It really makes you wonder doesn’t it, when you look at this map of WSPR spots for a 24 hour period whether the developing world lacks the means to be able to setup WSPR beacons and ham stations in general or if they just lack propagation. The former obviously for many reasons.
I have been thinking for sometime that it would be nice to develop a WSPR transmitter that is that cheap that we in the west could make 100’s and ship them off to schools across the middle east, Africa and south America along with STEM tools for teachers to use radio in their science classes. Something in the $20 to $30 region, easy to assemble and not worth stealing because no one would really want it.
The benefits would be great for students as far as stem education goes and for us in the developed world, with lots of free time and disposable income to put into hobbies we would have a ready made beacon network to all corners of the world.
Ashar Farhan has done great work in philanthropic radio using the Bitx to support a collective of women in work. Perhaps this same approach could be put to use to bring the wonders of amateur radio to schools in the developed world.
Some food for thought.
