display a brief help screen.

wspr --test-tone 780e3

Transmit a constant test tone at 780 kHz.

wspr N9NNN EM10 33 20m

Using callsign N9NNN, locator EM10, and TX power 33 dBm, transmit a single WSPR transmission on the 20m band using NTP-based frequency offset calibration.

wspr --led N9NNN EM10 33 20m

The same as above but using the red LED on transmit (TAPR Hat) to indicate an active transmission. The LED is connected to Pin 12 (GPIO18, BCM18).

wspr --free-running N9NNN EM10 33 20m

The same as above, but without NTP calibration.

wspr --repeat --terminate 7 --ppm 43.17 N9NNN EM10 33 10140210 0 0 0 0

Transmit a WSPR transmission slightly off-center on 30m every 10 minutes for seven transmissions, using a fixed PPM correction value.

wspr --repeat --offset --self-calibration N9NNN EM10 33 40m

Transmit repeatedly on 40m, use NTP-based frequency offset calibration, and add a random frequency offset to each transmission to minimize collisions with other transmitters.