MSQP Thank You, Entry Form Open, and (almost) a Wrap-Up

[Gary Mikitin, AF8A]

First, a hearty THANK YOU to all who participated in the Persieds MSQP earlier this week.  This includes those who worked on the scientific objectives, helped write the rules, answer questions here on the listserv, made publicity efforts (radio club and hamfest talks, web postings, press releases, social media), and, of course those who were on the air, either as receiving (monitor) stations and those who transmitted on 6 and 10 meters.  More HamSCI members were seen in the decode windows or on PSKReporter on Tuesday, some having QSOs with one another:  N1HAC, K8GU, W0DAS, W3USR, W2NAF, N0AX, KD2WGB, KN4GDX, K1HTV and I am sure many more.

We have 40+ entries to date (via the hamsci.org/msqp-rules entry form):  28 transmit/receive and 16 monitors.  There is still plenty of time to make your entry.  The form will be live for 3 weeks after the event, until September 2nd.  But don't delay; please enter your particulars (and ADIF file if you made QSOs) while it is fresh in your mind.

WAV files from decoded messages:  Please hold them on your hard drive drives until we finalize a procedure to upload them to zenodo.org.  We are close to having a procedure for all to use.  You will need an account on zenodo.org.  You could prepare by establishing an account (it is possible to log in with your Google account - that's pretty straightforward).  Once you are in, and especially if it is your first time on Zenodo, enter HamSCI into the search box and you'll see we've been active there since 2017 or so.

It is far too early to draw any conclusions from the event.  A few thoughts tossed around on the second's days 0900UTC Zoom call include how to better coordinate stations who are close to one another, to enable receiving during the non-transmit periods of the neighbor station.  Some suggested coordination via good old VHF simplex or repeaters, possibly designating certain stations as 'beacons' which others could listen for...some work needs to be done in this area between now and December, when the Geminid meteors pay a visit.

Feel free to share your thoughts, comments and observations via this thread.

73 de Gary, AF8A

[Gary Mikitin, AF8A]

Correction on the Zenodo login:  It does not accept Goggle logins.  If you are not a Zenodo user already, it's probably better to wait until we have published a step-by-step procedure.

Sorry for the extra bandwidth - de AF8A

[Gary Mikitin, AF8A]

Greetings, MSQP'ers - Section IX has been added to the MSQP Operating Guidelines, how and why to upload  WAV files, those generated by WSJT-X during the MSQP.  An abbreviated version appears here:

After the event concludes - all entrants - transmitters and monitors - please consider uploading your WAV file decodes to HamSCI's data repository at Zenodo.org.  Complete instructions are available at the MSQP GitHub Site. In brief...  

• Zenodo.org is a permanent, publicly accessible scientific data repository funded by the European Union, operated by CERN
• HamSCI's plan for the WAV files:  Develop an 'ping algorithm' - a method of identifying MSK144 decodes via meteor scatter vs. other propagation modes, such as sporadic E, tropo or simple F layer refraction.  If we are successful, we will run all of the WAV files through the algorithm, classifying the MSK144 decodes according to propagation method.  Then, we can examine the decodes according to our science objectives for the MSQP

 73 de Gary, AF8A

[Gregory Urbiel]

Gary,

Other than the entry item "Bands Operated" in the Description Box, is there any other location in the upload to indicate which band (10 or 6 meters) the upload refers to? It would seem appropriate to include that bit of info in the title of the Dataset entry?  I monitored both bands and have the two resultant respective sets of .wav files.  Do I make two separate uploads to Zenodo?

Thanks,

Greg

KD8RV

[Gary Mikitin, AF8A]

Hello Greg - That's a good question, and I have a partial answer.  Each WAV file contains metadata from WSJT...including the mode and frequency.  So a single file, containing WAV files for both bands, is OK.  We will have to extract the metadata as part of the analysis.

There is an open question as to whether or not the DXCall and DXGrid metadata are always accurate.  I have a hunch that those fields are populated from the dialog boxes of the same names in the WSJT GUI.  But those boxes appear to be updated only when double clicking on a received station, ie if you want to answer a CQ, or if you are CQ'ing, they reflect the station you are working.  

