During the May 2024 meeting of the WWV/H Modulation Group (19th meeting), it was agreed that co-locating the newly produced WSPRsonde-8 by Turn Island Systems (TIS) at WWV and WWVH would be an immediate goal. 

The WS-8 can transmit on 8 different bands simultaneously from 160m to 6m.  Rob Robinett, AI6VN, and Paul Elliot, WB6CXC, provided a WS-8, a My Antenna EFHW-LP 80m antenna, and a filter/combiner from TIS.  Dave Swartz, WWV ARC President, provided ancillary materials like GPS pucks, coax, powerstrips, and other hardware. 

The entire WWV/WWVB staff helped with the locate and install of the equipment:  Bill Yates helped with physical location support, Glenn Nelson, Jim Spicer, and Matt Deutch helped with the antenna install and equipment location and function support.  The 4 station staff and Dave worked mornings on July 8 July 16, and July 17, 2024 to set the antenna and configure the transmitter.

The WSPRsonde-8, WS-8, went on the air from the WWVB transmitter building approximately 10am MDT (1600UTC) July 17.

Preliminary results are very encouraging, seeing this was discerned in the first 24 hours of operation:

https://wwvarc.org/sites/default/files/2024-07/WWV_WW0WWV_WA2TP_Doppler.jpeg

At first glance, it is amazing to recognize the correlation of the Doppler shifts.  This is what you would expect for the same frequency (essentially) from the same physical location!  A simple experiment without really even trying, and without an explicit hypothesis!

The WWV Amateur Radio Club is proud to support the collaboration between NIST, HamSCI, and the Amateur Radio community at large.  For more information visit:  <HamSci info address>