I don't believe that those boxes change in the GUI (and thus, in the WAV metadata) with every valid decode.  (If it did, it would be kind of a blur, because in some modes, FT8 for instance,  multiple decodes can occur in a cycle - but there's only one DXCall and DXGrid).  I have 50 or more WAV files, all with W1XP and FN42 in the metadata, only because at some point I manually entered his call and grid in order to see the distance between us on the WSJT GUI.   I sure didn't have 50 decodes from W1XP!

I have a question out for the developers on the WSJT groups.io forum.

If anyone on this list has some insight, please share it.

Gary, AF8A

[Gregory Urbiel]

Thanks, Gary.

Because I had two discrete receiver / computer monitor pairs going (one on 10 the other 6), if there were to be a decode happening on 10 and 6 at the same time, the wav file name from each would be identical.

(I've yet to sort through and compare the multitude of file names between the two monitoring setups to see if there were any identical file names between them, so maybe a none issue.)

73

Greg

KD8RV

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[Randy Frum]

Hi Gary,

We are getting ready to upload our WAV files for MSQP.  We also copied on 8/13.  Would you like us to include those files, or should we just limit ourselves to the 8/11-8/12 time frame?

73

Randy
AC4FD

 73 de Gary, AF8A

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[Dr. Nathaniel A. Frissell Ph.D.]

Hi Randy,

 

Please feel free to include the additional files.

 

Thanks!

 

73 de Nathaniel W2NAF

 

From: 'Randy Frum' via HamSCI <ham...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, August 25, 2025 at 9:59 AM
To: ham...@googlegroups.com <ham...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [HamSCI] Re: MSQP Thank You, Entry Form Open, and (almost) a Wrap-Up

WARNING: This message originated from a source outside of the university.

 

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[Randy Frum]

Thank you, Nathaniel.

One note on our submission.  We did not have the option to publish. Only the option to "Submit for Review", which we did.  If we did something wrong, let us know so that we can correct it.

Thanks again!

Randy

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hamsci/BN7PR03MB4403268EB70EBD23DD1EFC9FF23EA%40BN7PR03MB4403.namprd03.prod.outlook.com

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[Patrick Moyer]

After following the  zenodo instructions I wasn't able to "publish" my data. The only option given was to "submit for review". Maybe I missed a step? Or is this expected?

73,

Pat W3RGA

[Gregory Urbiel]

Same here, both pre and post. Will hang onto them for a bit, just in case they have any value. 

Greg

KD8RV 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hamsci/1332615709.550040.1756130383479%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Gary Mikitin, AF8A]

“Submit for Review” is the correct option when uploading data to Zenodo.  We are working on updating the instructions.

Thanks for posting the question, Pat.

73 de Gary, AF8A.

[Gregory Urbiel]

Gary,

From my two discrete monitors, I had 250 duplicate .wav file names (the WSJTX assigned Date+UTC), i.e., I received 250 decodes that occurred at the same UTC time on 10 and 6 meters for the duration of the MSQP event.

So, I made two separate uploads to Zenodo, one for 10m .wav files, the other for the 6m .wav files.

73

Greg

KD8RV

On Friday, August 22, 2025 at 2:43:49 PM UTC-4 gmikit...@gmail.com wrote:

[Gary Mikitin, AF8A]

Hello MSQP'ers - I am glad to report that we now have 66 entrants who have filled out the Google Entry form.   This is the form, at hamsci.org/msqp-rules, that will allow us to 'score' the entrants in a friendly competition:  Who copied the most pings?  Who heard the most grids?  Who made the most QSOs during the 48 hour event?  The form has also been collecting ADIF logs, which may prove useful in the later scientific analysis.  Your comments will help us adjust the guidelines before the next MSQP, in December of this year.

The form closes on September 2 (we need to have an end date, so we can begin the scoring process without concern that more entrants will slip in after the calculations have begun).  Below are the entries received to date.  If you participated (whether you made 1 or a 100 QSOs, of if you were simply monitoring the bands, sending data to PSKReporter) we'd very much like to receive your entry.

73 de Gary, AF8A

[Bruce Crandall]

Gary - that's an encouraging level of support all things considered; and it squares with the max numbers of 10M MSK monitors we detected at various times - from 50-60.

Good job, everyone!

Bruce

KN4GDX

73

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73